Entertainment For Lively Minds
If you go down to the woods today...
Whatever one's own thoughts and feelings about cuddly toys, it's hard to avoid them when children are around. Some parents/aunts/uncles/godparents/etc will happily play along, others will grin and bear it (NPI). Some of us, who are part overgrown kids, will relish the chance to play with teddy bears and the like, with the children as a convenient smokescreen.
The psychological term for such toys is "transitional objects", and they are widely believed to play an important part in a young child's journey towards individuation. In addition to being fun to play with, they can provide real comfort at times of stress or sadness. And an object which has been the repository of so much love can take up a position in our affections which we can see doesn't "make sense", but then again...
Here's a picture of Teddy. I don't know exactly how old he is, but it's around 40. He's been with me most of my life. I know he's only a toy, and yet I couldn't bring myself to refer to him as "it". Anyone else care to share?
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I'm sitting up late watching tv
Rathbone and Bruce are at my shoulder (sorry no pics). The room would feel empty without them...
Christmas greetings from Mee-mee (don't ask) in sunny Melbourne
Not bad for 41!
What a fine fellow!
There's a bear with a few stories to tell...
Indeed...
The Keith Richards of bears by the look of him.
Also 41
..and recently discovered by my daughter in a plastic sack of old softies. Some wounds need attention, and the peculiar nose is down to my habit, long since kicked, of nightly slathering said appendage in toothpaste and sucking on it.
Barnaby and Jack
Bears are a wonderful "thing". Barnaby I've had since I was a baby (35 years) and mostly lives in the wardrobe to keep from little fingers but like the op he could never leave. Jack is Mrs C's bear by rights, he came from one of the high street building bear shops as a present from some friends. He became our first child in a way. We pretended it was a running joke but it wasn't if we're honest. With two little Clark's also filling our house with cuddlies they have their special ones that we got when mrs C was pregnant so name checks for Bobo (he was named Bumpy but that's what daughter learned to say) and Buster. Every household should have a bear.
The Motley Crew
Left to right Barnaby, Jack, Bobo & Buster
Who seem to resemble their owners, slightly threadbear, on trend, miss-matched yet still stylish somehow, chunky yet loveable.
(Plus first ever photo posted, result! thanks to Gatz's helpful post)
By co-incidence
found this today while packing to move. Also 40 years old...
If Dadwardo's 'Mee-Mee' up there was the ursine Keith Richards,
then this chap is the teddy equivalent to Shane McGowan!
Shame it's not a Dorian Grey ted
as it is, apart from still having a full complement of limbs, I've worn about as well.
Who else?
Come on people, I want to see the Teddy equivalent to the rest of the Stones. What about the bear Bear Grylls, or the Grizzly George Harrison?
May I introduce you to Big T...
he's 42, like me, and was the first thing I touched after spending my first 8 weeks of life in an incubator.
He's a big fan of Chic, as you can see.
Fan?
With an expression like that?
Mmm there's a definite look of puzzlement about him
Sardonic amusement, I think.
He's looking at a photograph of Nile and band...
at the time of his solo album B-Movie Matinee. Bad clothes. Worse hair.
This is Bunny.
He meets up with his team in cafes.
Has (s)he had
a dodgy gender reassignment?
For some reason...
He reminds me of Gregg Alexander out of the New Radicals.