Two flights and two shuttle buses later, I found myself waiting with my luggage in front of Grand Central Station for my friend, Mitch, who was meeting me so that together we could wreak havoc on New York for a few days. Mitch had just moved to the Big Apple and I was joining them for a short time to write and find myself. This was as close as I could get to Toni Morrison’s nine uninterrupted days, 5 days with much interruption.
A coffee shop detour for one of Mitch’s many work meetings shortly after provided me the opportunity to break from the weight of my luggage, this would also result in me wandering close by. After seeing that the custom fragrance store I had on my list was a 7 minute walk, I left Mitch to their meeting and politely, with permission, abandoned my belongings and made my way. After being rerouted to all four corners of the street, I came face to face with barricades in front of the New York Public Library. Feeling bold from the immediate curiosity, I asked a stranger what was going on to which they replied “The King and Queen are here”, in awe. “Oh right”, I thought. Mitch did just send me a post a day before with a comment on how funny it is that the day I arrive, so do Charles and Camilla. If you know me, I am very well versed in all things Princess Diana, an expert if you will. Truthfully I often feel that I know too much about too much, however Diana has proven to be a lifelong special interest. My daily jewelry included a smaller replica of her aquamarine ring and a limited edition replica of her cartier tank watch.
Part of me wanted to say “fuck it” and keep walking, I did not have much battery on my phone from traveling all day to get here and I was much more excited about custom fragrances from a catalog of over 3,000 options. Plus, again, Team Diana all the way—the amount of psychological warfare those two imposed on another human being much younger than them. I can say it was spite, the fact that I was one of the first people there so I was right in front and the women I immediately befriended kept me there for two hours. Bonded in our classic American anti-monarchical conversations and remarks, we noticed with time that security was getting thick. There were snipers on the roof, the number of officers were growing, there were helicopters and they started slowly shutting the street down. One of the girls beside me befriended the officer next to us who started giving us all the updates. The girls were quick with it, they found out what Camilla was wearing and that Charles was actually en route to Harlem, so it was just the Queen Consort that was showing up.
Upon my own research, I found out that today marked a century since Winnie The Pooh was published. Set in the fictional Hundred Acre Wood, with a collection of short stories following the adventures of an anthropomorphic teddy bear, Winnie The Pooh (originally Edward), and his friends Christopher Robin, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga, her joey Roo, and Tigger the toy tiger. The many adventures of the Winnie The Pooh gang would go on to shape many childhoods from the late 1920’s until even today, thanks to the timeless Disney animated show that brings the stories to life. As part of their four-day U.S. state visit to strengthen British-American ties, marking the first time a British monarch has visited the city since 2010, Camilla’s itinerary focuses on cultural engagement and charity work, including a visit to the NY Public Library to gift a “Roo” doll to the Winnie-the-Pooh collection as part of a literacy campaign with her charity, The Queen’s Reading Room. Now I had all of the reasons to stay. Baby freaking Roo. A funny coincidence as I was just lamenting to a friend last week on how sad it is that Kanga was alone in that display without her baby. As a mommy myself, I hated it. Almost as much as finding out how much the real Christopher Robin resented the stories that immortalized him and his childhood stuffies.
The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was based on the real-life stuffed toys of author A.A. Milne’s son, Christopher Robin Milne, and the Sussex countryside surrounding their home. The stories were inspired by games played in the nursery with Christopher and his mother, socialite Dorothy de Sélincourt, who would then recap the imaginary play to A.A Milne, and the nearby Ashdown Forest, which became the setting for the Hundred Acre Wood. This is also believed to be where the original Baby Roo was lost during play.
In his autobiography, The Enchanted Places, Christopher recounts that, “At home I still liked [Christopher Robin], indeed felt at times quite proud that I shared his name and was able to bask in some of his glory. At school, however, I began to dislike him and I found myself disliking him more and more the older I got. Was my father aware of this? I don’t know.” It seems he may have, as in 1929, A.A. Milne decided to stop writing children’s books, at least in part because he was “amazed and disgusted” by Christopher Robin’s fame, per BBC. Although he did not go into detail about the problems that the real Christopher Robin faced, the author said that his son had already experienced too much fame. “I feel that the legal Christopher Robin has already had more publicity than I want for him,” Milne wrote. “I do not want C.R. Milne to ever wish that his name were Charles Robert.” Another quote from the same BBC report reads, “The family didn’t exactly shield Christopher from the publicity. He was given the fan letters that children wrote to him and would laboriously pen responses with his nanny’s help. Many photographs were taken of him with his father, and also alone. When he was seven, he participated in audio recordings that were done of the books – exploitation, his cousin later said, that showed “the unacceptable face of Pooh-dom”. The next year, Christopher performed before 350 guests at a party, reciting parts of the books and singing the song The Friend. In 1929, he acted in a pageant based on the stories.” The success of the Pooh stories also undermined the reception of the non-juvenile work Milne wrote before and after, as Milne was a prolific poet and playwright, with Christopher writing in his autobiography, “We each had our sorrows.”
