I Don't Collect Bears, Really

I borrowed that title from Lizzie because it seemed so appropriate.

My first bear was BooBoo. I got him for Valentine's Day when I was four. He was pink but I knew he was a boy because he had a blue ribbon around his neck. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of BooBoo.

One day, our grandmother and mother decided to go shopping in the Big City and for some reason didn't want to take us, so they bribed us by promising us each a present if we stayed home. (Our grandfather was left in charge of us--his method of babysitting was to leave us alone as long as we didn't yell or fight. Possibly Big Sis was there too, but she kept as far away from us as possible. Fortunately we were fairly well-behaved children.) I said I wanted overalls for BooBoo.  You didn't see many dressed bears back in those days and I have no idea where I got the idea.

When they returned, my mom said she hadn't been able to find overalls so she got BooBoo a dress! A pink dress, I might add. I was disappointed but I put his dress on him and he wore it manfully for the rest of his life.

We had lots and lots of stuffed animals through the years. (I remember thinking, when Auntie Berman stopped sleeping with all of hers, that I would never stop sleeping with mine. Eventually I did!) I never singled out bears as my favorite stuffed animals, though.

Then about 6 or 7 years ago, Auntie Berman and I were at Salvation Army Thrift Shop when I saw Bertie. I was quite taken with him and got him (for 50 cents) and carried him around with me all day. And somehow, I've been adopting bears ever since.

Bertie and the Russian bear.

When my nephew went to Russia, he brought me back a Panda bear. It is to his credit that he was not the least bit embarrassed to carry a giant bear around the airports.

Now the story takes a tragic turn. I had several large bears and really no room for them. At the time I was driving a Volkswagen Vanagon, which I loved dearly. It's the only car I've ever bonded with. I put all my big bears in the van, where they rode around happily for months. Then Husband-Like Person decided to change the fuel filter in the gas tank. It was growing dark and he had a Halogen work light. (Can you guess what this is leading up to?) Suddenly he came running in the door yelling "Call the fire department!"

My bears were in there.

Some gasoline had leaked out and run into the light. HLP barely got out from under the van in time. He and Tom-next-door struggled to move Tom's propane tank out of danger. The fire trucks arrived but they couldn't put the fire out, because Volkswagens have magnesium engines (or something) and they just had to let it burn and make sure nothing else caught on fire. The ambulance arrived and took HLP to have his burned hand looked after. Meanwhile, the dogs and I huddled by the back fence, hoping for the best. We couldn't get out the front gate and there was a 5 1/2 foot fence around the rest of the yard. A neighbor across the street took this picture on his cell phone. He actually had a video but I've lost that somewhere along the way.

Eventually the fire died down and things went back to as normal as possible. Our very kind landlord only charged us for the cost of the boards to rebuild the fence, since his maintenance guys did the work. A friend towed the remains of the Vanagon to Pick & Pull, who agreed to take it off our hands for free (they didn't really want it, for some reason).  And I mourned the loss of my bears.

Ever since then, I just can't resist cute bears when I see them and they need rescuing. At one time I had over 50 bears!

Bears, bears, everywhere bears!

And more bears!

While looking through my bear pictures I realized I had culled them about a year ago.

But somehow, the number kept creeping up. So I made Auntie Berman help me cull the herd once more. Of course we couldn't say out loud "That one's not really very cute," but we just nodded or shook our heads as I held up each one. We finally got them down to a manageable number: 20. (That number may be slightly higher now.) We gave the unwanted bears to a church lady who helps at a food pantry/soup kitchen place. She was going to give them out to the children.

The overhead bears

The underneath bears

Madison is the ballerina bear on the left. She is the only one who has a name. I have attempted to name bears for years but I always forget who is named what, except for Madison. I don't go out of my way to dress the bears. Some of them come with clothes and sometimes I just try something on that I already have. I did make Madison's skirt out of pink netting.

Madison in winter, wearing a sweater that her auntie made.

All the bears are having a picnic.

The bear next to Lulu is one of my favorites--he looks so happy and growly.

He's not as threatening as he looks. He said something when his paw was squeezed but I removed
his voice box. It wasn't working well and he's happier without it.

I will end with a picture of Ceddie, because I can.

Lulu and Gordy got safari hats. Ceddie got a circus wagon.

My Darling Ceddie

I didn't pay a lot of attention to the odd doll in the Collectibles area at first. Then hanging on the Housewares wall I found a little composition jointed doll in a bag for $1.99. I thought about her all day and  decided to get her, but when I went to find her, she was gone! So I decided someone had found her and loved her and taken her. Meanwhile I saw the odd doll and figured he had come in with her, because he had what I thought was a composition head, although I later found out it is bisque.

The next day I looked on the wall again and there was the little girl doll! I'm not sure where she had been hiding. I quickly grabbed her and took her up to the supervisor to await my next break so I could buy her. Meanwhile, I again noticed the odd doll. He had such a cute face but oh, that weird stuffed body.

I don't really like baby dolls and I don't like soft bodies, but there was something about his face. Finally I looked at the back of his neck and saw ©1923 by Grace S.  and what looked like Bu----. So I went home and googled it and found out he's a Bye-Lo Baby (it turned out to say Grace S. Putnam) and below that it says Made in Germany. From the time he came in until I bought him, it was two weeks and in all that time, nobody wanted him! You can read about Bye-Lo Babies here. This one doesn't have sleep eyes, but I think his eyes are much nicer than sleep eyes. He is missing three fingers but that seems to be pretty common for his type.

In case you're wondering how I know he's a boy, well, everybody who's seen him thinks he looks like a boy. Even the supervisor who rang him up for me and told me he was really ugly said he looked like a boy. I was not offended by her remark because I know she speaks from pure ignorance. She has two boys of her own (human) and probably thinks they are really cute.

When I got him home, Auntie Berman was thrilled with him too. She found a dress for him and we later found a second dress for him.

I just had to name him Cedric. I would make him a velvet Little Lord Fauntleroy suit but since he's only supposed to be three days old, his dress is all he needs.

This shows his delightful smile.

I call this one "Home at last."

Most of the time Lulu and Gordy babysit him.

Gordy's on the far left but he kind of blends in.

Now as for little Phoebe, or Feeebs as we call her, Auntie Berman again came through for her. The three Es in her name started out as an accident but then we thought it was a way to make her feel special. Not that she knows how to spell. Since her dress fits her so well, I don't feel any urge to make her more clothes.

Shortly after I got her, I found Firefly at Goodwill. She was unopened in her package which said World Friends, Native American Doll, Fibre Craft. On the back of her head is Loretta Daum Byrne 1988. She is 8 inches tall. There was a 13" doll also, but not nearly as cute. I looked up Loretta and she is some sort of Native American (I think) dollmaker. There was a larger version of her, but she wasn't nearly as cute so I didn't get her too. I later found out they are supposed to be mother/daughter dolls to dress.

I was going to name her Morning Star until I put this little sun suit on her, which has fireflies on it.

Now I hope I am back in the swing of things and will blog on a regular basis. Thank you, Lizzie for asking about me. You have definitely inspired me.

Now one last picture of Ceddie.

Mother's darling boy