Cartoonist Cathy Guisewite on her best gift ever
Ten years ago, we started calling up big names in business and culture and asking them, “What was the best gift you’ve received?”
In honor of Marketplace’s 25th anniversary and the holiday season, we’ve pulled the “Best Gift Ever” series out of our archives. Here’s the answer we got from cartoonist and “Cathy” creator Cathy Guisewite back in 2004:
The best gift I ever received was a two-part gift I got for Christmas when I was 10 years old.
A bride doll and an electric train.
They were not things I’d ever told anybody I’d wanted. But they were like my secret heart desires because those exact opposites were who I was and what I loved.
The electric train was who I appeared to be. I loved everything mechanical, I wished I was a boy…. The bride doll was my more romantic side that I think wasn’t as apparent, but that became my time with mom, making doll clothes.
Those two sides of myself are, for better or for worse, the psychotic conflict inside that has fueled almost all of my creative work.
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