Christopher grew up to serve in World War II, to which after he faced a hard time finding a job and adjusting to adulthood. He was angry and disillusioned, he felt that his early fame had held him back. It all still haunted him and he was unsure of his place in the world. This would lead to real resentment, with Chrristopher writing that, “In pessimistic moments, when I was trudging London in search of an employer wanting to make use of such talents as I could offer, it seemed to me, almost, that my father had got to where he was by climbing upon my infant shoulders, that he had filched from me my good name and had left me with nothing but the empty fame of being his son.” Christopher, the only child of his parents, would become estranged from them, only seeing his mother once in the last 15 years of her life, per Time reports. Christopher married his cousin Lesley de Sélincourt (much to his parent’s disapproval), became a bookstore owner and he also found success as a writer himself, publishing three autobiographies. He is quoted saying that “each helped him come to terms with who he was.” In his father’s final years, Christopher rarely saw him, ‘My father’s heart remained buttoned-up,’ he said, ‘but I know he loved me and, of course, I loved him. And, yes, I loved Pooh, too.’ Christopher and Lesley’s daughter Clare, who passed away in 2012, was born with Cerebral Palsy. The money from Disney’s acquisition in order to produce the timeless cartoon we all know and love, helped them care for her needs and establish a non-profit for people with disabilities that is still active to this day, The Clare Milne Trust
At about the two hour mark, some of the women I befriended had started to leave. I noticed that the few of us remaining were either children of immigrants or women of color, all on their phones with their families, waiting. I lamented for a moment the current distance I have with my family, who I would have been on facetime with in the same manner–this is not something that could be experienced where my family is from and I’m sure that was the same tune for these girls as well.
My eyes snapped up as I heard the crowd and I looked towards the entrance door to the library to see some people standing on each side as if guarding the entrance, and then I saw the side of a woman’s white hair and the shaking of what seemed like white flowers. A few moments later, we saw a police escort of black SUVs leaving the other side of the library, and with that, the clearing of the barricades on the road blocked next to us. I made the correct assumption later confirmed by the officer that the Queen Consort had already left. A video later showed that the bundle of hair I had seen was Camilla, and she was waving a bouquet of false flowers. I said bye to the girls I will possibly never see again, and went back to Mitch who had finished up their meeting. It was now onto fragrance wonderland.
The next day we set out to get some work and writing done in the historic Rose Room located in the library. After about 30 minutes, I simply could not sit still. My mind remained on Baby Roo. After a restroom detour conveniently located near a set of elevators, I made my way into the Treasures room. In 1947 Elliott Macrae, president of E.P. Dutton & Co. Publishers visited A.A. Milne at his house in Sussex, where he saw the original toy animals that inspired Winnie-the-Pooh. The real Pooh and friends would then go on to tour the United States before being put on display in 1956 in the publisher’s New York Offices. After one more visit back home to England for the 50th anniversary of Winnie The Pooh, and another sale to John Dyson, the dolls were donated to the New York Public Library in 1987 where they have been on display for the public. In 1998, Gwyneth Dunwoody, a British Labour Member of Parliament (MP), famously led a campaign in 1998 to bring the original Winnie the Pooh stuffed toys back to England from the New York Public Library, stating that “Just like the Greeks want their Elgin Marbles back, so we want our Winnie the Pooh back”. This prompted then New York City Mayor, and disgraced human, Rudy Giuliani, to visit the toys and put his grubby hands on them, stating that “ Every year, they have delighted tens of thousands of children and adults from all over the world, who come to visit them at the Donnell Library. I wanted to visit them today and assure them that New York City will continue to be their home as long as they want to remain here. I told Winnie The Pooh that he should not be bothered by all the media accounts about the British parliamentarian who is demanding Pooh’s return to Britain.”
I made a bee-line straight towards the case already swarmed by people. I couldn’t help but cry once I stood in front of the beloved characters. As a child, I was nicknamed “Piglet” and my little sister’s favorite blanket you could not pry out her hands to wash was a Tigger blanket. It was wonderful seeing the original characters that made up so much of my childhood. I did not see however, the new Roo.
I went to the security guard and upon asking, I could see I was far from the first to do so, which led to an apology and some chatting. She told me that she had no idea when they would put the new Roo on display, or if they were going to. We quickly bonded over our love for Diana, with me recanting the stories I knew from Diana’s infamous tapes, and I soon found out she was the guard who opened the door for Camilla and got to see the new Roo in person. She also told me Camilla was supposed to walk down where I was and greet and take photos, however she had security concerns. After seeing how much Roo meant to me, she asked me, “would you like to see a picture?” She then airdropped me two photos she had taken of the new Roo. I could not find any photos anywhere at this time and I am FBI level when it comes to searching. There are moments in my life where I feel like a lucky girl, this was one of them. This is what journalists must feel when they get “exclusives”, however I just felt like a little girl again. The guard hilariously quipped, “it’s so ugly, it looks like a rat, New York City has enough rats.” Merrythought, the last remaining teddy bear manufacturer in England who made the original characters, were able to recreate the original Roo with old catalog archives. I thanked the guard about 25 times before I made my way back to Mitch and proceeded to write this very piece.
In The House at Pooh Corner, A.A Milne wrote that “in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.” This quote still brings me to tears. I don’t think he quite knew that more than 100 years later, the boy and his bear are still playing on the pages, and in the imaginations, of thousands of children worldwide. When asked about this quote, on if that little boy and his bear will always be playing, Christopher responded, ‘I expect so,’ he smiled. ‘I don’t mind.’
