When Grandma Was A Little Girl-cont'd

Opinion Poll-
Everyone seemed to want bi-weekly posts and so that's what I'll do. In a way that is good I guess as I have not figured out yet, or explored to be more accurate, about a link to 'click on.'
I took off My Favorite Things as I didn't post the whole story, sorry. The 'entire' story is now on! :o)



Story #5 - My favorite things
Do you have a most favorite toy or game you like better than anything else?

When I was little my two most favorite toys were a panda, and a teddy bear. My first stuffed animal was a panda bear. I also liked playing with tea sets. I thought it was fun to have my very own little dishes. I had fun playing with them. By far though, my panda and teddy were my most favorite ever things that I had!

Back to my panda. I named him ‘Snookie.’ I don’t know how I came up with that name, but it just seemed to ‘fit’. My panda was about 10-inches tall and was sewn into a sitting position. It did not stand tall. I ‘dearly loved’ that panda. I’m not sure what happened to it. I do remember though how much I loved that panda bear. When I was 10-years old I got a big tan teddy bear for Christmas! I named him ‘Cookie.’ The name just seemed to ‘fit’ him perfectly.

I have to back up this story to one year earlier. My mother loved to sew and her mom (your great, great grandmother Jane Galbraith Short) was a professional seamstress. She helped to earn a living by sewing for people. My mother also liked to sew. She also ‘loved’ dolls. My mom said that when she was a young girl she loved dolls and would line them all up on her bed and pretend and play ‘school’ with them and read them stories. She loved dressing her dolls!

One year for Christmas she got me a big doll and named her Hepsibah. I did not have a name in mind so I didn’t mind if my mom had a name for the doll. The doll was the size of a one-year old child. She made dresses for it to match dresses she made for me. The only problem was, on Christmas morning when I saw the doll I was ‘so disappointed.’ My mother was so excited she hid behind a chair to see my expression. She loved the doll and thought I would be just as excited. After all, little girls like playing with dolls. Well, not me. I was more of a tomboy and liked boy things more than girly things and dolls. She saw my disappointment when I saw the doll and had picked it up and put it down and looked around to see what else I got for Christmas. It almost broke her heart! I told her how disappointed I was that I got a dumb old doll. Boy, what an ungrateful and horrible child I was! I had no idea how that hurt her and how it disappointed her that I did not like dolls. I guess because she liked dolls, she thought I did too. How wrong she was! (Sorry mom.) I told her that what I really wanted was a big teddy bear and I loved teddy bears.

The very next year for Christmas I got what I wanted! When I looked under the tree to see what I got, I saw this big box. When I opened it, there inside the box was a big, beautiful teddy bear! I grabbed it out of the box and was so thrilled! I hugged my mom and told her how happy I was and that I just loved teddy bears! I knew she got the message! I named him ‘Cookie.’ I loved that bear to death. It was my very best friend. I could hug it, kiss it, and tell all my problems and sorrows as well as happy times to my bear. Cookie just listened and was never critical, he just loved me, or at least I thought so. Its’ magical how only you and your bear can talk to each other and nobody else can hear what your bear is saying to you.I still have that bear today. Cookie has had most of his fur loved off of him, but he’s still my ever faithful bear! He is 46 ½ years old!