Loveys

M. Giant, one of my favorite recappers at Television Without Pity, wrote an entry in his personal blog about his son's loveys. It made me all nostalgic.


I had three loveys when I was a kid. One was a stuffed Snoopy with a music box in his tummy that played Brahm's Lullaby. I loved that thing literally to death. He got to the point where they music box wouldn't play anymore, his fur had been rubbed off from petting, and his ears were all frayed. It took a lot for me to finally give him up, but I really couldn't justify holding onto what had become a moldering pile of foam and furless fabric covering a music box that didn't work.


Then there was Jon-Jon. Jon-Jon was a fabric bear that was about 2.5 feet tall that my aunt bought at a flea market for a quarter. I think he might have originally have been vaguely patchworky, but I honestly can't remember. Once the fabric started fraying (which didn't take long, considering the bear was alreay used and I dragged him everywhere when I was three), my mom made him new pants and a new "shirt" out of polyester double knit. It took a lot to destroy that fabric, which is why our landfills are filled with fashion mistakes from the 70's. Anyway, Jon-Jon lasted with his polyester duds (brown pants and a weirdly patterened top - that actually covered the back of his head as well) for a good long time until I decided in college that he needed to be restuffed and needed a makeover. I opened up his seams and restuffed him (and honestly, his original stuffing was really gross), and made him new clothes with fabric from my mom's stash, which...was polyester double knit. She sewed a lot of our clothes in the 70's, you see. Jon-Jon got lost in my move south, sadly. I had him when I moved (he was looking outside the back window of the van that didn't go over 35 on the interstate all through Kentucky and Tennessee), but somehow or another he never made it inside my apartment.


Then there was Teddy Roosevelt. I have no idea how I came up with that name. Teddy Roosevelt was a little brown bear who was very soft and fuzzy. I slept with him all the way into adulthood (blushes). He was my big source of comfort, and made me feel safe. He was also the very first gift my dad bought me, the day I was born. When I was little, I used to stage weddings between him and a pink teddy bear I had that was not very soft and cuddly. Her name was Eleanor Roosevelt. I have no idea how I came up with that name, either. Granted, I was a precocious little kid, but I wasn't that bright. Unfortunately, Teddy Roosevelt was lost in the move south, too. I think that hit me even harder than losing Jon-Jon.

I had other stuffed animals I loved, and I still like to buy little stuffed animals every now and then when I need a pick-me-up. But none of them have ever compared to these three.