Dip Into Sewing's Secret Sauce as a 'Doll' Scoffs at a 60-Year-Old Bear

HEY, THERE!

This week’s issue is chock full of bears bein’ in Grown Folks business from ice rinks and wildfires to presidential politics. 

And no, I’m not just talking about Roosevelt. 

BTW: He didn’t even think the teddy bear would amount to much.

As for his daughter, she had little use for an original bear. 

Apparently, No, was a complete sentence in the 1960s, too. 

Next up in this issue:

• Bears in public doing their bear thing.

• Sewing’s secret sauce

• President Roosevelt’s daughter scoffs at an original bear.

• Presidential candidates in plush

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LINKS
TEDDY BEARS IN PUBLIC

🐻 SPORTS 

The annual Giant Teddy Bear Toss by the Hershey Bears hockey team set a franchise record with 102,343 stuffed animals collected. They’ll be donated to more than 35 local and regional organizations. (Pennlive)

🇺🇲 NATIONAL HOLIDAY 

Martin Luther King Day, a holiday and a National Day of Service, draws volunteers nationwide including those who make bears. Find your volunteer match here. Memory bears are needed. (AmeriCorps)

🏠 LA FIRES 

The LA Lost Stuffy Project aims to reunite kids impacted by the Los Angeles fires with new versions of their favorite plushies. Donate link in Instagram bio. (Good Morning America) 

THINGS LOST IN THE FIRE

Adults and children are struggling in the wake of the Los Angeles fires.

Trish, who lost her home to a fire last year, shared why teddy bears help grown ups, too.  

“After the file, I was concerned about my loss of self. A tragedy like that made me not the person I typically hold myself up as. It made me sad, depressed and angry.” 

“That joy just wasn’t as prevalent as it had been before,” said Trish, a Virginian who has been sleeping with a decades-old bear since she salvaged it from the fire. 

“I think tapping into childlike qualities like teddy bears and toys taps into that (joy) and it helps bring that person back. They make you feel like you haven’t lost yourself.” 

“They’re like these lights in tragic times,” she said. “They symbolize hope, perseverance and a lost love that can still be gained from that object.”

“They’re powerful.”  

DEEP DIVE
SEWING’S SECRET SAUCE 

You can start something without the end in mind. 

Or even the messy middle. 

Often, I don’t know how a bear will turn out. I may think I do, but the bear usually has other plans. 

The head is turned more. 

The eyes are closer together. 

The ear set farther back. 

A turtleneck is a better fit than a v-neck. 

Adjustments should be welcome in the sewing room. They keep you on your toes, in the moment, while you’re on task. 

This go-with-the-flow focus is where sewing’s secret sauce simmers. For a pattern is simply a template and its directions are a roadmap. 

The journey from start to finish, the process - adjustments and all, is where the internal magic happens. 

Making a bear is the perfect creative solution for the one question Beck says you should ask yourself:

WHAT CAN I MAKE?

Bear making aside, the benefits of sewing are many:

NO AGE LIMIT. 

In fact, the longer you sew, the more you learn, explore and push your own boundaries in terms of color, style and technique.  

IMPROVES HAND-EYE COORDINATION. 

Sewing requires attention to detail and coordination. The repetition of stitching, pinning, unpinning, threading needles and cutting all boost your motor skills.

BUILDS MENTAL MUSCLE.

Using YOUR brain for problem solving on the regular helps with critical thinking. How you tackle sewing issues builds muscle memory and history you can draw from to address future situations. 

CREATES SPACE TO THINK. 

Working on a sewing project, gives you room to marinate on an issue. Think it through and figure out what’s best for you instead of crowdsourcing an answer. 

BUILDS TRUST.

In yourself. That you’re enough and you know enough to find the answer on your own. Through trial and error or tapping into your reserve of experience. YOU are often the best answer to your questions. 

BETTER USE OF YOUR TIME. 

If you’re going to fall down a rabbit hole, let it be a creative one. Lose yourself in making something tangible instead of scrolling into an anxiety-inducing wind tunnel. 

CONFIDENCE AND PRODUCTIVITY BOOSTER. 

Making a bear is a huggable win that gives you confidence to keep going and see what else you can do. The boost gives you more get-up-and-go and that feel-good energy makes you more productive.

FROM THE ARCHIVES
ONE MAN’S MEME IS ANOTHER MAN’S MERCH

So said Benjamin Michtom, whose father launched the Ideal Toy Company with a bear that was the 1902 version of merch made from a viral meme. 

Namely, a political cartoon about Roosevelt’s refusal to shoot a bear cub tied to a tree. 

According to the Object Notes with one of the original “Teddy’s bear” now part of the collection at the Smithsonian Institute’s Natural Museum of American History, cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman ran with the illustration “as a metaphor for Roosevelt's indecision over a Mississippi boundary dispute.”

The point was lost on a public enamored with the cute bear made plush. 

Dolls lost their Top Toy crowns. Poodles lost their status as lap dogs. 

All while “Teddy’s bear” grew into a cultural icon. 

Sixty years later, when Benjamin Michtom reached out to the presidential family to celebrate the bear’s birthday, the Roosevelt skepticism hadn’t waned. 

“I don’t want it,” exclaimed Roosevelt’s daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, when offered one of the original bears. (If she would pose with it.)

"For goodness sakes, why not?" asked Michtom, then president of the family toy company. 

Longworth didn’t mince words. 

Michtom then pitched the family’s younger generation: Kermit Roosevelt, one of the former president’s grandsons.

If Kermit’s children would pose with the bear, Michtom said the bear would be his.

As long as Roosevelt donated it to the Smithsonian Institute. 

The grandson agreed.

But Teddy’s bear proved too irresistible, leading to a kidnapping.  

So into hiding the bear went. Until the children changed their minds.

According to the Object Notes, the bear was given to the Smithsonian in January 1964.

One more thing to note, the former president was NOT a fan of the nickname, Teddy.

In fact, he once called it  “an outrageous impertinence.”

SPEAKING OF (PRESIDENTIAL) MERCH . . .

Roosevelt isn’t the only president to show up in bear form.  

The Vermont Teddy Bear company has turned presidential candidates into bears for years. 

On the list: 

Each 15-inch, $99.99 bear featured a signature accessory or trait.

Take Bernie Sanders. 

According to this excerpt from a May 26, 2015, story in the Business Wire:  

The look-a-like bear has unruly white hair, glasses and arrives wearing a suit, tie, white shirt and campaign pin.

"We just couldn't resist," said Bill Shouldice, President and Chief Executive, Vermont Teddy Bear. "Given Senator Bernie Sanders' well-known affinity for President Theodore Roosevelt, and our products' tie to the former President of the United States, it seemed only natural. Teddy Roosevelt is where the Bear legacy began. He even carried one with him on the campaign trail! And, it was deemed cool."

The company also launched a “Paws for Politics” social awareness campaign in 2016 to encourage people to vote. The website included information about the candidates as well as resources for voter registration, political debates and polling locations. 

“Voting is your voice in our democracy,” said Shouldice in a September 14, 2016, story in the Vermont Business Magazine.  

“This campaign is all about encouraging people to exercise their right, their privilege, their voice and their conscience through one of the most important tools every legal adult has: voting.”