Teddy’s Bath
Mother insisted Teddy was dirty
and must endure the washing machine.
I watched him through the glass in front.
He battled the tumbling currents bravely,
but his stitches broke and he lost his head.
His cotton drained with the soapy water.
His button eyes were left behind.
They rattled round the tub as it spun.
I wept over the rag he’d become.
“At least he’s clean,” my mother said.
“And dead,” I said. “I’ll fix him,” she promised,
“while you take your bath.” “No!” I screamed.
“I don’t want to lose my head
and send my innards down the drain!”
Mother insisted Teddy was dirty
and must endure the washing machine.
I watched him through the glass in front.
He battled the tumbling currents bravely,
but his stitches broke and he lost his head.
His cotton drained with the soapy water.
His button eyes were left behind.
They rattled round the tub as it spun.
I wept over the rag he’d become.
“At least he’s clean,” my mother said.
“And dead,” I said. “I’ll fix him,” she promised,
“while you take your bath.” “No!” I screamed.
“I don’t want to lose my head
and send my innards down the drain!”
US president Theodore Roosevelt (commonly known as "Teddy") took a bear hunting trip in November 1902. His attendants cornered and clubbed an American black bear and tied it to a willow tree, but Teddy declined to shoot it, deeming it to be unsportsmanlike, although he had the bear killed to put it out of its misery. The incident became memorialized in "Drawing the Line in Mississippi," a political cartoon by Clifford Berryman in "The Washington Post" (16 November 1902). The initial cartoon depicted an adult bear, but subsequent variations made the bear smaller and cuter. Morris Michtom, a Jewish Russian immigrant who owned a candy store in New York and made stuffed animals at night, saw the drawing and was inspired to create a tiny plush bear cub, which he sent o the president. After receiving permission to use Roosevelt's name he put it in his shop window with a sign "Teddy's bear." The immediate and ongoing success of the teddy bear led Michtom to establish the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company, which became the nation's largest doll-making firm after World War II.
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