Congrats on
being FTF, Huntzman (tdbayliss) !!!!!
You all know the great "American" icon that is
"Winnie The Pooh"... but do you REALLY know where he's from? Enjoy
this bit of Canadian/British history AND then
a nice walk on our own version of "100 Aker Woods" trail, situated
between Cascades and Sugarland Run neighbourhoods. Please do NOT
hunt this cache at night. |
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During the first World
War troops from Winnipeg (Manitoba,Canada) were being transported
to eastern Canada, on their way overseas to Europe where they
should join the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade. When the train
stopped at White River, Ontario, a lieutenant called Harry
Colebourn bought a small female black bear cub for $20 from a
hunter who had killed its mother. He named her 'Winnipeg', after
his hometown of Winnipeg, or "Winnie" for short.
Winnie became the mascot of the Brigade and went to Britain with
the unit. When the Brigade was posted to the battlefields of
France, Lt. Colebourn took Winnie to the London Zoo for a long
loan. Formally Colebourn presented the London Zoo with Winnie in
December 1919 where it became a popular attraction and lived until
1934.
The bear was also very popular by Christopher Robin, son of author
A.A. Milne. It was his favorite at the zoo, and he often spent time
inside the cage with it. The bear was Christopher Robin's
inspiration for calling his own teddy bear Winnie.... Winnie the
Pooh (this teddy bear started out with the name of Edward Bear).
The name of Pooh originally belonged to a swan, as can be seen in a
poem from Milne's When We Were Very Young.
A.A. Milne started to write a series of books about Winnie the
Pooh, his son Christopher Robin, and their friends at
100-Aker-Wood. These other characters, such as Eeyore, Piglet,
Tigger, Kanga and Roo were also based on stuffed animals belonging
to Christopher Robin. Other characters as Rabbit and Owl were based
on animals that lived, just like the swan Pooh, in the surrounding
area of Milne's country home Cotchford Farm in Ashdown Forest,
Sussex, on which 100-Aker-wood was based.
'Winnie-the-Pooh' was published by Methuen on October 14th, 1926,
the verses 'Now We are Six' in 1927, and 'The House at Pooh Corner'
in 1928. All these books were illustrated in a beautiful way by
E.H. Shepard, which made the books even more magical. The
Pooh-books became firm favourites with old and young alike and have
been translated into almost every known language. A conservative
figure for the total sales of the four Methuen editions (including
When We Were Very Young) up to the end of 1996 would be over 20
million copies. These figures do not include sales of the four
books published by Dutton in Canada and the States, nor the
foreign-language editions printed in more than 25 languages the
world over!
The Pooh-books had also been favourites of Walt Disney's daughters
and it inspired Disney to bring Pooh to film in 1966. In 1977 'the
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh', the first feature-length
animated film of Pooh was released. In 1993, the Walt Disney
Company acknowledged that Pooh Bear is second only to Mickey Mouse
in their portfolio of the most-loved and trusted characters known
to millions of people all the world over. By 1996, after the second
release of 'the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh', the Bear of
Very Little Brain had proved to be more popular than any other
Disney character. In 1997, thirty years after the release of 'the
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh', Disney released 'Pooh's Grand
Adventure', picking up where Disney's 22nd Masterpiece left
off.
REPLACE AS FOUND
PLEASE when/if you find it!!!
