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Jare Hares & BearsJust wondering if anyone cares to share their favorite story...
Here's mine...
Well made bear is a friend for life...
One of the first bears that mom made she gave to me...
I took that little guy everywhere, even to church. (Teddy's are God fearing Christians too!)
After church one evening I was playing with Teddy and his legs popped off. He was of course button and thread jointed.
I just knew I was going to be in big trouble... I mean
I started crying... I went over to my mom and showed her my amputee teddy... she said, "What's wrong? What happened?"
"Teddy legs came off... sniff... sniff..." I was really scared I think I was all of 6 years old...
She replied, "Well, did you pray for him."
"no"
I didn't know what to think. She explained that she that would have surgery when we got home and he would be alright.
I was still scared... and sad... teddy was hurt...
The next morning Teddy underwent surgery and it was successful...
I came home from school that afternoon to a groggie but fully recovered Teddy.
Chaska, MinnesotaThat is so sweet.....loved the stroy. Here is a vivid memory of my beloved teddy bear:
I was about four or five years old. My parents and I lived in Charleston South Carolina and were driving to Florida to visit my Grandpa. About 10 hours into the trip I woke up looking for my teddy bear. No teddy bear….looking, looking, looking, tears, more tears,,, crying, really crying….screaming, screaming and crying…..car had to be pulled over to the side of the road....parents are frantic at this point…..cursory trunk search yielded nothing…more screaming and crying “I WANT MY TEDDY BEAR”. Suit case after suit case being search..”I WANT MY TEDDY BEAR. YOU FORGOT TEDDY BEAR.”. More screaming (parents this time). Finally mother found teddy bear wrapped in her mink coat. We all got back into the car, me clutching my teddy bear, wiping my tear stained face on her little head. I was fine. Mom and dad still traumatized to this day, speaking often that frightful moment in time, forty-one years later.
Jare Hares & BearsWhat we put our parents through... :crackup:
Tami Eveslage Original Teddy BearsI love your stories Jared and Michelle! Such drama in our young lives!
I asked my parents for a Teddy Bear for my sixth birthday and the night before my birthday I lay in bed thinking about how much I loved my bear (and I didn't even have him yet!). The next day when I met him, he was everything I dreamed he would be and he became my constant companion. I took him to "show and tell" at school so many times my classmates would groan and roll their eyes when it was my turn to share. I didn't care.
I slept with him every night and took him where ever I was allowed.
But one day when I was in the third grade, I was playing with Teddy Buba and my little brother Elliot was playing a stuffed dog. I asked him on a whim if he would trade the dog for my bear. We enjoyed playing with our "new" animals for the remainder of the day. But when night time rolled around and I went to bed with the little brown dog tucked under my arm, I could not sleep. I lay there with silent tears streaming down my face wondering how I could have done such a thing. How could I have traded my favorite toy, my loyal friend after "all those years" we spent together! I still remember the heavy feelings loss and shame. 
"Elliot?" I whispered across the dark room. There was no answer. He was fast asleep with Teddy Buba at his side.
Then I prayed, " Please, God, please let Elliot trade me back my bear. I shouldn't have traded him and I'm sorry. Please let him trade me back..I need my bear." I eventually fell asleep.
When morning came, I approached Elliot, my darling little brother who cheerfully "traded back". It turns out that he didn't think the trade was "for keeps" anyway. (thank you, God.)
But I learned my lesson, and of course teddy bears are very forgiving, so I still have my Teddy Buba todayand I wouldn't trade him for the world!
Here's me and my favorite bears: Teddy Buba is on the right.
Posts: 1,836These stories are cute!
I don't have a specific teddy bear memory (I have plenty of memories where I freaked out over not having my blanket with me) but I still have my first bear. My mom got this bear at my baby shower and always told me it was my first bear ever. He was always in the crib, my room and now he lives in my studio. He's lost his nose over the years and was washed 1,000 times, lost patches of fur, but still has his jingle inside. 
:hug:
~Chrissi
Jare Hares & BearsSee God answers the prayers of little children...
That is so sweet...
I think I am getting misty eyed.
Jare Hares & BearsWe like blanket stories too...
