This TB dog tag has now been attached to a new hitchhiker. Miss GTQ has been missing in action for five years.
10/15/13
A journal entry of Teddyanna Jones:
I can't wait to visit FDR State Park for the 2013 Going Caching festivities. My earliest ancestor if forever linked with the Roosevelts. In fact in 1902 my great, great, great grandfather was made famous when he was named after President Theodore Roosevelt.
You know the story right? If not, let me explain.
The name Teddy Bear comes from former United States President Theodore Roosevelt, who was commonly known as "Teddy" (though he loathed being referred to as such). The name originated from an incident on a bear hunting trip in Mississippi in November 1902, to which Roosevelt was invited by Mississippi Governor Andrew H. Longino. There were several other hunters competing, and most of them had already killed an animal. A suite of Roosevelt's attendants, led by Holt Collier, cornered, clubbed, and tied an American Black Bear to a willow tree after a long exhausting chase with hounds. They called Roosevelt to the site and suggested that he should shoot it. He refused to shoot the bear himself, deeming this unsportsmanlike, but instructed that the bear be killed to put it out of its misery, and it became the topic of a political cartoon by Clifford Berryman in The Washington Post on November 16, 1902. While the initial cartoon of an adult black bear lassoed by a handler and a disgusted Roosevelt had symbolic overtones, later issues of that and other Berryman cartoons made the bear smaller and cuter.
Morris Michtom saw the drawing of Roosevelt and was inspired to create a new toy. He created a little stuffed bear cub and put it in his shop window with a sign that read "Teddy's bear," after sending a bear to Roosevelt and receiving permission to use his name. The toys were an immediate success and Michtom founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Co.
This was the begining of my family line. Now, we Teddy Bears are still cute and cuddly. But, we occupy so many differing lifestyles. I still have some traditional family members with pretty red bows around their necks and soft, fuffy fur with kind eyes that keep make their sole purpose to cuddle with the children at night and help keep away the monsters under the bed. Some of us are astronauts, some are bikers, cowboys, chefs, librarians and even accountants. However, I chose a rather adventurous life based upon my childhood heros, Indiana Jones and Alan Quartermain. What can I say, I love ropes, whips and adventure. I like to travel and sometimes I like a little rough housing. The search for antiquity always fuels my fire.
I can't wait to participate in all of the Going Caching activities this year. It is a delight for an adventurer such as myself. I also am excited to discover some of the family history of the Roosevelts, because without them myself or my family may not even exist.
GTQ and her friend, Edisto Patto are dropping me off at Going Caching in a few days. I wonder who I will meet there. I hope that some kind (and adventerous) soul will assist me in furthering my travels.
Teddyanna Jones will now be traveling with this travel bug dog tag.
He thinks that he'd love CITOing and attending events. He also said that he'd love to visit unusual geocaches and enjoy cool photo ops.
He loves surprising others. He thinks it would be fun if he simply "showed up" on the doorstep of unsuspecting geocachers.