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JeannieB Oct 21, 2007

The teddy BEAR kind!  You guys always have a knack for cheering me up.......I'd love to read your funniest teddy bear stories.   

          JeannieB

puca bears Oct 22, 2007

Jeannie - can't think of any funny bear stories off-hand - but you need cheering up????
Will some huggies help? :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:  :hug:
Maria

JeannieB Oct 23, 2007

Maria......
   Thankyou for the huggies        There was a post some time ago about teddy bears being torn open when they went through customs or security.......one of the tt'rs called them "Teddy Bombs".  It really cracked me up     Hoping someone would remember??

                    Thanks again for the  :hug:  I can always use that!!

                                          JeannieB

Kelly Oct 23, 2007

You know when you have traveled to shows for so many years, you naturally have tons of "war" stories, but I can think of one in particular that is pretty funny.

Another artist and I had gone to the Tokyo show and when we returned we came through customs at SFO.  He went to the person on the right and I went to the one on the left.  I handed them my paper to declare all that I had brought back, and the guy rolled his eyes and said go ahead.  So I went on through and I waited and waited and my friend didn't show.  So I went back to see what was going on, and he was at the desk talking rapidly.  So I walked over there and when I got close I was told to "stand over there and don't come any closer" in a spot that the guy pointed at.  So another guy that worked at customs came up and asked me for ID and asked me a bunch of questions and finally told me to go ahead. 

Well I still had no idea what was going on, but I had been on that plane for 12 hours and I wanted to get out of there.  So I made a bee line for the exit to meet our friend who was picking us up.  I put my trunk and suitcase in her truck and chatted with her for a while as she moved the truck, it had been parked in front of the airport pick up too long so we went around and came back again.   I went back and called my husband and my friend still hadn't come.  So I finally decided to go back to see what was going on. 

Just as I got back to the customs area he had come around the corner.  He was none too happy either.  Apparently they had flagged us on the plane because they thought we were Irish terrorists.  We both have irish names and either his initials and my birthday were the same as this woman they were expecting to come into the country or vice versa.   They had run our names through Interpol and everything.  What I hadn't seen when the second guy told me to go and I made my hasty exit was that there were several people chasing me down to get me back but they saw me get into the truck and drive away so they figured it was too late!   In the mean time he had been trying to convince them that he was really a teddy bear artist, that it was REALLY a real job and that we were not terrorists!  :crackup:

Edit:  I have a good story about Clarion too, but I will post it later.  Gotta get busy workin!

JeannieB Oct 24, 2007

Kelly,
    Cute story!!  I can imagine you'll had a hard time convincing people you were in fact "teddy bear artists" and not terrorists!!  Who would make that one up?!?!?
    My luggage and I were searched by customs coming back from Germany because one of the dogs wanted the gummy bears from my suitcase :crackup:  :crackup:   It's funny now, because my only concern was that they would take my gummies.....my other suitcase had two cases of chocolate bars in it :redface:

   Hugs,
    Jeannie

puca bears Oct 24, 2007

AHA...Jeannie, you have confirmed my suspicions ...........it's sort of customary here in Germany to send some goodies with a bear - and Gummi bears are the favourite. Way back, I sent off a parcel to the States, and it arrived "damaged in transit" - now I always pack VERY carefully, and did a check through the contents with the purchaser - turned out all that was missing was the pack of.....Gummi bears!
My biggest fear when going through customs  is meeting the sniffer dog who had a deprived puppyhood and has always wanted a cuddly toy of his own..........visions of ending up in jail for fighting with the dog.
Worst so far was a couple of years back, going into england - the bears were all carefully packed in cartons (the house-moving type), and a sniffer dog was introduced into the back of our vehicle....he leaped, all four feet, straight into one of the boxes.....AARRRGGGHHHHH!  Fortunately the bears were O.K. - not so, my nerves!
huggies
Maria :hug:  :hug: