How many do you have? Do you still have your childhood Teddy Bear? Did you ever wonder how Teddy Bears got their name? For any of you who didn't know - or don't remember the story behind the name of these squeezable, huggable little stuffed bears.......very briefly, it goes like this:
In November of 1902, Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th President, went on a hunting trip near Little Sunflower River in Mississippi. To make sure that the President had an easy target and wouldn't go home empty-handed, his hosts had captured and stunned a little bear cub and tied him to a tree. President Roosevelt, however, refused to shoot the defenseless cub and made them set it free.
The press who were covering Roosevelt's visit quickly heard of the incident, and the Washington Star's political cartoonist Clifford Berryman drew a cartoon of the incident entitled Drawing the line at Mississippi. The cartoon, which emphasized the helplessness of the cub, was printed in all the papers, and Roosevelt's popularity soared as a result of his actions. For the rest of his political career President Roosevelt's mascot was 'Teddy's Bear', which Berryman continued to use in all his cartoons and which played a key part in the Presidents successful re-election campaign of 1905.
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Although most of my teddy bears only come out at Christmas, I do have a couple that have a permanent spot in my house. A soft, plain one sits in an old-fashioned highchair in the family room, but the one pictured below, which sits near me when I'm on the computer, is my very favorite grown-up teddy bear, because she's posable, and I love her hat and her granny glasses; but most of all, I love the voice that sings! (Chantal Kreviazuk, from the soundtrack of a TV show called "Providence", which is no longer on air)
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