We went to our friends' house for dinner last week, and charity shop discussions continuing from this blog post lead us to be introduced to Ben....
Ben is half beanbag dog, half teddy bear dog. With a mariachi guitar. We don't know his back story, but he was purchased by our friend Chris from Oxfam in Oxford years ago as a gift for his girlfriend (now wife, also called Penny). Ben looks to have been stitched together from a number of different toys, into some sort of horrific Frankendog. He is definitely smiling, but his "Alistair Darling-esque" felt eyebrows give him an air of silent menace.
Our first reaction to Ben was, understandably, fear.
But then I thought about this poor, freakish creature left abandoned on the shelves while all the cute teddies got bought and given loving homes. And I thought it was sort of sweet that Chris had picked him up and taken him in.
Penny remains tactfully unconvinced.
Ben was £3. As love tokens go, he's definitely one of a kind.
Aw bless! When I was little I used to always pick the teddy sat on it's own on a shelf - I have a vague memory of actually crying over the teddy "who's got no friends" in Zodiac when I was little! I know, I was sensitive, what can I say?!
ReplyDeletePS I don't know if you remember Zodiac? It was on Briggate I think, best toy shop ever - it had a separate obstacle course entrance for kids!
Ahhh... I was not a Leeds resident until '99 so I missed the glory of the friendless teddy bear shop! You poor mite, that sounds like exactly the kind of thing I would have done. I had far too much attachment to inanimate objects, all my toys had a different back-story and fully rounded personalities! I'm sure this means we are caring people, not wet dishcloths. Probably.
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