Wherever we look at the teddy bear, our first thoughts are those of childhood. The pink, brown, yellow and many more colored teddies that not just removed the emptiness of our rooms but acted as our best buddies whenever momma failed to stop us from crying. As a kid we have often cherished the wish of either touching a bear or having it as our pet. We do that because of its fluffy body and cute looks. But the teddies that our parents get us are enough to compensate all that. Teddy bears are stuffed toy bears are used to amuse small kids and they come in a variety of colors and shapes.



The existence of these stuffed toys are not that old. Their birth into this world was just in the year 1902 but there are several stories connected to its birth. Some connect the teddy to Hotel Colorado in Gleewood Springs, Colorado. When Theodor Roosevelt was back from an unsuccessful hunting trip, the maids of the hotel gifted him with a soft furry toy along with scraps of fine material to cheer him up. Later on when he actually managed to hunt a bear, his daughter Alice named it ?Teddy? and thereafter the name gained its popularity.

The other side of the coin narrates a different story. But this is the most famous one and often referred to by the people. Once when Roosevelt was on his hunting trip, he came across an injured bear caught by his tracker, the famous Afro- American hunter Holt Collier. Roosevelt refused to kill it saying that it would be an unsportsmanlike attitude. This happened in Sharkey County, Mississippi in the year 1902. It just took a night's interval to come out in the newspapers and since Roosevelt's nickname was Teddy, the article came out with the heading ''Teddy's Bear''. The political cartoonist with their journalistic license caricatured the entire scene but changed the bear into a cute little bear.

There are several more stories to go and the best part is that, by the year 1906, teddies were in craze in the United States. Moreover Roosevelt used the teddy as his mascot in his next election. Teddies were too much in vogue. There were writers writing on this topic, singers composing songs with teddies as the title and the teddy bear industry was at the pinnacle of its sale. The teddies enjoyed a lot of attention for twenty long years i.e from the 1920's to 1940's and many more years after the Second World War.

Recently it has been seen that the teddy bears depict most of the cartoon characters. All the kids are much obsessed with the numerous cartoons that are shown on television. They either want Winnie the Pooh as their friend or wish to become a spider man or a superman or at least have them as their alley. The teddy bear industry takes full care of these demands of the children giving them what they want and getting a handsome amount in return.

May be teddies are not that popular as it used to be once upon a time but the popularity is not too low to be ignored. Even today when a child cries, the first thing that we give them is a teddy.