Bev's Bear

I am the second child in a family of six children. My oldest sibling is a sister. All four of those younger than me are sisters too. I know that my oldest sister thought me a pest for most of my younger years. The opinion of my younger sisters was not always that clear. I think it ran a fairly predictable range from hero to brat. Hero when I was away at college, brat when I was at home and not living up to expectations. As you might well expect, each of them were adorable, agreeable and cute.

What I was thinking about was a birthday. Specifically, it was the birthday of Beverly Jean who still inhabited her crib during sleeping hours. She was not an infant but rather on the higher end of the ascending age of crib inhabitants. That is to say, she was not pleased to be there but it had the unique quality of keeping her in a predictable place.

I do not recall the circumstances of this birthday other than to say I felt a great need to do something special for Beverly. I had been in Grosse Pointe for some reason or another. I think it might have had to do with a certain girl I was dating. Whatever the reason, it put me near an F.A.O. Swartz Store and a fantastic supply of birthday gift possibilities.

After an hour of diversions beyond normal limits I came upon a rather large stuffed Paddington Bear, complete with raingear and boots. Perfect! I bought the bear confident that I would achieve immortality in the eyes of my adoring sister. I knew her gratitude would be boundless for such a unique and special gift.

It was, in fact, the day of her birthday when I made the purchase so I could think of nothing better than to take directly to her. And that is exactly what I did, but the results were not quite what I expected.

When I arrived at home Bev was taking a nap. I asked if she was asleep yet and was told she was not. I asked permission to take her the bear, granted. I opened the bedroom door quietly to be sure she was still awake and saw her little head peeking over the top of the handrail. I opened the door fully with Padding just out of her sight and in back of me. I began by singing Happy Birthday and then produced the full sized Paddington Bear. She looked at the bear as if it were a monster of epic proportion and screamed at the top of her lungs. When I took the bear to her and attempted to put it in her crib. She went postal.

In all my experiences of giving gifts that represents the absolute zenith in rejection. I should have learned something from that experience but I probably haven’t.  I still tend to give people things that I like. Maybe not like a router bit to a girlfriend but still I think about what excites me and figure that’s going to hang the moon. So I thought I’d tell this tale before you spend all of your money shopping for Christmas, just in case you suffer from the same myopia I do. Sorry Bev!

©Herb Ratliff, November 20, 2012, All Rights Reserved