Loose Ends: Have you hugged your teddy bear today?

By Carol Livingstone
July 12th is Teddy Bear Picnic Day. That’s about a week away from when I’m writing this. I haven’t decided if I’ll take my bears out for lunch in a park or if I’ll pretend, just like in previous years, that I was unaware that their special day was upon us.

I have several teddy bears, the starter bear being one that had to come home with me because he was named Livingston. I mean, you can’t leave a family member sitting all alone on a store shelf in Whitefish, Montana and expect to sleep well. He’s blond and can’t sit up straight even when propped against a wall. I’ve never caught him at it but Livingston looks like a closet drinker to me.

He wears a sweater with a heart on it, and thus began my little collection of sweater-wearing bears that used to live on a shelving unit in the living room, alongside photos of our grandkids that caused it to be dubbed The Shrine.

More recently they’ve been peeking out from behind piles of fabric and projects-in-waiting in my sewing room. Their sad, hey-remember-me expressions give me the guilts periodically, so I pull them out, dust them off and then cram them back in their corner.

Livingston is listing even further to one side. Probably wondering why I brought him home if I wasn’t going to give him the occasional hug. Or maybe I really should be checking the levels in the booze cupboard… for more see the July 12/16 Mercury