I couldn't sleep without my teddy bear. He had a pad on his paw I used to rub against my lower lip until I fell asleep, which is a bit weird I guess. My parents thought it was not healthy, so they took him away and I never saw him again. I still have trouble sleeping...
Oh wow, that was a trip down memory lane! It's not just boys and bears, I promise. I have pictures of me with 'Big Ted' and then came Cuddles, Edward and Bruno. Bruno was really a monkey, I think, but he stood in for Cuddles when he was inadvertently left behind when we went on holiday to Dover (interesting choice of holiday destination, but hey).
My mum patched up Cuddles time and time again and eventually he was more patch than bear and was sent away for a professional tidy-up (impressive really given that it must have been an expensive endeavour and money was tight).
THANK YOU for those playground memories. Definitely remember a few of them but didn't know about the boys' macabre game.
Thanks for reading! I know they had doll hospitals, but I didn't know they did bears as well. Seems funny to think we were in that same playground all those years ago, Jane.
Miss Bellchamber! If I'd come up with that name I'd take the rest of the day off. Thanks for yet another fascinating, kaleidoscopic confessional Steve.
Cheers Steve, another lovely memory-triggering post – I share Ed's recall issues. I do remember having a threadbare golliwog (can you say that anymore?), who went by the highly original monicker "Golly". With hindsight, I'm glad Golly didn't make the trip from India to Australia, where I moved onto Baloo and Mowgli merch after seeing The Jungle Book for the first time and loving it!
And on the high-school japes front, the Jesuit school I went to in Australia had some hard nuts who invented a particularly painful form of public entertainment-cum-punishment called "poling". It required the hapless victim being hauled to a light pole on the edge of a low wall in the schoolyard where he was forced to straddle the pole while his tormentors grabbed a leg each and leant back over the wall letting gravity do its worst. It was bruising, to say the least, until the Brothers – who were not averse to inflicting their own "sanctioned" punitive practices – found out and (largely) banished poling.
I wasn't much into toy animals but I did have a Koala bear that my much-older brothers brought back from Australia (where they worked on oil rigs).
Your mention of ROtring pens reminded me of the wonderful day when a few of us from our boarding school went out and bought some. I'm not sure why I bought one since I had (and still have) zero drawing ability. But they were cool.
I can perhaps top your anecdote about the metal comb. When I was in school (whatever you call it between ages 7 and 10), we played a game using a large (as I remember it) packing crate. The game involved dragging a large rock up on top of the crate. Then someone would stand in the crate. The person on top would try to drop the rock on the other person's head as they ran out. We played that very stimulating game until someone succeeded in dropping the rock on someone's head. Somehow, the teachers never noticed until that point. (The boy was taken to hospital but recovered.)
While I'm going with the flow of memories you have stirred up: At boarding school, aged somewhere from 11 to 14, we played a "game" where you would squat down and take 20 rapid breathes, then stand up and hold your breath while someone squeezed you from behind. The result was brief unconsciousness then waking up with a weird, shimmering sensation. My first taste of altered states!
I loved my Teddy bear. When I won a scholarship to a boarding school in Eastbourne aged 11 I thought I'd better not take him. But on arrival it turned out everybody had one, so that was the first thing I asked to be sent. The first Ted I remember was called Mr.Chuff. I pulled all his fir off, and a leg, (not intentionally I add, it was, if anything, too much affection!) but adored him. I was mortified when my mum threw the poor, bedraggled thing away. Utterly beside myself.
Reading this - 'John Betjeman, who owned a beloved teddy bear named Archibald Ormsby-Gore, or “Archie.” By all accounts, Betjeman took Archie everywhere—even to Oxford University' - I wondered if he was an inspiration for Aloysius, Lord Sebastian Flyte's teddy bear in Evelyn Waugh 's novel Brideshead Revisited? Betjem was in Oxford in 1922. Waugh in '25... Hmmm...
These posts are great for me because I have little to no functional memory at all (ever) and so I can glean the vaguest echoes and impressions from them of perhaps similar things in my childhood. So thank you, Steve - even if the Memory Lane is distinctly yours.
I did have a bear called Growler but he was a hand-me-down and I was third in line. Last seen many years ago and had very little hair left (the bear, not me. OK, both of us). I remember him being scratchy - not great for cuddles. But he did faintly growl when tipped, until he lost that too. Something like one of those old cow and sheep 'bladder' toys inside of him I expect.
Yeah, my Dad had one of those growling bears, in fact I think he's still in the house. Last time I saw him he had a wifi antenna on his head... not sure why. He wasn't very cuddly either, in fact if he was Dad's he must be pretty ancient. You tipped him forward and he growled... kind of.
I couldn't sleep without my teddy bear. He had a pad on his paw I used to rub against my lower lip until I fell asleep, which is a bit weird I guess. My parents thought it was not healthy, so they took him away and I never saw him again. I still have trouble sleeping...
