1930ish Somerset PA area Teddy Bear

by John
(North Babylon NY, USA)

This needs four hundred words, so forgive the embellishments, hyperbole, etceterae. Well, let's see... how did this all start? My dear Mama gave me this bear, all snuggled up in a plastic bag, just waiting all these years for someone to discover, describe, show some love. This was my Dad's, and my Mom wants me to find out who made it and anything about it. The arms and legs and head rotate three hundred and sixty degrees but, unlike Linda Blair in The Exorcist, still help this whimsical creature of the woods retain a bearlike charm. There are no marks or tags on it at all: believe me, I looked anywhere a sane designer would deign to place one of these. The hair is very short-- I didn't try any kind of burn test, as I have read is sometimes done-- oh, the blasphemy!... but I am guessing mohair instead of plastic. I'm no psychic, but it just has that panache, I guess. 163 Wow would you believe that effluent, sonnet-like description only burned off one hundred and sixty three words? Yikes! Oh, you say, I need more? Well... I can tell you that my Dad, Pop, Father, whichever is your favorite term, grew up in the small coal-mining town of Boswell, Pennsylvania, which was nestled in the Appalachian Mountains between Somerset (where I was born but that's another story) and Johnstown, famous for the Flood-- not the Biblical one but worthy of its own capital anyway, no pun intended. 251 So I think the bear was bought somewhere around there. Perhaps it's an American-made bear. When you crunch it, it's kind of crunchy. but of course I don't go around crunching many teddy bears, so I am not sure if it's softer than another bear, or crunchier... I'm a male so I was deprived of having one of these, although my brother Scott had a bunny named Bunny Bert that he kept and loved until it basically fell apart... from love I guess... what a way to go. 340 It's got no eyes... only the sewn indications of these important, even necessary, features, or perhaps the sewing remnants of what were there. My Dad was a nice man who raised six children and a dog, so I cannot envision him tearing the eyes out of a teddy bear... you know? 391 Anyway, take a look, and back to being serious-- we would love to know anything about this bear. And I guess I should add that said bear is around nine inches tall... so I guess it qualifies as an Ursa Minor, haha.... :) (does that count as a word?), John

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