Take Kids' Imaginations From Out of the Cold

SAN ANTONIO - When I was 8, I had shoulder length golden hair, just like . It was a yellow hand towel attached to my head with bobby pins and a really painful headband.The pain was worth it.When 's "Aloha from Hawaii" concert was re-created in our living room, my brother threw white hand towels the way Elvis threw silk scarves. My husband remembers showing up at a friend's house with a red bath towel safety-pinned to his shoulders, Superman style.A hot pink bath sheet doubled as my Miss America cape and, when draped over a pair of bar stools, a small tent. A light blue washcloth was a small pond for Barbie. A neighbor kid turned a purple towel with fringe and a pattern into the from "Aladdin."The bathroom towel shelf, it appears, is like jet fuel for a kid's imagination.That's why it is disturbing that some parents are paying more than a thousand dollars for play dresses from Disney's incredibly successful "Frozen."Last week, CNN reported that retailers can't keep the dresses in stock, along with dolls and other toys based on the "Frozen" characters. There are so few "Frozen" dolls and dresses in stores that dolls and dresses are being auctioned on eBay for more than $1,000.And it's not just the dolls and dresses; parents who bought toys before the movie was even released in theaters are thinking twice about letting their kids take Olaf the Snowman plush toys out of the house.What is stunning is the lengths some parents are going to to grab one of these very pretty fake frocks.To be clear, we're talking about dress-up stuff, not catwalk couture.We know how this works. Remember Tickle Me Elmo Remember "Jingle All The Way" There's a certain cachet that comes with being the only third-grader with the official dress straight from the factory that takes orders from the make-believe royals themselves, and a certain degree of parental predilection that is conveyed with a ridiculous price tag or impossible-to-find fad.It would be easy to crack wise on this sort of thing, but it's also easy to resist because such a phenomenon is one of the perks of living in America.It's a First World problem. Lucky us.But there's another First World problem here that's more uncomfortable than glitter-encrusted polyester. When do the bathroom linens come into playBoth characters' costumes involve a cape. Olaf the Snowman can probably be made out of rolled up towels, cruise-ship style. And everyone knows that those crinkly shower curtain liners look a lot like thin ice.Think Elsa's dress is hard to come by Try looking for problem-solving skills or creativity in kids who've never had to improvise.If our country wants to continue to celebrate American ingenuity, it has to sweat a little; even those kids who can afford to burn cash as if they were should have to use their heads for more than a hat rack.Yet in an attempt to give 21st-century kids everything their 20th-century parents had to devise, we are paving the path to dullsville. And we're paying ridiculous prices to get there.Maybe we have thrown in the towel.