I Never Was That Dream: the Real Christopher Robin and Pooh

[Welcome to "Sorry About Your Crappy Childhood" week here at the internet ranch. First up: the sad story of Winnie-the-Pooh.]

What would it be like to see your childhood everywhere you look? A phantom world of wonder -- that was never yours. Winnie the Pooh's Christopher Robin lived with that everyday of his life.

"When I was three, my father was three," he wrote. "When I was six, he was six," adding "he needed me to escape from being 50." He said his father kept his only child at a distance: "His heart remained buttoned up all through his life." 1

"One day I will write verses about him and see how he likes it," Christopher was quoted as saying about his father. On his first birthday, Christopher received an Alpha Farnell teddy bear he called Edward. This bear, along with a real bear named "Winnie" that Milne saw at the London Zoo, eventually became the inspiration for the character of Winnie-the-Pooh. The teddy bear was about two feet tall, light in color, frequently losing his eyes, and a fairly constant companion to Milne. 2

By making him a household name in millions of homes throughout the world his dad had "filched from me my good name and had left me with nothing but the empty fame of being his son." 3

The real Hundred Acre wood was a Greek tragedy: a father lost in a blissful dream of chatty stuffed toys -- a grown son angry at his inheritance of dreams. Yet I wonder, had Christopher Robin and his father made the connection (and been a happy, normal family) would Pooh and friends ever have come to life? I doubt it. A. A. Milne was a really crappy dad. A man who dreamed on paper. But on paper A. A. was a endlessly curious child, a slightly slow bear with a heart as big as a fluffy black rain cloud. He was a cranky donkey in need of a hug and a hand full of donkey Prozac. He was a tiger "full of the spring" that nothing could stop. He was a little piglet who always felt stepped on and never sure of himself. He was us -- a sadly funny us.

I feel bad for the real Christopher Robin. There was a little bit of Piglet in him -- some Eeyore too. He had a hard life of unwanted attention -- of being pestered by fans who didn't know his side of the story. Yet I am exhilarated by the legacy of his paper self. Creativity is a odd alchemy -- turning loneliness and estrangement into love and joy. Maybe that's why Pooh and friends continue to live -- A. A. put all his love on paper.


The real toys that inspired the Pooh stories (estranged son not included.)

1 The New York Times, April 22, 1996
2 Wikipedia: Christopher Robin Milne
3 www.just-pooh.