La versión en español está después de la versión en inglés.
I was perusing San Geraldo’s genealogy website and came across this old photo of me (above) with my favorite teddy bear. That’s something I wish I still had, but my toys passed to The Kid Brother and, from there, I have no idea what happened to them. Probably the trash. Oh how I loved that bear. I wonder if it was a hand-me-down when I got it. It looks like it was loved to death in a very brief time. It must have at least first belonged to my sister, Dale.
After finding this, I started looking through my photos for bears. Brown bears used to be prolific in Spain. There are now less than 400 in northern Spain, none in Andalusia. They were nearly driven to extinction through aggressive hunting, but have been protected since 1973.
Although San Geraldo doesn’t identify as a bear, a number of people call him Teddy Bear, because he’s so huggable. No one gives better hugs.
All went well at the Medical Center yesterday. I’m all set to have my left foot fixed Tuesday afternoon. After that, I plan to have nothing else go wrong.
Is there a toy from your childhood that made you feel secure? Do you still have it?
Estaba examinando el sitio web de genealogía de San Geraldo y encontré esta vieja foto mía (arriba) con mi osito de peluche favorito. Eso es algo que desearía seguir teniendo, pero mis juguetes pasaron a El Hermanito y, a partir de ahí, no tengo idea de qué pasó con ellos. Probablemente la basura. Oh, cómo amaba ese oso. Me pregunto si era algo heredado cuando lo recibí. Parece que fue amado hasta la muerte en muy poco tiempo. Al menos debió haber pertenecido primero a mi hermana, Dale.
Después de encontrar esto, comencé a buscar osos en mis fotos. Los osos pardos solían ser prolíficos en España. Actualmente hay menos de 400 en el norte de España y ninguno en Andalucía. Estuvieron a punto de extinguirse debido a la caza agresiva, pero han estado protegidos desde 1973.
Aunque San Gerardo no se identifica como un oso, varias personas lo llaman Teddy Bear porque es muy fácil de abrazar. Nadie da mejores abrazos.
Todo salió bien ayer en el Centro Médico. Estoy listo para que me arreglen el pie izquierdo el martes por la tarde. Después de eso, planeo que nada más salga mal.
¿Hay algún juguete de tu infancia que te hiciera sentir seguro? ¿Aun lo tienes?
• Querida lectora Mary colorea a mano postales para El Hermanito. Le encantan, aunque siempre dice que me los mostrará “la próxima vez”. Algunas personas son muy amables. Algunas personas son muy amables.
• I can’t remember where this was. I have no clue what the rings on my fingers are either. I wonder if I had bells on my toes. Check out that camera!
• No recuerdo dónde fue esto. Tampoco tengo ni idea de qué son los anillos que tengo en los dedos. Me pregunto si tendría campanillas en los dedos de los pies. ¡Mira esa cámara!
• En la boda de mi primo en el verano de 2015 en la zona rural de New Hampshire. Cuando otra prima y yo íbamos a tener que compartir habitación porque alguien más había ocupado mi habitación, dije que me quedaría al otro lado de la calle en el anexo y caminaría de un lado a otro. “Oh, no, no lo dirás”, dijo el personal del hotel, “Es peligroso por la noche”. Mi prima y yo nos llevábamos muy bien como compañeros de cuarto.
• Nuestros vecinos en Sevilla.
• ¿Quién dice que en Andalucía no hay osos? La cercana Torremolinos organiza cada año la Mad.Bear Beach Party.
Wish I did have a Teddy when I was young……..yours looks very cuddly indeed. I wonder if the Kid Brother remembers it?
Jim:
I’d ask The Kid Brother but he’s not big on going down Memory Lane. I know he won’t answer.
Most of my childhood toys, mom tossed when I was not at home. Mothers can be like that. I had a red-stuffed snake that my grandmother bought for me at K-Mart. I parted with it when we were selling the second house. It was in really rough shape and had lost it’s connection to me. You could go to the bear bash.
David:
It’s funny how my mother threw out my stuff and Dale’s stuff. Everything else was stuffed in closets for me to deal with 60 years later. Just the photos of the crowds at the bear bash could start a panic attack.