Depriving you of your bear is tragic, Dave!
Oh wow, that was a trip down memory lane! It's not just boys and bears, I promise. I have pictures of me with 'Big Ted' and then came Cuddles, Edward and Bruno. Bruno was really a monkey, I think, but he stood in for Cuddles when he was inadvertently left behind when we went on holiday to Dover (interesting choice of holiday destination, but hey).
My mum patched up Cuddles time and time again and eventually he was more patch than bear and was sent away for a professional tidy-up (impressive really given that it must have been an expensive endeavour and money was tight).
THANK YOU for those playground memories. Definitely remember a few of them but didn't know about the boys' macabre game.
Thanks for reading! I know they had doll hospitals, but I didn't know they did bears as well. Seems funny to think we were in that same playground all those years ago, Jane.
Miss Bellchamber! If I'd come up with that name I'd take the rest of the day off. Thanks for yet another fascinating, kaleidoscopic confessional Steve.
Thanks, John!
Cheers Steve, another lovely memory-triggering post – I share Ed's recall issues. I do remember having a threadbare golliwog (can you say that anymore?), who went by the highly original monicker "Golly". With hindsight, I'm glad Golly didn't make the trip from India to Australia, where I moved onto Baloo and Mowgli merch after seeing The Jungle Book for the first time and loving it!
And on the high-school japes front, the Jesuit school I went to in Australia had some hard nuts who invented a particularly painful form of public entertainment-cum-punishment called "poling". It required the hapless victim being hauled to a light pole on the edge of a low wall in the schoolyard where he was forced to straddle the pole while his tormentors grabbed a leg each and leant back over the wall letting gravity do its worst. It was bruising, to say the least, until the Brothers – who were not averse to inflicting their own "sanctioned" punitive practices – found out and (largely) banished poling.
Yikes! It's a wonder boys survived high school at all, with all these crazy 'games'!
What a triggering of a tsunami of nostalgia…
Cheers, Manqueman!
I wasn't much into toy animals but I did have a Koala bear that my much-older brothers brought back from Australia (where they worked on oil rigs).
Your mention of ROtring pens reminded me of the wonderful day when a few of us from our boarding school went out and bought some. I'm not sure why I bought one since I had (and still have) zero drawing ability. But they were cool.
I can perhaps top your anecdote about the metal comb. When I was in school (whatever you call it between ages 7 and 10), we played a game using a large (as I remember it) packing crate. The game involved dragging a large rock up on top of the crate. Then someone would stand in the crate. The person on top would try to drop the rock on the other person's head as they ran out. We played that very stimulating game until someone succeeded in dropping the rock on someone's head. Somehow, the teachers never noticed until that point. (The boy was taken to hospital but recovered.)
While I'm going with the flow of memories you have stirred up: At boarding school, aged somewhere from 11 to 14, we played a "game" where you would squat down and take 20 rapid breathes, then stand up and hold your breath while someone squeezed you from behind. The result was brief unconsciousness then waking up with a weird, shimmering sensation. My first taste of altered states!
The rapid breath thing seems familiar, but the rock on the head doesn't! Sheesh! It's a wonder he didn't get brain damage.
I loved my Teddy bear. When I won a scholarship to a boarding school in Eastbourne aged 11 I thought I'd better not take him. But on arrival it turned out everybody had one, so that was the first thing I asked to be sent. The first Ted I remember was called Mr.Chuff. I pulled all his fir off, and a leg, (not intentionally I add, it was, if anything, too much affection!) but adored him. I was mortified when my mum threw the poor, bedraggled thing away. Utterly beside myself.
Reading this - 'John Betjeman, who owned a beloved teddy bear named Archibald Ormsby-Gore, or “Archie.” By all accounts, Betjeman took Archie everywhere—even to Oxford University' - I wondered if he was an inspiration for Aloysius, Lord Sebastian Flyte's teddy bear in Evelyn Waugh 's novel Brideshead Revisited? Betjem was in Oxford in 1922. Waugh in '25... Hmmm...
Mr Chuff is a great name, Liam. Are you telling me your bear was sent to you in the mail?!?
He was indeed mailed to me. :-)
These posts are great for me because I have little to no functional memory at all (ever) and so I can glean the vaguest echoes and impressions from them of perhaps similar things in my childhood. So thank you, Steve - even if the Memory Lane is distinctly yours.
I did have a bear called Growler but he was a hand-me-down and I was third in line. Last seen many years ago and had very little hair left (the bear, not me. OK, both of us). I remember him being scratchy - not great for cuddles. But he did faintly growl when tipped, until he lost that too. Something like one of those old cow and sheep 'bladder' toys inside of him I expect.
Yeah, my Dad had one of those growling bears, in fact I think he's still in the house. Last time I saw him he had a wifi antenna on his head... not sure why. He wasn't very cuddly either, in fact if he was Dad's he must be pretty ancient. You tipped him forward and he growled... kind of.