Let's not mince words: giving gifts is hard. Part mind-reading, part scavenger hunt, part potlatch. Even when you know exactly what to get, and have time to prepare.
Maybe I should just tell the story.
Last year, when I found out that I would be a grandfather, my very first thought was about a present. I hung up the phone and went directly onto the Steiff website.
Steiff is a German toy company, founded in 1880, offering all the soft cute animals you'd expect. But Steiff also has a tradition of hard mohair animals that, in an astounding mercy of time's grindstone, are still made in Germany. Needless to say, they cost a lot.
My connection to Steiff came about because of a scientific conference in Germany in 1962. My father, a nuclear physicist with NASA, went to present a paper. He saw these gorgeous Steiff animals in a shop. The dollar must have been very strong. He bought a turtle and an elephant, a lobster and a giraffe ... plus a lion, squirrel, various birds — so many toys he also bought a case to carry them back.
But that isn't the lovely part. The lovely part, according to family lore, is when he gets home from his overseas trip, he opens the case, displaying its contents, and tells my sister, then 4, to take what she wants, and her toddling brother can have the rest. My sister surveys the menagerie and bursts into tears.
"Didn't they have any dollies?" she wails. She wanted a Chatty Cathy, or whatever.
Maybe that story isn't much, as far as family traditions go. But it is what I have, and I clung to it. The day my oldest boy was born, when my wife beeped me to tell me to get home now and whisk her to the hospital, I was in FAO Schwarz on Michigan Avenue, examining a little Steiff dog that ended up in his crib. Both boys got Steiff teddy bears when young.
That brings us to 2025, and the new generation. Should be easy, right? Jump on the Steiff website, find a suitable bear, deploy the credit card, trying not to wince. I began browsing, and encountered a rude surprise:
"CAUTION! This product is not a toy and is intended for adult collectors only."
What? When did THAT happen? I appealed to Steiff, telling them I was "surprised to learn that [their mohair bears] are not considered toys, and should not be given to children. This is news to me, and not good news. ... Are the bears dangerous?"
Their lengthy answer boiled down to two concerns.
First: "Design & Safety — Certainly, wool-based mohair is still considered a safe material. But many of the mohair designs in our present assortment include elaborate accessories or features which were chosen to appeal to adult fans of the Steiff brand. These items sometimes include small, detachable parts (such as beads, crystals, glass eyes, cords, ribbons, etc.) which might not be considered safe for small children as they could be potential choking hazards."
Second: "Convenience & Aesthetics — Though a lush and beautiful material, mohair, like other wool products, is not typically machine washable. This is a major concern for today’s parents. Mohair shrinks, and can lose its luster, texture, and color after washing. In this sense, mohair does not meet our own, internally defined standards for aesthetic quality and practical convenience."
Giving me a choice: I could devolve to their washable, polyester bears that have the additional advantage of costing a sixth as much. Still Steiffs. Or stick with the mohair tradition, one of the few I've got.
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Beautuful...hope your dad is doing well.
ReplyDeleteToday’s post really struck a nerve and a most pleasurable one. From my earliest recollections, I was fascinated with animals and to support those feelings my wonderful parents would supply me with Steiff stuffed animals that so realistically depicted the appearances of the various species in great detail. Back then in the early 1960s my parents would procure these gems from the Marshall Field store downtown. My favorite was the meticulously patterned okapi. I had memorized the story of its discovery by Europeans and its important association with the Brookfield Zoo, reciting that story to patient relatives. At 71, I still have my passion for natural history and my collection of Steiff animals. Thanks so much Neal for focusing on this subject that brings to mind so many pleasant memories.
ReplyDeleteIn 1946 I was a year old and had serious pneumonia. A small white Teddy bear accompanied me to the hospital, I am told as I don't actually remember. It wasn't a Steiff bear, but I still have it. The comforts of a child last a long time. Not expensive, not "collectable", but forever mine.
ReplyDeleteI see people bring in ancient Steiff bears to be valued on Antiques Roadshow.
ReplyDeleteThey're worth small fortunes, especially the white ones, even though those often get darker with age!
Too often on AR folks present toys they were given to them as children but never allowed to play with. It likely teaches the kids many lessons, but it was a nice surprise when the appraiser praised that the toy had been played with, enjoyed, though it diminished the monetary value, the expressions of joyful memories were palpable. Gave me momentary hope for humanity.
DeleteDid you also get a Hubert The a Harris Lion for each of your boys?? I have one, glasses lost who knows when, that my mother treasured. Her two grandsons had to get special permission to play with it when they visited. It’s staring at me right now as it sits on top of the tall bedroom dresser. A true Chicago memory.
