The Tale of Little Ted & Doggie
My mother either threw or gave away nearly every toy I ever owned. All my games, piles of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, my (talking!) Action Man and his extensive wardrobe of uniforms, plus all my Thunderbirds rockets and Captain Scarlet vehicles, my Batmobile, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car, and Yellow Submarine, all of which would probably make me enough money to retire on if I still had them.
The only survivors of this ruthless cull are my teddy bear Little Ted and a dog called Doggie (no points for originality there). Little Ted got his name because my sister had a larger teddy bear called Big Ted, though I assume they were both named around the same time because neither of their names would make much sense without the other one, would they? Little Ted is a polar bear and I got him because of Pipaluk, the baby polar bear born at London Zoo in 1967 who caused a bit of a craze among kids at the time and joined the ranks of other celebrity animals at the zoo like Guy The Gorilla and Chi Chi the Panda. Apart from Little Ted I distinctly remember having a Pipaluk badge which I got at the zoo when we went to see him.
40 years later the two of them are sitting on the bookshelf in my living room, a bit ragged and beaten-up (all those fights with Big Ted probably) and probably worth less than one wheel off an old Batmobile, but I obviously didn’t keep hold of them for investment purposes. They’ve survived all this time and escaped my mother’s chucking-out purges because like most little kids I was attached to them in a way that I never was with a toy car — you can’t cuddle up and go to sleep with a Hot Wheels can you? They’re major characters in my childhood and I bet I’m not the only grown man who still has his teddy bear. Not that I still sleep with him or anything.
Download: I’m Your Toy (live) – Elvis Costello (mp3)
My God, all this and Elvis Costello. Let’s see: not only did I have all those toys (well, my brother thought some of them were his), but one of my vivid memories is of being given a Pipaluk badge at the zoo by a keeper: I was shy and put it in my pocket, and he made me put it on. I haven’t thought of that in years; I would have been five or so. I’m betting you also queued round the British Museum for hours to see the Tutankhamun exhibition, didn’t you?
Actually, we didn’t. Though I do remember the big Sunday Times colour supplement story on it.
Hmmm – I queued up for said exhibit (the scarab beetles is all I remember now but blimey it took a while to get in the doors) also had Spectrum pursuit vehicle (brill!) AND the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car – which I wasn’t so fussed about not having seen the film!
Elvis Costello – some good (great even) early songs but once he went country *shudders*…. – mind you I 1/2 fancied his 1st wife in a sort of dirty Goth way & his current ain’t hard on the eye neither ho ho.
I sold all my original Star Wars figures so that I could buy a ZX Spectrum.
I think the only Corgi car I have from childhood is a beaten up Aston Martin DB5 (with non-working ejector seat). I do have two handmade stuffed animals – Ella bear (sporting an eye patch) – actually received at birth in ’64 – and a rattish-sort of creature called Thingy (who received much abuse at boarding school due to his awesome ability to be wielded at high velocity by his tail during those stuffed animal fights). They don’t occupy a spot of honor on a bookshelf. Unfortunately – stuffed in a box in the attic a la Toy Story – but they’re still there. I don’t think my two dk’s have any such attachments, more’s the pity.
geo.
No offence, but little ted’s a little fred bare..
I overheard a woman friend gassing with my wife about me the other day.
“He’s an ugly little fucker .. but I can see why you love him”.
Yes, he only has one eye and his head is very badly sewn on (by me) after it nearly got ripped off once.