That’s a cute photo of your little rosy cheeked child self. Had that photo been mixed in with other kids, I’d have easily picked it out as you from the twinkle in your eyes, the smile and cheeks. I still have my first teddy, placed in my crib when still a baby. It’s 80 years old now and so beat up that it looks like something from the Marie Laveau voodoo shop.
I have a 60-year-old bear from my childhood in one of my storage containers. It’s still in pretty good shape, because it was kept “nice” by sitting on my headboard, not by being played with, because it was a gift from an auntie.
Debra:
I played with everything to death… even gifts from aunties.
I had a pink bunny. No clue what happened to it…
wickedhamster:
I also had a floppy eared yellow dog with a music box in his “stomach.” It played “Lullaby and goodnight…” I loved that, too. The Kid Brother and then my mother threw it away.
He’s sitting on my hat shelf right now and looks exactly like yours, in both style and condition. Get well soon!
Chrissoup:
What a fun thing to have on your hat shelf… and to have a hat shelf!
You’ve hit upon one of my sensitive subjects when it comes to animals. With so much land being ripped up, Heavens forbid we preserve anyway on, and so much building these poor creatures have no place to go. I was just reading the plight about polar bears. With global warming and icebergs melting at an alarming rate, polar bears are too facing extinction mostly from starvation as seals and other food sources for them are migrating to other areas… and as we know polar bears love ice and cold weather. Around here when deer or bears invade Community areas the answer is to kill them. The last I looked it’s not really their fault they had nowhere to go now is it?
On a lighter note as you’re aware, I to like having fun but the Bears you pictured
Yes, climate change is impacting some polar bear populations negatively, while others are still thriving. For example, Polar bears around Churchill, Manitoba are already spending two months longer on shore while waiting for winter ice to form on Hudson’s Bay than they used to. There’s little food for them on shore and they’re not building the fat reserves they need to get themselves out onto the sea ice to hunt seals. In other areas, climate change is impacting the ranges of Grizzly bears, creating much more overlap with Polar bears, and has already produced hybrids. Once the northern polar ice cap shrinks beyond the point of no return, Polar bears will either go extinct or hybridize with Grizzlies and create a new sub-species.
Sorry, forgot to type “Tundra Bunny” on my anonymous reply to Mistress Maddie — oops!
Mistress Borghese:
We are a sad species. I don’t think I’d feel safe in that horde of bears.
Oh, Mitchell! What a beautiful child you were! Those big eyes remind me of my grandson August’s eyes.
I had several things that I loved and that brought me comfort. One was a doll. I named her Baby Sister. She was made of rubber, I guess, and eventually her head broke in two with brittle age. And I had a Zippy- do you remember those? The stuffed chimpanzee who wore overalls and a t-shirt? I do not know what happened to him but when eBay became a thing, I found another and I bought him and he lives on the mantel in our room. His fur is a little worn but he is still smiling his chimp smile and I do love him. Sometimes I bring out my adopted old dolls that no one else wanted because they do look a bit scary, and I put them on my bed so they can get some sun, and I let Zippy sit with them for company. I know this is ridiculous but guess what? I don’t care.
Ms. Moon
P.S. Excellent gathering of bears in your land.
MsMaryMoon:
I WAS cute, wasn’t I? Do you remember the real Zippy on the Howdy Doody Show? I wanted one of the toys but my mother didn’t like them. She wasn’t an animal lover and I think she found the toy chimp creepy. Nothing ridiculous about letting the gang get some sun.
Somehow I never saw much of Howdy Doody. Quite possibly we did not have a TV in those days or else we couldn’t get that station. We did get Captain Kangaroo and Romper Room though. But yes, I see that Zippy was based on that chimp on Howdy Doody. I guess I just loved my Zippy for himself.
MsMaryMoon:
I loved Howdy Doody, but I was embarrassed to say his name. I also loved Captain Kangaroo but hated the voice of Mr. Moose. I watched Romper Room religiously. Go figure.
I had a handmedown bear, already threadbare before me, eventually handed down to my nephew, who knows what after that. I saw one like it in an antique toy show, wow, beyond my budget!
