Panda Bear Memories

As a young child in the early 1950s, I received a panda bear for Christmas.  It was a big black and white stuffed Panda bear just about as big as I was.  My brother also received a stuffed Panda bear.  His was brown and white.  We loved our Panda bears and played with them a lot.  Panda bears just have the sweetest faces

Pandas are native to central China and have been on the endangered list for many years now.  While they will eat rodents, fish, insects, birds and some vegetation, their most favorite food is bamboo. I have read that they can eat bamboo for up to 12 hours a day - that's about as much as 28 pounds of bamboo.

Pandas are also loners and do not like to be around other pandas except during mating season in the spring. Females are pregnant with their one or two cubs for about 95 to 160 days before birth and the cubs are blind and only weigh about three to five ounces. And, even though females aren't full grown until they are four or five and males aren't full grown until six or seven years old, the cubs are weaned and sent on their own when they are around two to three years old.
After reading facts about the life and habitat of Panda bears on the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute's website, I find the story of the Panda bear even more interesting and fascinating.

Christmas is coming up soon.  Bring a Panda bear into the lives of your children or grandchildren (nieces and nephews count, too).  Here are some Panda bears available at CAROLINABLUELADY Vintage Collectibles that are in need of a child's love and care.

Fortune the Ty Beanie Baby

Peking the Ty Beanie Buddy

Peter the Panda Swibco Puffkins

 
Also visit the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute website with your child to learn much more about the life of the Panda bear.

Swiss Chalet or Swiss Alpine – Dinnerware From The Past

Home Sweet Home, that’s what the Swiss Alpine or Swiss Chalet pattern reminds of.  It is one of those patterns that just make you feel at home - just says ‘family’ and makes you feel all comfy and warm inside.  The blue, olive green and turquoise blend so well together.  My mother’s favorite color combination was blue and green – maybe that is why she kept these dishes for all those years.  This dinnerware was made in the late 1950s or early 1960s and marketed through gas stations and grocery stores as premiums. 

Bread & Butter Plate

  

Besides the china dinnerware, there was the milk glass baking dishes and kitchenware and also, glass tumblers. And, I just discovered today that there is also kitchen tinware with this pattern called Decoware (Continental Can Co.?)

Set of 3 Tumblers

Some pieces are marked and some are not.  The dinnerware was made by the Stetson Pottery Co aka Stetson China Co (closed in 1966) for Marshall Burns, a distributor and division of Technicolor and marketed as Mar-crest.  You will find that some people advertise the milk glass baking ware as Pyrex, but most agree now that milk glass baking and kitchenware was made by Anchor Hocking Fire-King and these items are mostly called Swiss Alpine instead of Swiss Chalet.  Not only bakeware, but there are also mugs and bowls.  Then we have the glass tumblers.  I have no idea who made them as there is no mark and I could not find anything in books or the internet with any definitive answers.  If Anchor Hocking made the ovenware, would they have made the glassware, too?  I don't know.  But maybe.  I understand that Stetson also made glassware to match patterns of dinnerware that they produced, so maybe Stetson made the glassware.  Who knows?  I’ve seen standard tumbler size and old-fashioned size glasses in this pattern.  

Dinner Plate

My mother loved collecting dinnerware and grocery stores sure made it easy for her.  I have to admit that I love dinnerware, too and have several different patterns that I use depending on my mood.  I think the first set of dinnerware I bought was through a grocery store.  Imagine that!  For me dinnerware is fun and why settle on just one pattern?  I love mix-matching dinnerware - blending patterns with solid colors, using pastels for the spring and summer and bold colors for fall and winter.  With the Swiss Chalet / Alpine, you could use blue, turquoise or olive green solid colors or a mix of those colors.  I also find it interesting how the pattern varies a little depending on the piece.

Cup & Saucer

It would really be interesting to know the real story behind this pattern.  I found a blog that goes into so much more detail than I have and also sharing a lot of information on the many pieces associated with this pattern.  You might want to check her blog article out – really interesting:  CULVER CITY P.O.

I had written a blog back in 2010 but after reading hers, thought I’d better update my blog on the Swiss Chalet pattern.  However, there are still so many unanswered questions about the Swiss Chalet or Swiss Alpine pattern. 

I do have some Swiss Chalet or Swiss Alpine pieces for sale at: 

CAROLINABLUELADY Vintage Collectibles

Round Chop Platter

Beanies Buddies Puffkins Oh My

Bears, bears and more bears - who doesn't love teddy bears?  Most of us have all had at least one teddy bear as a child. For some children, their teddy bear is their constant companion - teddy bears listen to every word you say, they collect your tears when you are sad, they cuddle with you when you are tired and most of all, they will protect you against the boogie man when you go to bed........... 

The name 'Teddy Bear' is really not all that old - just about 114 years.  Oh, there were stuffed bears but not 'teddy bears.'  The name originated around 1902 and had to do with Theodore Roosevelt, Jr after he became our 26th president when William McKinley was assassinated.  The story goes that Theodore Roosevelt went on a hunting trip in Mississippi by invitation of the governor there.  Some in the party had already killed a bear and after catching another one, suggested to Roosevelt that he shoot it.  Roosevelt refused because he felt it was unsportsmanlike.  But because the bear had been beaten severely by the other hunters and dogs, Roosevelt ordered that the bear be put down to end his suffering.  Word got out - cartoons and stories were published in newspapers across the country. 

Upon seeing one of the cartoons, Morris Michtom from Brooklyn, NY, who owned a candy store, asked permission from Roosevelt to call a couple of toy bears that his wife had made 'Teddy's bears' and put them in his shop window. The rest is history............

There are some 'teddy' bears at CAROLINABLUELADY Vintage Collectibles that need good homes - Ty Beanie Babies, Ty Beanie Buddies and Swibco Puffkins.  Check out some of the bears in the video and enjoy an old song by Elvis Presley - "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear."