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The time has run out for all truth seekers everywhere to come clean. Here’s the question. When you were a child, did you or did you not have a teddy bear? Or, in some cases, do you still have a teddy bear? If so, you’re about to learn about the dawn of your cuddly friend’s existence.

It all began way back in the year 1902. (Not sure if you got your teddy then or not, but cricky!, if so, you really are as old as dirt.) The setting was somewhere in the great American wilderness.

The story goes like this: President Theodore Roosevelt had embarked on a hunting trip with one goal in mind: to bag a black bear. But, try as he might, all his efforts failed. Realizing how dejected he was becoming, his companions came up with a scheme. After much struggle, they somehow corralled an old, injured bear and tied it to a willow tree. (Good luck with that!) “It’s all so simple, Teddy,” they explained. “Don’t you see? With this real bear as a real prop, real you could declare a real hunting victory!”

“Never! How unsporting!” our high-minded President decried. With such low-minded, cheating, flim-flam, pettifogger thoughts clouding his upstanding, principled, sterling morals he flatly refused. Then the honorable Theodore declared that the decrepit old bear would meet his demise only through euthanization. (Unfortunately the story fails to tell us how this was accomplished, but it must have been some kind of good trick!) But now with this odd show of mercy, the story twisted. Indeed, this was where our world suddenly swerved on its axis and made a sharp turn. You see, when word of the quirky episode hit the news stands, it spread as fast as ice cream on a pair of plump sunburned thighs.

Cartoonists from all the leading newspapers couldn’t resist the bizarre tale. Soon drawings of a very slender Roosevelt adamantly refusing to kill a bear flew off the press, while at the same time drawings of a chubby Roosevelt standing beside a smaller, wide-eyed, baby-faced bear flooded the news stands.

A Brooklyn candy store owner, Morris Michtom, took one look at the story and his imagination clicked into cute bear overload. He was convinced that if he could talk his wife, Rose, into sewing a wee stuffed version of a bear, it would sell like hot cakes. She agreed. With dollar signs dancing in her head and a needle in her hand, Rose went to work. Practicably overnight, she found it impossible to keep up with the demand. Thus, in 1903, the Michtoms opened a bear factory. They called their bears, “Teddy’s Bears.” (By late 1906, inexplicably, the name dropped the “s” and became simply “Teddy Bear.”)

Coincidentally, unknown to each other, the Steiff Company of Germany had created a bear of its own. In 1903, they sold 3,000 of their cute creatures to a New York department store.

Meanwhile, back at the White House Roosevelt was complaining. He considered the nickname “Teddy” for the American bear version to be an “outrageous impertinence.” Still, after some hefty prevailing (and perhaps a pleading note from Rose), he was nonetheless persuaded to give his first name to the bear … minus the “President” and the “Roosevelt.”

Timing couldn’t have been better for now the clever Teddy used the lovable namesake as a mascot for his re-election campaign—even displaying it in the White House. By 1906, one Manhattan store alone sold more than 60,000 Teddies. (Rose must have been out of her gourd!) This astonishing feat caused the rival Steiff Company to also smartly rename its creation “the American Teddy Bear.”

But make no mistake. There naturally had to be the less- than-thrilled doomsayers in the crowd. (Isn’t this always the case?) These particular malcontents feared that little girls throughout America would find the cuddly bears more desirable than the human-like baby dolls they had always adored. This, they feared, could then, in turn, replace the girls’ natural urges to nurture babies … and eventually lead to childless marriages!!! (Imagine the horror of the cute wooly mammals begetting falling birthrates! Spare me the histrionics!)

Thank goodness most level headed Americans disagreed. And thank goodness again that they had the good sense to credit the discerning little girls with an abundance of astuteness. Furthermore, Americans agreed that the Teddy Bear was only a fad and not harmful to either girls or, for that matter, boys.

It is interesting to note that all this was happening at the same time the nation was leaning toward a more tolerant and permissive view of childhood. Throughout the land there was a new willingness to allow children to remain children for a longer period of time. Additionally (and who could have predicted this?), the Teddies were helping to launch and feed a growing financial demand for children’s goods, a largely new market in the early 20th century when child labor was declining.

Down through the decades, the bears have been a source of much comfort during turbulent times—even well beyond childhood. Ironically during wartime, soldiers were found to have Teddies jammed into their knapsacks. It begs the question of where do you currently have yours?

You will be inspired to know that collectors of the little bears have remained fervent for more than a century. A Steiff bear made in the year 1906 sold for $12,746 in 2022. But, that’s not all. Previously a Guinness World Record was set in 2000 when a Steiff Louis Vuitton Teddy sold for $182,550! Seriously? Big bear bucks!

So, in closing, here is today’s suggestion. If you are one of the lucky ones (you hoarder you) who has cleaved unto your childhood Teddy, and if you happen to run into a man named Steiff—you should seriously consider parting with it now!

Ka-ching….ching….ching …………marg