Aloof in the Face of Peril

I had a talking teddy bear in the 1980s. Okay, I got him in the 1980s, probably kept him around for about ten years. No idea where he is now. Probably occupying space in the landfill in Melissa, Texas. The bear wasn't Teddy Ruxpin. It was a lesser knockoff. It's mouth didn't move. There was no cassette tape. I don't remember what brand or the official name of the bear or anything like that. It had a black pad on it's left paw and a button designated with the words “press me”. He was light brown, tan really. He wore a t shirt. In his back was the battery compartment that held a single 9 volt battery.

Nine volt batteries are a cruel invention by the way. It's funny how, with a little hesitation I'd test one with my tongue to see if it still held charge. Now that I’m an adult I would rather just buy a new one. Sometime after puberty I became a coward.

Anyway, you press the button, say something, and release the button. The bear would repeat what you had just said. There wasn't a real point to this, but it was something I guess.

Well one day I was in my room playing by myself and I took the bear with me under my bed to look for a toy. A ninja turtle or something, I don't know. Out of nowhere, unprompted, the bear spoke “It sure is dark under here.” I responded, “Yeah, it's dark.” I don't remember anything else about that day. Later on it donned on me, “What the Hell?” In the moment it was no big deal. Just two friends engaged in a natural conversation. It wasn't my sister playing games with me. The sound came from him. It came from under the bed. It wasn't in my head. This was absolutely real. I never had imaginary friends. This was a legitimate unexplained incident. A toy spoke to me under my bed.

Had it been a My Buddy doll I would have shit my pants. I was well aware of the Child's Play movies. But what happened at that time with that toy didn't bother me. It was innocent to me. There was no fear of the dark or of sinister synthetic anthropomorphic bears. Just a kid looking for his ninja turtle.

Innocence insulates one from concern  over what isn't normal. A young mind can't process multiple events. My goal was to find my toy. Another toy acted out, I still wanted my toy. I was focused. An inanimate object acting out of place was not troubling to me. I guess when we lose innocence and gain the ability to multitask along with the recognition of what is abnormal, we earn the wisdom to know to be afraid. And we may also lose focus. Kids are known to get distracted easily but I contend when they have a singular objective, they are more apt to stay on task. Or to listen to their toys.
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Some old picture. A lot can be said about proper photo composition. 1986

If I had to pick a single song to be the soundtrack to this post it would be...