S is for…

Family photo. Well, technically, it’s a family of stuffies, not people. Like Linus’s blanket, our stuffies are more than just inanimate animals. It’s a regular zoo… Where else will a rabbit, a panda bear, a monkey and penguin be BFFs? I’ve written it before and I’ll write it again; should anything happen to our house, after making sure everyone is safe I’ll be saving these four stuffies (and the external hard drive). 

Timmy was given to me and traveled with me no matter how old I was. He would travel on the plane (I think) to visit my grandparents between the ages of five and nine. He would travel with me to friends’ houses for sleepovers. He traveled with me when I went to the state championship tournament with my high school wrestling team. He survived reconstructive surgery when one of our dogs made him a chew toy. He spent as many years in university as I did. Even graduate school. He traveled to Nova Scotia with me to meet my now DW. Sometimes, we’d trade until we’d meet again.

Scruffy had a slightly different beginning. DW saw a panda bear stuffy in a store (Woolco, at the time) but wasn’t allowed to get it. After returning home without the panda she really wanted, she left on her own to go get him. She was three years old. Needless to say, she didn’t make it. But once it was discovered why she left and where she was going, they went back to buy it and she’s had her Scruffy Bear since.

Now, they are content to sit and snuggle one another along with Crash and Bang’s other stuffies in the hammock in Crash’s bedroom. Timmy Bunny and Scruffy Bear are now roughly 35 years old. They are very well traveled having been nearly everywhere we have. In their old age, they don’t leave the house any more. I think they’re okay with that. They have grown old gracefully. Even if their fur is shabby. Even if we did love them so hard their whiskers fell off and they lost their shape. Magic has made them real and when you’re real shabbiness doesn’t matter.

The youngest two, a monkey named Monkey and a penguin named Penguin, are well on their way to becoming “Real”. Monkey was given to Crash when he was an infant. Penguin was Crash’s present to Bang “for being born”. Like Timmy and Scruffy did, Monkey and Penguin travel everywhere with Crash and Bang whenever a sleepover will be involved.

The Fab Four are more than “just stuffies”. They’ve become Velveteen Rabbits, Linus’s blanket, Dumbo’s feather, their security, peace of mind, and piece of home. There’s more sentiment packed into these guys than would fit on a fleet of Emma Mærsks. They are irreplaceable pieces of our childhood. They are Real.

A family portrait 36 years in the making

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