The Presbyterian Women’s Teddy Bear Picnic brought back several memories of stories from my childhood.
I was the only granddaughter for 3 years on both sides of my family. I was showered with dolls and dresses and all things pink from not just my grandparents but my great aunts and uncles. One of the great aunts bought me a giant black and white panda which I slept with. I loved the texture of its fur— so soft and, well, furry. I didn’t have much use for dolls, and couldn’t understand why other little girls liked dolls that were hard, plastic and so needy, wanting clothes and shoes to be changed, wanting a bottle, needing diaper changes. My mother later confessed she was concerned that I wasn’t very “motherly”.. .
So, when I was in Kindergarten and chosen to be in the musical performance of “Teddy Bears Picnic” I was super excited—it’s all I could talk about. I can still hum the tune. My mother and grandmother hopped on board, made me a new dress and the day of the performance my mother spent a lot of time getting my hair in banana curls: after sleeping in rag curls Mom had to section my hair, wrapping each section around a finger, brushing each hair to smooth the curl, then slowly removed her finger. After she applied my rouge and lip stick, I was ready to go.
The time for my performance arrived. Grandma and Mom were in the audience—they couldn’t wait to see the star with the banana curls and new dress. When they saw me, they were so disappointed: I heard this story repeatedly from them. I had been crammed into a teddy bear costume with only my eyes showing—no makeup, no curls, no new dress. But I was so happy to become a teddy bear for a few minutes!
When I had children of my own, my mother even bought me the book Teddy Bears Picnic with a record of Bing Crosby singing the tune! I still wonder why some prefer dolls to the warm fuzziness of a teddy bear.