ReplyDeleteI worked for Harris Bank and had a Hubert stuffed lion (and the china piggy bank). I kept him long after I left the bank, but he's gone missing. My first tattoo was of a lion and people asked if it was Hubert .. it wasn't.
Deletel'dor va dor
ReplyDeleteGreat story. Still have my collection of Steiff. Most of which were purchased back in the 50s and 69s at a small toy store in Beverly called Webb's. My first one was a mid size spotted leopard. Spotty by name. Still have him. At 76 years old I will occasionally take them out and look and remember. Used to have Spotty on my bed pillow as I did as a kid only to have my grandaughter ask why, Granpa you are not a kid anymore she would say. I responded Yea I know I was just remembering good memories.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely little bear!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was little my mother would warn me against taking too much stock in TV toy commercials. It was her opinion commercials were for the junk they were trying to get rid of.
Instead she’d take me downtown to Bamberger’s toy department (we lived in northeast New Jersey) the day after Thanksgiving.
It was the custom in our house for all my dolls and stuffed animals to occupy one of the living room chairs during the Christmas holidays. My birthday falls on the day after Christmas and while I’ve received much sympathy for this over the years, my parents were most generous and I always loved getting presents two days in a row. The morning I turned five I came downstairs and found the living room festive and glowing the way I’d left it, Christmas presents open now and waiting for me to play with them and plenty of interesting candy still to be eaten. It took me a moment to notice that the chair full of old dolls and stuffed animals had a newcomer tucked in among them -- a Steiff tiger who was just as big as me.
I still have him and see him every day. He isn’t in bad shape for a sixty-five year old guy.
The heartbreak in your last line is going to be with me a while.
A beautifully crafted piece. Thanks for writing this gem.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many parents ignore the CAUTIONS made by manufacturer Steiff -- my baby wouldn't do something so stupid as to put that thing in his mouth. And then sue.
ReplyDeletetate
An admission right off the bat, folks: The Grizz has never heard of Steiff animals...until right here, right now. So this is yet another EGD learning experience for yours truly.
ReplyDeleteAn explanation is in order. When my sister and I were of stuffed animal age, my parents were, quite frankly, of modest means. We lived in a one-bedroom third-floor walkup in East Garfield Park, along with my grandmother. My father was a newly minted CPA, just out of night school. Never gave me a stuffed animal...or at least, none that I can recall.
My sister had a couple. They were for poor folks...covered with red and white checkered VINYL. One was a dog. This was around the same time as the “Checkers speech” --which was a televised address given by then-Senator Richard Nixon on September 23, 1952, as he was fighting to retain his spot on the national Republican ticket as the vice-presidential nominee.
The speech was given in response to allegations of financial impropriety and was seen by 60 million viewers across the country...the largest TV audience up to that time. He had accepted a number of gifts, including a black-and-white cocker spaniel named “Checkers,” from supporters during his vice-presidential campaign.
Critics argued that these gifts were improper and accused Nixon of using his public office for personal gain. He attacked his critics and said that no matter what happened to him, his family would keep the dog. That immediately gave him the sympathy vote.
My parents were pinkish lefties. My mother immediately named the checkered vinyl dog "Checkers." That must have cracked my parents up, big-time. Took me many more years to finally be old enough to make the connection. Checkers wasn't around for too much longer. Sis left him on the bus. My mother gave her another dog. That one had brown and white "hair." Or is it called fur?
NS, I love this story. When we were 2 in 1948, my twin brother had a hernia operation. While he was in the hospital, we were each given a Steiff dog. His was black with a yellow nose. Mine was brown. Its nose is worn down to leather and it is missing one eye. Your story now makes me wonder if I might have swallowed it. I'm betting your granddaughter will still have her treasured bear long after all of us are gone. So glad she got to meet her great-grandpa.
ReplyDeleteThough the visit won't be remembered by either great-grandfather or great-granddaughter, I hope it at least brought some smiles in the moment.
ReplyDeleteMy brother's teddybear was named Mohair.
Lovely story. I imagine the "circle of life" tales can be difficult to write, but you do an excellent job of telling them, Mr S.
ReplyDeleteI have one tiny Steiff bear that has stayed with me through the years.
That isn't the stuffed animal mentioned at family gatherings, though. We talk about my grandma who, though poor, went to great lengths to provide stuffed animals for her grandkids at Christmastime. Someone previously mentioned the Harris Lion. You got him if you opened a new bank account. So grandma did that, multiple times. She also gave one grandchild a Cuddly Duddly every Christmas. She had to be a new subscriber to the Chicago Tribune to get Cuddly Duddly, so she would subscribe, and then not renew in order to be in a position to get another Cuddly Duddly at the next holiday season. When we were kids, we loved her for getting us stuffed animals. When we got older, we loved her for the effort she made in getting us the stuffed animals.