Buskitten recently posted a sweet picture of her well-loved old stuffed animals on her blog http://jumblesalerabbits.blogspot.com/2008/11/lovely-old-toys.html so i thought i should honor my teddy bear in a similar way. This is my second teddy...my original teddy is still at my parents' house!...i got this guy when i went in the hospital to have my tonsils out, which would make him 50 years old! (He really does have that 1950's kind of look to him, doesn't he? My original teddy looks considerably more antique.) His name is Freeto Cheeps and he has a windup music box inside (with the key sticking out his back) which still sort of plays Brahms' Lullaby. Over the years my father had to operate on him a couple of times to fix the music box...my parents would discreetly sneak him out of my room at night so i wouldn't have to witness him being cut open! Most recently, my ex-boyfriend operated on teddy about 20 years ago to once again get his music box to work. It skips a little bit (i think some of the teeth in the music box have broken off over the years) but still plays. I sewed teddy back up afterwards, and also repaired his ear, which had come unstitched a long time ago.
As you can see, teddy is leaning against one of my current living breathing teddy bears, Louie! My mother wouldn't let us have pets...we did have a cat or two who visited briefly, which i loved but my mother considered a disaster (one went up inside the box spring of their bed, another apparently leaped off a shelf onto the washing machine and scared the heck out of her)...i had a goldfish when i was 4 (we left him with neighbors in Virginia when we moved away; when we came back to visit about 4 years later he was still alive) and my sister and i had a couple of short-lived red eared turtles when we moved to New Jersey. I did have another favorite stuffed animal, a cat with soft white real fur (hate to think now what it was...maybe rabbit) and beautiful green glass eyes. Her name was Katrinka. She's long since gone...i think a lot of her fur got rubbed off and maybe moths got her.
As soon as i went to college, i got a cat (she "belonged" to my roommate but i did a lot to care for her and to raise her...and then had to find a home for her at the end of the school year when neither my roomie nor i was allowed to bring her home). And i've had cats ever since! I can't imagine living without them.
Hello - I just wanted to welcome you to my blog, as my newest follower.
ReplyDeleteI love your sweet old teddy (and big fluffy Louie of course!). Where on earth did the name Freeto Cheeps come from?!
We used to have a cat, but sadly no more although we occasionally 'babysit' for our friend, whose cat maddy is rather naughty and eats our plants! If you type 'cat' into the search you'll find the film we took when we caught her red-handed...
Louis and Freeto Cheeps look very happy together. Brahms' Lullaby is a great tune for a music box. I can recall how it sounded when my childhood musical box played. Freeto definately has that bright, optimistic expression of the time, some toys today are made to look so serious!
ReplyDeleteHi Lynn. Thank you for the welcome to your blog and visit to mine. I love your blog and website and galleries...so much interesting art to see and stories to read! I'm sorry that you no longer have a cat, although i can see that your medium of pastels does not mix well with cats. I loved the video of Maddy gnawing on your plants. I imagine that she then promptly threw up the chewed plant remains on your conservatory floor...
ReplyDeleteMy original teddy's name is "Butterscotch," and i knew this guy should be something good to eat, too...so for some reason i settled on Frito Chips (a crispy corn snack) and modified it to pseudo-Spanish pronunciation of "Freeto Cheeps."
Hi Everycat, welcome back! I bet things in your house a quite quiet now that the kittens have left. Any news on adoptive homes for them yet?
Hi Quiltcat,
ReplyDeleteso nice to see Freeto Cheeps and Louie! Gee, my stuffed animal cat, went to the hospital with me when I had tonsil related surgery! We did have turtles for a very brief time until they escaped from their dish in the kitchen when we were young...also had a parakeet! Wasn't til I met my husband that I got my first cat! Since then, like you, I can't live without them!
best, Nan
I love Feedo and Louie! Great photo! Your photographs are absolutuely lovely - you have a real gift, and, of course, great models! I am having such frustrations here, at the moment, moving from a pc to a mac. It's unbelievably complicated, and as a result, neither mac or pc are working properly! Grrrrrr! You see why I like the simple things in life ( actually, it's me that is a simple thing in life, haha!)
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it'll all pan out - Nan is going to ask her husband for some advice for me!
Wish you guys were nearer!!
L
What a sweet old Ted. What great memories.
ReplyDeleteHi Nan. Funny that we both got our first cats later in life and have been hooked ever since.
ReplyDeleteHi Liz. Sorry to hear that the migration from PC to Mac is proving to be such a hassle! I've always been a PC person, haven't dabbled in the Mac world, but i know that's where artists seem most comfortable. I hope Nan's husband can help!
Hi G,S,& B's PM...thanks! my sister and i started a whole string of online reminiscences about our teddies after she read this :).