That was me, Liz, aka Boud
LizBoud:
I’m always amazed (i.e., annoyed) by the prices of things I used to have and didn’t keep… as well as by the worthlessness of the things I DID keep.
My mom made a Winnie-the-Pooh for me out of yellow terry cloth. He wore his red shirt and I loved him so much that eventually, my mom made a new Winnie for me. I think he’s in my cedar chest, which I haven’t opened in years. I think of it as a time capsule.
Love,
Janie
janiejunebug:
That cedar chest would be so much fun to dig through now!
What a great post today, Mitchell! All that’s missing is a photo of you as a bare-bummed baby on a bearskin rug, LOL!
My paternal grandmother gave me a little yellow teddy bear after I had hugged the life out of my toy bunny. It was not very huggable, being stuffed with kapok, but I loved it til it’s fur was threadbare, Dad had to remove the wire from its ears and its white tail had fallen off so many times that Mom was tired of mending it, LOL! When I was six, Dad took me on a special trip to a local rabbit breeder and she let me pick out the cutest, little white baby bunny. He was a Flemish Giant and I was able to lavish my affection onto him and dress him up in old baby clothes! I was never one for baby dolls.
It looks like there are still lots of Andalusian bears to be found at beach parties, LOL!
Tundra Bunny:
No photos of me bare-bummed on a bearskin rug. However there is one of me full frontal in the bathtub when I was under a year old. And you’ll just have to take my word on that. There are so many bears native to Torremolinos, as well as a lot of migrating bears. I find they can be a little scary, but they tend to keep to their own. My mother would never buy us a live anything, although I did manage to get hamsters and tropical fish into the house.
Where are all the she-bears at that beach party? Too many people too close together with too much bare skin!
I still have stuffed animals that brings me comfort and happiness.
Kelly:
I started collecting soft puppets some years back. Then we had a collection of stuffed animals we won at county fairs, plus ones we had left over from our hotel when we used to give a stuffed toy to each child who visited. It was wonderful later when we had loads of friends with kids. We’d send them upstairs and dump the box of stuffed animals on the floor for them. We gave them away before moving to Spain. We don’t have the room but I wish at times we still had them for our friends’ kids.
Hey, Scoot!
Sorry to say that the only thing I found for security in my childhood was a book or twenty and an avocado tree to read in. My first bear came (why does that sound dirty?) when I was 18. Our senior year in high school had Grad Night at Disneyland. Balder Half and I were on our first date. He won me a very large polar bear with a blue ribbon around its neck. It went into our marriage the very next year. It didn’t survive the juices from the babies later. Good times. Balder still surprises me with stuffed things. We have a small bear couple that I find in compromising positions all over the house. Very bendy, those two.
I hope things go well with your foot. The curbs are waiting with bated breath 🙂
Deedles:
I tripped over tiles in the pavement yesterday…. twice! Amazingly, I stayed upright. Do the kids ever come across that bear pair in compromising positions?
My bear pair are very discreet. They go undercover when we have company. I have, however found them in a whole different position after a visit or two from my youngest son. He’s a bit of a quiet hellion. Don’t know where he gets it. *Cough*
Deedles:
A hellion? In YOUR family? Between the saintliness of Balder Half and your angelic-ness, I can’t imagine.
Everything that I have saved and the special childhood saves were all burned in the wildfire.
But we survived
Hope all is well with the foot
Parsnip:
That must have been so hard to lose, but so grateful you survived!
I had a stuffed dog that used to belong to my mother, and that I named “Puppy.” I was so attached to it that my parents “disappeared” it one day, a la Pinochet. They thought I was too old for it. I was only 15! (KIDDING)
I stil have my bear. I found it when we cleared out my parents home after she died. I almost weeped to find him. He now sits on my dresser. He’s quite worn out from love.
Urspo:
I must admit I’m envious. I would weep, too, if I found my bear.
I kept a small box of my toys and it’s currently in my attic
Adam:
I have a few random things, but very few now after all the downsizing we’ve done. I’ll have to take a stroll down memory lane.