One of my fondest childhood memories is the three of us brothers snuggling up to our mother on the living room couch and being read the Pooh stories. For all of her faults, my mother was more than able to breathe life into the characters of those tales like Mel Blanc did for the Loony Toons. The tales of Pooh, Owl, Piglet, Kanga, Roo and (perhaps my favorite) Tigger were a delight rarely surpassed in adult life.
As a thrift shop junkie I can atterst to one simple fact that points to the enduring popularity of Milne’s stories. In my twenty-plus years of haunting the second hand shops I have found all of three of the original hardbound editions that date from my childhood. I take this as a sure indicator of how unwilling people are to let go of such treasured childhood icons. We’ll not go into what an abomination Disney managed to make of these works. Such material is better suited for the Pit.
Several years ago, I had a business partner with five (count them, five) children. My love of kids demanded that I should bring the Pooh stories to their house and read them to the children at bedtime. Only then did I realize the immense effort my mother made in narrating the stories to us. As skilled of an orator that I might be, as capable of an impressionist that I hope I am, it was more than a little challenging to recreate all of the voices for the characters involved. Remembering to separate Piglet’s squeaky, high pitched semi-nasal tone from the more thoughtful utterances of Owl was hard enough. To maintain the vapid vocalizations of Pooh (a bear of very little brain) whilst avoiding any confusion with the droning monologues of Eeyore was even more difficult.
Let’s share our own remembrances of Pooh and Milne’s works. Who was your favorite character? Which was your favorite story? What was your favorite plot device? So many wonderful memories await us in this walk down memory lane!