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....
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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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