Patsy Lake BearsWhat wonderful stories of your bears.. I have a really sad story about my bear ... I NEVER HAD ONE ...how sad is that ... I had a lovely Doll that I cherished .. until my mom let a nieghbours child play with it when I was at school and she dropped her and she broke her head. I still kept it for years with a broken head as I always thought I would beable to get her fixed up one day... but that never happened. I guess she just got thrown out as I never saw her again...
Posts: 1,836We like blanket stories too...
My blankie stories aren't sweet and cuddly Jared 
My mom would try to wash it while I was sleeping and without fail I would wake up and pitch a fit...she finally tape recorded it; this is back when tape recorders were brand new high tech fun. "I want my sunshine yellow ba-bi...I like it dirty" was being screamed by a 2 year old, but it sounded more like Gollum from Lord of the Rings :crackup: I likes it dirty..me wants it now..gasp gasp gasp AND of course the tapes are now infamous within the family.
:hug:
~Chrissi
Tami Eveslage Original Teddy BearsChrissi, that's too funny! "My Precious... they wants to take it from us!"
Tami Eveslage Original Teddy BearsNo Teddy, Patsy? Oh, now that is sad! I think also that it's sad that my kids have too many stuffed animals of all kinds (my fault, I know) They never have gotten attached to just one. Both were (still are actually) big time blanket lovers, though.
Past Time BearsBoo hoo - I didn't have a teddy bear either - or a blanket! But, boy, was I a big time thumb-sucker!
Baird'sBears
These are great stories folks!
I had a big brown and white teddy, nothing special but dearly beloved, and too big to carry everywhere, but he was with me from my second Christmas until I left home for college.
For some reason I named him Tedwhitebrown. I suspect I was pressured to give him a name on Christmas Day, and this was the best I could do.
I started collecting Steiffs (small ones except for the beautiful Roe Deer that the dog ate) but could never quite bring myself to ask for a Steiff bear--it would have seemed horribly disloyal to poor shabby Tedwhitebrown, and would make him feel bad about his inferior pedigree. I actually thought this way right through my late teens--evidence of a late bloomer?
The little animal I carried everywhere was a raccoon I named Aroma because when he was first given to me I thought he was a skunk--more evidence of a late bloomer? The day I admitted to myself that he was actually a raccoon was my first experience of Existential Shock, and it was a dilly! 
The last I heard of Tedwhitebrown, he had mouldered away in a storage area over my parents' garage. I was furious at the time but, now that I'm a parent, I feel somewhat different. My own kids don't expect their parents to preserve their forgotten treasures in a kind of shrine to their childhoods, but somehow I did!
Back Road BearsI'm with Sue Ann and have permanant extra lines on my thumb!! 
Actaully, I do have a grown-up bear story. I think I've shared it here before but here goes:
When I was going through my divorce 8 years ago Mom gave me a Boyds bear named "Morgan". He's about 15 inches tall and sort of a shaggy floppy bear... perfect for hugging and soaking up tears! Both of which he did on a very regular basis during that time of my life! It seemed sort of silly but I couldn't sleep without him for a long time. And even now it's MORGAN I run to when I need a shoulder to cry on. When I'm sad my hubby brings Morgan to me! When thinking the other night about which bear I'd be sure to grab if the house was on fire it wasn't any of my artist bear or ones I've made. It was MORGAN! 
Jare Hares & BearsBoo hoo - I didn't have a teddy bear either - or a blanket! But, boy, was I a big time thumb-sucker!
But see SueAnn you will always have your thumb... :hug:
Past Time Bears:crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:
Jellybelly Bearsme either...no ted just my thumb and occasional dolly in bed with me...i didn't like clutter when i slept lol...also liked baby dolls to play with better.....my lil sis used to pack her bed with suffed toys ....till she could barely move lol... i kinda miss that i didn't have one special toy maybe coz i had too many lol
Posts: 1,836... i kinda miss that i didn't have one special toy
And now you have all of those rockin' cool Shortcake luvs with you!!
Wazza Bears AustraliaI love your stories, there great. I had a little black and white panda that I got for my first christmas and to this day I still have him. He would be 34 yrs old now. hehehe. He has been through heaps. He was in Cyclone Tracey in Darwin. He was found hanging in a tree, he has some rust stain from that time and he now has a few holes. But I love bears growing up and every birthday my mum asked me "what would you like for your birthday" I always replied " I want a teddy bear", all I was told over and over again, Teddy bears are for babys not me. So I think that is way I am just a teddy bear freck
Bears by EdieI'm another one who never had a teddy as a child - until I made my first bear at age 13. I did have lots of dolls and still love dolls and now have a collection of antique dolls and bears that must number well over 3 or 400 - just making up I guess!
