Won’t You Be my Teddy Bear?
by Ruth Latta
When I was sixteen, I went with my mother and sister to the church portion of a classmate’s wedding. The bride, whom I will call “Ellie,” had been in the same grade as I throughout elementary school, and although we were not best friends, we liked each other. Everyone liked Ellie, the happy-go-lucky middle child in a family of seven. She and one of her sisters used to sing popular songs at the Friday afternoon concerts at our school, with other students, sometimes myself, making the group a trio. Our repertoire included Elvis’s “Won’t You Be My Teddy Bear?” and Hank Williams’s “Hey, Good Lookin.’”
High school, with three hundred students instead of fifty, offered us a greater academic challenge and more social opportunities. I seized the former, while Ellie got caught up in the latter. A year older than I, she dropped out at sixteen, got a job in a local store, and saw a lot of her boyfriend. I “sort-of “had a boyfriend; we sat together on the school bus and went together to local dances as part of a group.
On receiving the invitation to Ellie’s wedding, I was shocked that she was making such a life-changing decision at seventeen. She seemed to me to be turning her back on the wider world before her life had truly begun. I sensed that my future would take me away from the community where I’d grown up, and although the prospect scared me, it seemed better than staying forever where I was.
Rumour had it that Ellie was soon to be a mother, a situation that raised a lot of questions in my sixteen year old mind. Here I was, still a schoolgirl, when she was soon to be transformed into an adult. Mixed and uneasy feelings gripped me as I watched Ellie, in a white suit, going to the altar on her father’s arm. The ceremony was brief, with no frills, and when she and her bridegroom walked down the aisle they seemed dazed at what they had done.
We didn’t attend the buffet meal and dance that followed, but heard later that the occasion was marred by a physical altercation between the bridegroom and the father-of-the-bride. All in all, Ellie’s marriage didn’t seem made in heaven. Inauspicious beginnings, however, often turn out all right, maybe even better than “all right.”
Over the years, Ellie became known for her capability, genial personality and sense of humour as she ran a series of retail businesses in my home town. She and her husband raised their daughter in a tidy little house just out of town, and recently moved to be near her, as she pursues a professional career and raises her family.
The last time saw Ellie, two years ago, she was looking well, getting around with a walker and making jokes about old age. She looked as if, at any moment, she could start singing, “Hey, Good Lookin,’” or “Teddy Bear” and remember all the words. She and her husband have been married for over sixty years.
Won’t You Be my Teddy Bear?
When I was sixteen, I went with my mother and sister to the church portion of a classmate’s wedding. The bride, whom I will call “Ellie,” had been in the same grade as I throughout elementary school, and although we were not best friends, we liked each other. Everyone liked Ellie, the happy-go-lucky middle child in a family of seven. She and one of her sisters used to sing popular songs at the Friday afternoon concerts at our school, with other students, sometimes myself, making the group a trio. Our repertoire included Elvis’s “Won’t You Be My Teddy Bear?” and Hank Williams’s “Hey, Good Lookin.’”
High school, with three hundred students instead of fifty, offered us a greater academic challenge and more social opportunities. I seized the former, while Ellie got caught up in the latter. A year older than I, she dropped out at sixteen, got a job in a local store, and saw a lot of her boyfriend. I “sort-of “had a boyfriend; we sat together on the school bus and went together to local dances as part of a group.
On receiving the invitation to Ellie’s wedding, I was shocked that she was making such a life-changing decision at seventeen. She seemed to me to be turning her back on the wider world before her life had truly begun. I sensed that my future would take me away from the community where I’d grown up, and although the prospect scared me, it seemed better than staying forever where I was.
Rumour had it that Ellie was soon to be a mother, a situation that raised a lot of questions in my sixteen year old mind. Here I was, still a schoolgirl, when she was soon to be transformed into an adult. Mixed and uneasy feelings gripped me as I watched Ellie, in a white suit, going to the altar on her father’s arm. The ceremony was brief, with no frills, and when she and her bridegroom walked down the aisle they seemed dazed at what they had done.
We didn’t attend the buffet meal and dance that followed, but heard later that the occasion was marred by a physical altercation between the bridegroom and the father-of-the-bride. All in all, Ellie’s marriage didn’t seem made in heaven. Inauspicious beginnings, however, often turn out all right, maybe even better than “all right.”
Over the years, Ellie became known for her capability, genial personality and sense of humour as she ran a series of retail businesses in my home town. She and her husband raised their daughter in a tidy little house just out of town, and recently moved to be near her, as she pursues a professional career and raises her family.
The last time saw Ellie, two years ago, she was looking well, getting around with a walker and making jokes about old age. She looked as if, at any moment, she could start singing, “Hey, Good Lookin,’” or “Teddy Bear” and remember all the words. She and her husband have been married for over sixty years.
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