Velveteen Rabbits

My mom gave me a Koala(teddy) bear that she had brought from Australia. I gave it a hair cut and it never forgave me...just wouldn't grow back

My velveteen rabbit was A Christmas Carol, illustrated by Arthur Rackham. I read it again and again (beginning at about age five) until it was literally worn out, and the cover fell off. While i was overseas in the Army, my grandmother threw it out. She knew no better.


(Incidentally, there is a wonderful VCR version of The Velveteen Rabbit, as read by Meryl Streep, with a piano accompaniment by George Winston. They didn't try to animate it, which would just not have worked. It is a series of still shots--it is truly wonderful.)

My velveteen rabbit is a Steiff rabbit. I think the story is that hamburger's best friend sent it when he heard that mrs. hamburger was going to have a baby burger. The fur's pretty much worn off, the eyes had to be glued back on after an evil fella ripped them out.

I never really understood teddy bears (did I ever have one when I was little?) - but I loved my rabbit and my monkey. They're both in the house here.

The first Mr. Noddy was a nomad and with 14 moves in 12 years (two countries and five different states) my childhood treasures were mostly lost.

Lately "stuff"--even stuff with many memories--is becoming less important to me. I do treasure every single address on my Christmas card list. Over the last 60-odd years, I've accumulated a number of friends. We correspond once a year, but when we get together, we can gossip and chatter as though no time has passed.

Beautiful!

Mutalated, lost, loved and listed, beautiful rabbits all.

Thanks to all of you!

A diminutive Estwing Rock Hammer that my Uncle Stosh gave me as a kid. Its about as big as the one tim Burton used to chip his way out of Shawshank prison. i have others and even a plated one on a plaque , but this is my favorite thing from my prospector/geologist wild ass uncle who I miss greatly.

I still have the first stuffed animal I ever owned, which happened to be a teddy bear. He is missing an arm and a half, a nose, and most of his fur. He used to be called Teddy, but I've recently renamed him Thread Bear.

Tooooo strange, Panzade. Mine is also a Koala bear, sent to me by my Australian pen pal decades ago when I was a preteen. We corresponded for perhaps 6-7 years then I got one last airmail letter (remember those thin, blue airmail sheets?) from her saying that she could not explain the details but that because of family problems she would never be able to write me again. My subsequent letters were returned: "No forwarding address."

Pen Pal Bear is with me today. We both still wonder what happened to our friend.

Ah the Estwing. I've been swingin the 22 oz model for thirty years. Boy is my elbow sore.

Marvelous!!

aw hell , hang around, youll see cav dismember the entire English language for our collective consideration and amusement.


PS , he can cook too

No longer have Lady Chatterly's Lover, also lovingly worn thin.

I'll bet, that was my introduction to female anatomy.

My "transitional object" - which was a soft plastic horse, called, imaginatively enough, "Horsy" - (which I first lost at a friend's home interstate - but which they sent me in the mail - ah the joy!!!!!), I later lost agian, this time permanently.


Next in line were several books - one I especially loved was a fabulous version of both The Jungle Books - I recall beginning to read it at seven, because the first story begins with "It was seven o'clock..." and I had just that day turned seven!

My mother threw out ALL my toys one day when I was at school, when I was twelve, without asking - including my sister's stuff, which was especially precious to me, because she was dead.

Then my father threw out the carton of special books I had marked "DO NOT THROW OUT!" when I was moving rooms, and sorting stuff, instead of the one marked "Throw Out" - so I lost all my special books too.

So - all my Velveteen Rabbits went.

I have replaced a number of the books, though.

Man - I'm enough to make ame cry!!!

poor bunny. I feel your loss.

Yes - but not, sadly, knowing our David Herbert, to foreplay.

Lol - I am unsure of your sincerity - however, I DO feel it explains part of the feeling of anxiety about losing everything that hangs eternal over me wee Bunny ears. (LOTS of tail checking!)

I was actually frozen in horror for hours, both times.

I do wonder, sometimes, if my parents were especially insensitive to such things - or was such lack of concern over these things typical of the time?

I think most of my friends' precious things were carefully kept for them, though.

Actually - the thing I REALLY burn about is my father's throwing out (after I left home) of my maternal grandfather's hand written diary - which would have been an archival, as well as a personal, treasure.

It had a special page written in lovely red ink, when my mother - who, as a wee baby, suffered from anaemia, and was, in the fashion of the day, admitted to hospital for months - without seeing her parents - (who lived on an isolated sheep station) returned home!!!!!

Perhaps this scarring separation assisted her in not understanding her surviving daughter's attachment to Velveteen Rabbits?

Yeare ago, while pulling cable through the ceiling of a hospital gift shop, i was downing tools, and packing up when i realized i'd left my flashlight up on the ceiling tiles. I located the tile, carefully lifted it up, but, having no flashlight, i had to feel around for it. I put my hand on a 22 oz. Estwing which i have to this day. I was amazed, sufficiently so that i climbed back down the ladder, picked up my tool bag, and walked out. I suspect that cheapy little flashlight is still up in that ceiling somewhere.

Edit: Although this won't make much sense to you, Our Dear Wabbit, among the other things which my grandmother threw out was a baseball autographed by the 1954 New York Giants. It would be worth, at a conservative estimate, several thousand dollars today.

AArrggghhh!

What is an estwing?