care bear
the christmas that i was 6, santa brought me a care bear. i was unimpressed at first as i was never into dolls or teddies, but soon found out that i loved that bear.

birthday bear went everywhere with me, and i couldn't sleep unless i was holding him by one leg. so much so that the poor bastard bear had one leg thinner than the other and his yellow fur was slowly turning grey however much my mother washed him in a pillowcase (why? why do they have to be washed inside pillowcases?). if he couldn't be found at bedtime, there was hell to pay.

then, shortly after i turned 7, disaster struck. we moved back up north from where we had been living in bucks, and had to live in an hotel for 3 months because our new house wasn't ready. it was a gorgeous posh hotel, and on the surface i loved having a swimming pool and restaurant dinners every night. underneath, i was a bit rattled by the move, new school, no house, no garden, all our familiar stuff in storage, nowhere to invite friends home for tea. so i clung to my faithful care bear more tightly than ever.

until the fateful day i took him shopping in manchester. i realised when we got back to the hotel that he had gone. lost. abandoned somewhere by his supposedly loving owner...

i can honestly say i've never cried for so long since! my mum told me to cheer up at first, but then realised i was absolutely distraught and spent all afternoon ringing the various shops. but nobody had seen him. he had clearly been thrown away by a callous shop keeper. every time she put the phone down on another shop, i cried harder.

eventually dad had to take the morning off work the next day to take me back into town to choose a replacement. i bought a pink one, lovealot bear, and i did love him a lot, but things were never quite the same between us.

man, i loved that bear!


edit: many years later, when i was about 26, i was doing my law exams. i jokingly whinged to my mother that it was not the same without a mascot. care bears had just been re-released, so my mum bought me a new yellow bear and wrapped him up and posted him to me as a jokey good luck present.

sadly, she packed him in a designer shoe box for the journey, and when i first unwrapped him, i thought she had sent me a lovely pair of shoes for the law college ball..... i won't say i was disappointed, but he didn't look quite as good with the slinky black dress as the shoes would have done...
( rachelswipe with a fork, Tue 19 Aug 2008, 9:33, 3 replies)

Stop!
You're bringing back memories of the floppy clown I lost under a train when I was three! I'd just managed to bury the trauma following the 'My most treasured possession' question a while back, and now you've reopened mental scars that no fully adjusted 37 year old should ever have to endure, damn you!
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Tue 19 Aug 2008, 10:24, closed)

They're washed in pillowcases
so they can't see the outside world going round and round through the little window. It makes them dizzy and be sick all over your washing.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 19 Aug 2008, 11:57, closed)

^^
That's the best reason I've ever heard!
(Bazongaloid, Tue 19 Aug 2008, 13:30, closed)