THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 30, 1996 TAG: 9603300013
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: George Hebert
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Teddy Bears don't turn me all gooey inside - as seems to happen with quite a few people. Not that I dislike the little bundles of stuffing and fabric. Far from it.
A recent bit of reading is responsible for this line of thought.
Even though no special, fond association has carried over from my early years, I think I understand how large these playthings loom in so many nostalgic minds. And, like almost everyone, I am aware of and can appreciate the emotional symbolism attached to these long-familiar animal toys when they show up in print or picture.
What recently focused my attention on such emotional symbols - and on symbols vs. reality - was a reference to the origin of Teddy Bears in a book about the Yazoo-Mississippi delta country.
An unlikely locale for an explanation of this particular icon of American childhood? Well, not really, as it turns out.
I was taken somewhat aback by what I read because of the contrast with the pleasantly simple explanation I had previously filed in my mind as to how Teddy Bears came to be called that: They were an affectionate takeoff on the popular, outgoing bear of a president we had in the opening years of this century, Theodore ``Teddy'' Roosevelt.
Also, my unabridged Webster's suggests pretty much that same jolly linkage: ``teddy bear, (c. 1907, after Teddy, nickname for Theodore, with reference to Theodore Roosevelt), a stuffed toy for children resembling a bear in miniature.''
However, it all appears to go a lot deeper than that.
For, according to the attribution in James C. Cobb's The Most Southern Place on Earth, a crucial part of the story is leaped over in the standard story - or I and perhaps other transmitters of the sweetness-and-light version haven't been paying close attention.
Cobb makes much of the rich, jungle-like Yazoo delta's resistance over the years to man's axe and plow, with woodland and swamp playing host to much wild game long after the invasion of the Mississippi cotton planters.
And there is this: ``Bear, deer, and other wild game remained so abundant in the Delta that in November 1902 President Theodore Roosevelt went bear hunting near the little Sunflower River in an area described by a correspondent as a practically `unbroken wilderness.' (It was on this hunt that Roosevelt won fame as a sportsman by refusing to shoot or allow to be shot a bear that had been clubbed and roped to a tree. This incident was commemorated by the creation of the `Teddy Bear.')''
As his source for this, the author cites a New York World account.
Well, the ironies in this embarrassing vignette are certainly a far cry from any lighthearted legend.
True, the story reflects some credit on President Teddy even if he doesn't come off as a cuddly, outsize toy. And the little cloth bears will remain lovable to those who love them.
In any event, if that contemporary newspaper report told the story the way it was, that's the way it was. Teddy-Bear truth is better than half-truth or sugar-coating.
I think. MEMO: Mr. Hebert, a former editor, lives in Norfolk.
by CNB