European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 18, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Teddy Bear Binge in Pittsburgh Bomarc Idunn associated pressm it and Lilly Andrews annul they Are obsessed Mora than 3,000 Leddy bears arc lulled Mlo every Corner of their Home spilling Oil every chair slacked on every Shell the boars arc part of the family a Etc fed to by name and included in conversation if they were for Sale the beam might be Worth 3 Quarter of a million dollars says Milt Andrews. 49 Bui although the family needs a new car. Andrews is nol Selling 1 we con l own these bears they own us. He says we re their 1 it s like an obsession with us Bays his 38-Ycarotd Wile the Andrews have Heen accumulating Leddy bears for the past Lour years rescuing them from garbage cans snapping them up a Lea markets and buying them at shops it s a passion that grew out of their Pittsburgh doll repair Hospital and Loy shop although collecting Leddy bears is nothing new the first slut fed boar appeared on the Market in 1903 in s Only recently that it s turned Mlo such a potentially lucrative pastime numerous Leddy Bear clubs have sprung up around the country during the past Lew years. They hold conventions publish newsletters and Honor Theodore Roosevelt who supposedly Lent his name to the Loy. Among the More notable collectors Are actress Jane winners. Singer Ringo Starr and the late Elvis Presley. British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and the Queen Mother Elizabeth still have their first teddies everywhere in the Andrews House there Are bears new bears and old bears boy bears and girl bears big bears and Little bears. There Are Brown bears Black bears Panda bears Koata bears bears in logging shoes bears in dresses bears with Bow lies Yogi Bear Smokey me Bear padding on Bear. Care boars. There Are also music boxes cookie jars candles perfume Boll Les and soaps Mado Oul of bears blankets books calendars postcards and puzzles with pictures of bears bears holding balloons bears driving Loy cars bears drinking soda even bears teaching bears about a dozen of the family s ult Andrews and her husband have been collecting Teddy be is Tot tour years and Here 3,000 of them r favourites fill the living room Couch and Are carried upstairs each night and lucked Mlo cribs in Iho Andrews bedroom. Two of them Boris Bear and Baxter sleep in the couple s bed Boris Bear and Lilly Bear also one of the chosen accompany the coup to ust about everywhere and rate their own chairs at he dinner table such a lifestyle does have is disadvantages there s no room to Lay Down on the Couch says their 7-year-old daughter Julie despite her complaints Julie and her sister Wendy 13, Shower the Sears with easier baskets and Olhorn Holiday Gills there s a genuine magic with boars you hic to feel Mill Andrews . Clutching Boris beat. If told you. You would t believe me you d Label me a Kook but every Little child who s laying in bed with his Teddy Bear knows exactly what i m Many other Bear lovers Gay the Yob too ii May sound sort of Kinky hut unless you re a collector you can t App Feciale it says Chris Levi. Editor of the Teddy Bear and friends a bimonthly Magazine with a worldwide circulation of 65.000. Because of the growing demand Loy makers such As West Germany s Steiff Are turning Oul More teddies than Ever. It s been going up and up and up All the says Gerald Fisher vice president of he Eves International inc of now York which Dis Lobules Sleith products in the us cd Stales prices also Are on the Rise a 1905 Stielf Tarjani. Lor instance fetched a record $5,342 last ocl Obi i at a London auction. Such hotly figures Don i impress the Andrews they estimate then collection is Worth Aboul $20,000, although Thoy can t to sure Iney be never bothered to add it All up we Don i buy Lor incs Lenl. We Don i buy for resale Andrews says this collodion is ours we would i sell a single one we be spent $500 on a Bear and 25 cells on a Bear and love them equally Well " one of the Andrews most valuable teddies a Long lined jointed Brown Bear with shoot Autton eyes is believed to have been made around 1b90 another a Slih. Dales Back to 1909 there s Lols of ludic we needed the Money by we put the Lime and Money into bears mrs Andrews says. We need a car i Tell my husband we be got All this Lake and sell something he forbids it none of the Andrew Bear is insured although the family lakes Greal pains to pro Leet them. Bars cover Tho lower windows of their Small Bungalow style Home which also holds numerous dolls and Antiques. A Sitter watches Over the House when no one is there we be discussed lire mis Andrews says holding Lilly Bear in her Lap financially in would be a loss but emotionally in would be worse " the family s dream is to some Day open a museum in which the bears Are exhibited in a Homelike environment where they re out in the open and can i used to worry what s going to happen to this stuff when i m gone mrs Andrews says Bui i console myself i Here Are already so Many people who have passed on bul their bears have come to me to Lake care of. I feel thai somebody else will come along and cherish them like i have " Erma Bombeck w Ith the threat of nuclear War terrorism an epidemic of aids and the fall of our Economy what do you think Isth no. 1 concern among teen agers running out of shampoo i Tell you i be seen it clean hair takes precedence Over anything you can name. Take away to for a week. They Don t care. Hide their car keys. They Don t care. Knot their phone cords. They Don t care. But put a Cap on their shampoo and they la Torch your House. Beginning at age 12, whether in be male or female a metamorphosis takes place the kid who combed his hair by running his fingers through it now knows words like Creme rinse the kid who used to Wash his face by extending his Tongue to 15 inches and slapping in against his forehead and Chin is standing under the Shower for 15 minutes every Day washing his hair me Gitl whose if you used to have to Cut to comb and dripped grease How smells like Christmas tree Ridge 365 Days out of the year. I am not being dramatic when i say that the Forbes 400 riches men in the country have obviously never had to buy shampoo for a teen Ager i used to look at leads of Wel hair at the breakfast table every morning and think there Sils my flashy Sporl scar. Next to my cruise to the Caribbean and my new nose " shampoo should have been the Bond thai brought brother and sister lather and son together bul instead it was the catalyst that nearly lore the family apart each child had his own Brand of Sham pin the bathroom if so much As one drop was used by a sibling there were reprisals. Shampoo stealing is the horse stealing crime of the 20th Century. Ii was All right for them to carelessly leave a Billle of shampoo on its Side to run Down the Drain but Don t even think of borrowing a few drops Tor the second Wash. Our daughter could l Bear to think what would happen to her in she did t Walher up Wilh a formula of olefin Sulfonate coca a isopropyl betaine pure Almond and Coconut Oil a son opted Tor Hydro lived animal protein sodium Chloride and a heavy concentration of wednesday june 18, 1986 Vitamin e. The kid ate one vegetable a year bul his hair was healthy another son daily pursued a moisture balanced shampoo Hal penetrated the hair Shaft and came from France. He swore it gave him fal hair. We swore it lit his head i d like to say there is Hope for the parents who Are the sole support of shiny hair bul there does l seem to be an end in sight. In addition to the shampoo and Creme rinse there is now mousse gel conditioner protein additives and the lacquer to keep in All in place. At one Lime i bought a generic Brand of shampoo in a gallon Container and tried to ill up their shampoo bottles with it. They re squeaky clean but they re not stupid recently the family was clustered around the to set As we listened to a bulletin announcing our ships were armed and off the coast of Libya. We re Oul of patience said my husband solemnly we re out on a limb i said. We re out of shampoo said one of the kids. A 1080. Lot Angl tymm Syndicate the stars and stripes Page 17
