highlyeccentric | An important Friday Five (Reply)

1. What was your favorite toy as a child?
2. What did you name it?

This is my most beloved bear, Brown Bear. I think he was briefly named Daddy Bear (I had a Mummy Bear and a Baby Bear too), but Brown Bear stuck. At this point in my life, my mother was guiding my bear name choices.

3. Who gave it to you?

Our neighbours in western Sydney, when I was one and a bit. I can't remember their names or indeed anything about them, but they gave me Brown Bear when we moved to Wagga Wagga with the RAAF. There's a photo of me holding him while the trailer is being packed.

4. Do you still have it?

As you can see, yes I do. He is a very important bear.

5. If not, what happened to it?

I still have him but MANY THINGS have happened to him. Brave bear has been on _three_ long haul flights: he came with me (along with Katherine Bear - my carry on was 50% bears) when I moved, because I would not consign him to shipping. And last time I went home, he came with (usually Monkey is my travelling companion) in order to be fitted for his new jacket as a Christmas present from Mum. He's quite threadbare on the back, and the jacket he had since I was about twelve had burst at the seams. His current jacket is lined with the leftover scraps of my 12th grade formal dress. Mum thought the outer red fabric was mine, too, but I think perhaps it was a fancy outfit she made for J at some point; I never had a brushed red suede outfit.

Long haul flights are not the worst thing that have happened to Brown Bear, though. It's quite possible that the (a?) source of my massive childhood emetephobia was an Incident in a motel on the nullabor plane. I drank some local water, and my not-yet-three-year-old system did not cope. Brown Bear had to be taken away and a washing machine found, and then he had to dry out in the boot of the car the next day. It was VERY TRAUMATIC. I have no memory of the actual Incident but I remember the bear-less next day with surprising vividity.

Anyway any time after that that I felt in the slightest bit ill I would exile Brown Bear, lest he suffer again.