Toy nostalgia!

January 11, 2023

The other day, my eye rested on a much loved toy that I have had for quite some time. They say: paint or sketch what you are passionate about. Well, I have always been passionate about my plush animals! And this is one of them. Meet Piep! A real (by now: vintage) Steiff plush toy!

Piep (pronounce: Peep) is a hand-sized mini-toy to which quite a nostalgic story is attached. As a young child, I adored plush toys, but I was conditional in my love. They had to be jointed. Legs, arms and head should be able to be moved. Piep is the exception to that rule, she is solid. But she was the first one to ignite the fire of my plush passion. She was the first beautiful specimen I was gifted.

So what’s the nostalgic story?

Let me tell you… Once upon a time, when I was 4 years old, my parents visited a beach during their summer vacation on the island of Sylt, an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, and well known for the distinctive shape of its shoreline.

‘Ossi’ and ‘Moni’

They stayed at a B&B and met a young girl named Monika. She was in her late teens and one day, when she accompanied us to the beach, she met a boy named Oskar. It was love at first sight! My parents were pegged as their ‘match makers’ and both couples and their 4 kids remained friends all of their life. As children, we often visited the family in their home town. Today, the two men are deceased, but the ladies are still going strong. My mother, now almost 88, kept corresponding with Monika for years, and keeps doing so. She does not speak any foreign languages, but bring in the powers of Google Translate and they can have a more-or-less direct written conversation with each other in letters and cards. Recently we even connected on Zoom! My sister and Mom from Holland, me from Canada and them from Germany. An international ring of friends all united in one view. How awesome! Thanks be to the Gods of the Digital world!

It is such an endearing story. As a child, I have wonderful memories of the mutual visits. Piep was given to me by ‘Ossi and Moni’ and I absolutely cherished it. We were not rich people, and the really beautiful plush animals were always out of my reach. So Piep was an incredible gift. She has by now lost her left hand, due to all my cuddling, but otherwise she is still in good shape. Her hair is a bit thinner, just like with people getting on in age, but she has done well otherwise and has traveled with me through 3 continents and 5 years. She makes me nostalgic, if only because I was always secretly in love with ‘Ossi’, the tall handsome guy from Germany… And he, of course, loved me too 🙂

Another member of the Steiff family

The plush toys by Steiff remain collectables to this day. I have only treated myself once to alleviate Piep’s loneliness for her family. She now has a ‘living together arrangement’ with a mini bear with the cutest white chest. I cannot remember where I picked him up. I am much more careful with Mr Mini Bear than I ever was with Piep when I was still a child. Piep was with me through the hardest times in my life and, well, her missing her right hand is kind of like a batch of honour in the toy world!