Betty Birney’s Blog

   Continuing our trip to the real Pooh Corner, my friend Min and I started out at the Pooh Corner Shop in Hartfield – the door is a little on the low side.  After dropping a few pounds and pence at the shop, we headed out for the Ashdown Forest. In the books, it’s referred to as The Hundred Acre Wood. But it’s actually locally known as the Five Hundred Acre Wood.

It wasn’t difficult to see that we’d come to the right spot.

It’s about a mile and a third walk through the forest to the Poohsticks Bridge. To be honest, the bridge has been redone but it’s the same spot where Pooh and his friends, played the game of Poohsticks.  Like many children’s games, it began as an accidental observation as Pooh threw a fir-cone over the bridge. (He later switched to sticks, which were easier to mark.)

That’s funny,” said Pooh. “I dropped it on the other side and it came out on this side! I wonder if it would do it again?” House at Pooh Corner

  One of the delights of the day was the fact that Min and I were the only people around – anywhere! It was just as it might have been when A.A. Milne took his son, Christopher Robin, for a walk. Min and I were anxious to play Poohsticks but the sign said you couldn’t take twigs off the trees and had to bring your own sticks. Luckily, some kind soul had  left a whole pile of sticks on the ground, all of a uniform size and shaved at the ends. (Or was that kind soul a mild-mannered bear?)

“Then he dropped two in at once, and leant over the bridge to see which of them would come out first; and one of them did ….” House at Pooh Corner

  Min ready to throw her first Poohstick.

I always thought it was such a silly little game. Each player throws a stick over the bridge on one side. Then players rush to the other side and watch as the sticks emerge from under the bridge and try to determine which stick wins. Well, it turns out not to be so silly at all. There’s a nice current there and we were as excited as any children as we hurried from one side to the next to watch the sticks float out from under the bridge. Only downside: Min always seemed to win! I think she’d been studying the currents.

“I expect my stick’s stuck,” said Roo. “Rabbit, my stick’s stuck. Is your stick stuck, Piglet?” House at Pooh Corner.

  There’s a big pile of stuck sticks. But our sticks always managed to float right past the clump of stuck sticks and on down the stream.

All good things must come to an end and Min and I headed back to the car park. We hadn’t noticed that the walk to the bridge was all downhill. We managed to huff and puff our way uphill back to the car, still giggling over our woodland adventure.

For more about the Ashdown Forest:

http://www.ashdownforest.org/   Click on Panorama of the Forest for a very good view of the area

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galleon%27s_Lap#Gills_Lap

 Pooh Corner friends … and me (pregnant)!

It’s still strange to me to think of how much of my life has been intertwined with Winnie the Pooh. While I always had an awareness of Pooh, I don’t recall reading the books when I was a child. By the time the Disney films (and the first ones were charming) came out, I was way too old for them.

Still, why was the first book I wrote at age seven called “Teddy Bear in the Woods?” And the sequel, “Teddy Bear and Tallulah?”I was inspired to write the books on my own, gave them to my parents and told them “I’m going to be a writer.” 

I didn’t think about Pooh or bears for many years … until I was working at the Disney Studios in advertising. There was something new going on at the studio back then:  a little thing called The Disney Channel. I had moved from Disneyland to L.A. with the thought that I might like writing for TV. And I knew the people involved with developing shows for the channel.  I had been mentored by a much older, experienced writer/director/producer named Frank Brandt, who was freelancing at Disney. He managed to get the job of producing the first children’s show on The Disney Channel: Welcome to Pooh Corner. Not only did I know Frank, I knew the executive developing the show because we were both in a yoga class together on the lot.  So when Frank ran my name by her as a potential writer for the series, she was open to it, even though I had no credit I wrote some sample scripts. They were fun … and they were well-received.  Voila, I ended up writing 90 episodes, was associate producer, and my TV career was launched. Thanks to Frank Brandt and Caroline Hay!

After that, I wrote over 200 episodes of children’s TV shows and won a bunch of awards, including an Emmy.  And I also wrote books about Winnie the Pooh for Western Publishing. Three different series!

When I was planning my trip to see friends in Caterham (Surrey) after World Book Day, I was pretty excited when Min suggested an outing to the original Pooh Corner. Pooh Corner? That’s where it all started for me! And so on a sunny March morning, we set out for Hartfield, Sussex and the beautiful Ashdown Forest.  TO BE CONTINUED ….

  It’s not just that I liked Heidi … it’s that I loved this Heidi, as you can tell by the wear and tear on the spine. It’s another Wonder Book, which preceded the Golden Books. Even today, I have a deep affection for the illustrations. I see the illustrator was Steffie Lerch, which I never knew until now. We had some distant relatives named Lerch.

A couple of months ago, the Shirley Temple film was on TCM and I was about to change the channel, thinking my husband wouldn’t be interested. But he wanted to watch – he said he’d never seen it before. I’ve seen it many times and would happily watch again. I especially like Jean Hersholt as Grandfather. But the Wonder Book version is nearest and dearest to my heart.

I also have a copy of the full novel that was my father’s. His favorite book was Hans Brinker, hands down. But he took the time to illustrate the inside cover of Heidi. He was always a good artist and I don’t think he was all that old when he drew this, if you judge by the printing. I certainly couldn’t do that well today!

When I got to see the snow-topped Alps on a 1 day visit to Zurich en route to Greece, I thought of Heidi and the pleasure her story has always given me.

They really look like they’re in love, don’t they?

If you’re a female of any age, the chances are excellent that you once owned a Raggedy Ann doll. I did and I loved to undress her so I could see her heart. What a lovely touch. I don’t have mine any more, but I have this Raggedy Andy book, well worn and well loved. According to the article in Wikipedia, this book first introduced Raggedy Andy, and since the date on the book is 1920, it might be a first edition. But it’s in bad shape with tears and repairs, a dirty cover and someone (me? my sister?) pencilled in page numbers. Children shouldn’t write in books, but we hated books with no numbers. It has the name of a friend of my aunt’s in pencil so I’m guessing she was the original owner of the book in 1920. She probably gave it to my grandmother to share with my sister and me. I remember reading it there.

The stories are pretty long according to today’s standards. The illustrations are really lovely. The one in Wikipedia is in this book. I’ve chosen this illustration because it has the Scottish doll and the Dutch doll who are also in the stories.

There’s a strange, sad twist to the story. Johnny Gruelle created Raggedy Ann for his daughter, Marcella. Raggedy Andy is dedicated “To Marcella’s mama.” However, Marcella died at age 13 after she received a smallpox vaccination at school without her parents’ permission. Whether or not that was the cause of death, the Gruelles went on to lead an anti-vaccination campaign (sound timely?) and Raggedy Ann was the symbol.

Did you have a Raggedy Ann doll? Did boys have Raggedy Andy dolls? Do your children or grandchildren have Raggedy Ann dolls? The ones today are much brighter than the one I had.

Multiple generations have loved the exploits of Curious George. I absolutely loved these books and checked them out from the library often. There’s a TV show now, of course, which I find kind of jarring. It always seems so loud and makes me glad that books don’t actually talk and make noisy.  Even today, the thought of silent and mischievous Curious George makes me smile.

 But I can’t mention jungle animals without mentioning my beloved Babar. I say “my” because I adored the Babar books so much.  I could read a Curious George book quickly and I’d “gotten” it. But with Babar, I spent long dreamy hours studying the pictures and the world they depicted. By today’s standards, they might not hold up as well, especially because of controversy over the books, saying they justify colonialism. Wikipedia’s article explains and has some excellent links.  Luckily, I didn’t know what colonialism was when I fell in love with Babar.