Oh, Grumpy

Aaahhhh, the 80s. I was a child in the 80s, and I like to think that I know my fashions, sitcoms and toys of the decade quite well. (Popular music? Not so much. I basically only listened to Michael Jackson, Madonna and Debbie Gibson. Explains a lot). I had Pound Puppies, Cabbage Patch Kids, Garbage Pail Kids, Rainbow Brite and Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Ponies, a Glo Worm, Transformers...(this started to look like a long list, but no...) and Care Bears.

And, like children today, I watched the shows, read the books and really got to know the stories of my favorite dolls and stuffed animals. I had Funshine Bear, but I thought I took great care in familiarizing myself with all the Care Bears and their cousins.

Why am I writing about this? - Part I
This Halloween someone came dressed up as Good Luck Bear (with a very impressive costume, but I don't remember my Care Bears drinking beer and smoking cigarettes) and of course, some of us started discussing the other Care Bears. My friends were convinced there was a purple bear with a rain cloud, but I, in all my life, had never seen such a bear nor could I imagine that there would be a gloomy Care Bear.

Why am I writing about this? - Part II
I have a bookshelf at the library for some favorite, highly merchanized characters -- Arthur, Caillou, Dora & Diego, Thomas the Train, etc. One of my teen volunteers could not find the Care Bear section when she was shelving books the other day. I started to tell her that the Care Bears don't have their own section, but stopped mid-sentence before I could tell her where to shelve it.

For there in her hands, Dear Readers, was a book was called Snow Fun. And it features Grumpy Bear.

The ten original Care Bears are BedTime Bear, Birthday Bear, Cheer Bear, Friend Bear, Funshine Bear, Good Luck Bear, Grumpy Bear, Love-a-lot Bear, Tenderheart Bear, and Wish Bear. Grumpy Bear shows us "how silly we look when we frown to much" but he also validates the grumpy feeling that children can have, and the rest of the Bear's stories can be found here as well.