Canna Bear PaintLove the other stories
I always had teddy bears growing up. I was never really a "doll kid", it was teddy bears all the way even when ALL of my friends went through a Cabbage Patch phase simultaneously. I have a pink-and-white bear that my mother's father (who I saw very few times before he passed away) bought me on a trip to Disney World when I was perhaps three. My mother made me bears and all sorts of outfits for my bears, not to mention making all kinds of other stuffed animals. She made me my own Care Bear (far superior to the store-bought ones!), and then proceeded onto an entire family of different Care Bears, those were favorites for a long time. I slept with several teddies in my bed for many years, it was sometimes quite a decision as to which ones got the privilege on any given night! On into my teenage years, I got a special teddy bear every Christmas. I still have my (sizeable!) collection, but it is in storage until I have a nice, safe place to put them.
One particular stuffed animal incident does come to mind. My mother was making us a life-sized stuffed dog to look like the dog we had at the time, a chocolate lab. Our real dog, Jenny, never had cared about the lines of teddy bears and other stuffed animals that came from my mother's sewing machine. But as that big brown dog took shape, she started to pay attention. You could see the wheels turning. "Hmmm, that fellow looks kind of familiar." My mother was putting stuffing in the dog one afternoon, each time she put a handful of stuffing in, the stuffed dog would wiggle and jiggle and twitch, of course. Jenny watched all of this with great interest. "It's moving!" She finally could stand it no longer, bolted across the room, snatched the dog from my mother's hands, and ran like the devil to the opposite end of the house with it in her mouth. She didn't hurt the dog, she was just very, very convinced that it was meant for her. We knew the stuffed Jenny dog was "Jenny-approved" by her namesake after that!
Best wishes,
Kelly
Patsy Lake BearsOhhhh Sue Anne I wonder if it was not having a Teddy Bear that we sucked thumbs and fingers ... I was a finger sucker not one but two...
Jare Hares & BearsOne particular stuffed animal incident does come to mind. My mother was making us a life-sized stuffed dog to look like the dog we had at the time, a chocolate lab. Our real dog, Jenny, never had cared about the lines of teddy bears and other stuffed animals that came from my mother's sewing machine. But as that big brown dog took shape, she started to pay attention. You could see the wheels turning. "Hmmm, that fellow looks kind of familiar." My mother was putting stuffing in the dog one afternoon, each time she put a handful of stuffing in, the stuffed dog would wiggle and jiggle and twitch, of course. Jenny watched all of this with great interest. "It's moving!" She finally could stand it no longer, bolted across the room, snatched the dog from my mother's hands, and ran like the devil to the opposite end of the house with it in her mouth. She didn't hurt the dog, she was just very, very convinced that it was meant for her. We knew the stuffed Jenny dog was "Jenny-approved" by her namesake after that!
Best wishes,
Kelly
Whatever happened to the stuffed dog?
Kiprie BearsI love to hear others story ! Jared, your first-bear story is sweet ! 
Do you still have him ?
Tami and Crissi thanks for sharing your photo ! !
I had no ted as a child.. Me and my little sis had a bunny instead.... 
I was a blankie girl when I was very small and here is my poor blankie story ....
I had the little yellow blankie wich I don't remember where did I get it from but
one day my mom took my blankie away and said "sorry honey, I will buy you new one .."
but I refuse to give it up and demand to have my blankie back. then she said
"but did you know this is not real blankie, this is something to polishes dad's car,
it's made of sheep skin and I can wash this"
then my head went blank....
SHEEP SKIN !? DID I KILL THE SHEEP !?
I cried harder for the sheep and
I never ask mom to buy me a new blankie.....
Marie
Baird'sBears
all I was told over and over again, Teddy bears are for babys not me
"but did you know this is not real blankie, this is something to polishes dad's car, it's made of sheep skin and I can wash this"
Oh no, Peta and Marie!
Talk about blighting somebody's youth . . .
