Every stuffed animal has a story

My buddy Ape

As a kid I had stuffed animals as toys. My brother and I had cabinets in the den filled with nothing but stuff animals. We used to open the hide-a-bed, lift the part near the head, hide down behind it (inside the couch), and hold the animals up over the top to perform plays with them. Some of the animals got to sleep in the bed with me. They were an endless source of fun for our imaginations.

As an adult I have a handful of stuffed animals left. And if you keep stuffed animals as an adult... well each one has a story. This is the story of my favorite. His name is Ape.

When I was a kid somewhere between 12 and 14 years old I think, too old to still get stuffed animals as Christmas presents and too old to still put on plays with the stuffed animals I still had, my mom and I went shopping for the grandkids. Mom had her list. This was back when they were easy to buy gifts for... they were all young enough we would just hit the stuffed animal aisle and boom... we were done!

So we are looking through the toys when we locate this amazingly cool ape. We both got big eyes when we saw him. I imagine I raved about him quite a bit. We picked one of the boys on the list and checked him off. Well, it was a bit before we wrapped the presents. I kept picking the little ape up and playing with him, though at 13 or 14 years old that just meant sitting on the couch holding him and talking about how awesome a stuffed animal he was. One day I came home from school, and Mom had wrapped all the presents, packed them up in brown boxes, wrapped those boxes in old paper garbage bags (remember when people did that!), and shipped them off to their various destinations. I was kind of bummed that the ape was gone, but I knew the grandson would enjoy the toy.

We get to Christmas Eve... we are taking turns opening our presents. On one of my turns I open up a box and you guessed it... Ape was staring back at me! I'm not sure a Christmas present has ever surprised me more. I probably had the look of a woman opening a box with a big ass diamond in it or something. I laughed and hugged the stupid Ape... Mom had gone out and gotten the grandson something else and totally duped me.

I still own Ape... he looks at me out of the corner of his eyes. He's dirty... not sure how to wash him really. I imagine some of his discoloration is smoke stains while some is just age. He is plenty old enough to drink, that's for sure! He's the one toy I refuse to part with... he makes me think of Mom and how much she cared. :)