Aug

The famous story book bear character "Winnie the Pooh" has a real life connection back to the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

The British author A.A. Milne , who created and wrote the world famous Winnie the Pooh character , named the bear character after a favorite stuffed toy bear owned by the author's young son - Christopher Milne. The interesting question is how, where and why did young Christopher Milne name his favorite toy bear "Pooh".

It seems that Christopher Milne named the toy after a favorite actual real life alive bear that lived and was on display at the London Zoo, in London England. Then as now a major enjoyable jaunt by families on weekend trips was to the Zoo - in this case the London Zoo. Young Christopher Milne was so enamored and enthralled with the zoo bear named the oldest baseball card that he named his favorite toy after the bear. Thus when his father - the author, wrote his books of poetry and novels and named the central character, this was directly after the bear at the London Zoo - the bear named "Winnie".

The name "Winnie the Pooh" has a direct connection to the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. A black bear cub "Winnipeg ", proper, or the shortened nickname "Winnie" , was the mascot of the "Fort Garry Horse" , a Winnipeg based infantry unit.

Along the way of the transport of the Fort Garry Horse unit across Canada by train the train attended a "whistle stop" at White River Ontario. Among the members of this unit was a young veterinarian, who had enlisted in the army, named Harry Colebourn. Harry had a real appreciation and a real manner with animals - be they domesticated, farm stock or wild animals.

While at the White River Train station, the young Lieutenant Colebourn took the time to notice a hunter carrying a black bear cub. It seemed that the hunter had shot the mother bear. The young cub was a sort of pet and was too young to care for itself or fend for itself in the wild. Harry Colebourn took interest and pity on the poor black bear cub realizing that the hunter would soon lose interest or would be unable to care for the bear to a point that it could be released back into the wild. After a period of haggling the hunter reluctantly sold the young, innocent yet playful bear cub to Mr. Colebourn for the then princely sum of $ 20. After purchasing the bear, and becoming familiar with it during the train journey to the Canadian province of Quebec - name the bear after his and the regiment's home town of Winnipeg. At some point this was shortened to the bear's nickname of "Winnie". Thus the young bear cub was named "Winnipeg" and nicknamed for short "Winnie" "

Winnie the bear cub went along for the train ride, as well as the boat ride and traveled with this Canadian infantry group all the way to England. The bear cub "Winnie" became the famed mascot of the Winnipeg based "Fort Garry Horse Regiment" While stationed in England , at Salisbury Plain , Winnipeg the bear of "Winnie " for short stayed in Lieutenant Colebourne's tent , sleeping under his cot , and becoming a favorite of the Canadian soldiers.

This bear cub "Winnie" stayed with the regiment and continued to be a source of pleasure and enjoyment to the group and indeed became rather famous and well known. However when the regiment itself unfortunately was to be shipped off to the battlefields of France Harry placed Winnie in the safeguard and safekeeping of the London Zoo, in London England. Four years later, Harry Colebourn, now promoted to Captain returned to London to take Winnie home. However seeing what a beloved fixture and hit she was to the British schoolchildren Colebourn decided to let the bear stay put and officially donated Winnie to the London Zoo making the zoo the rightful owner and guardian.

When one realizes the world wide impact that resulted from the story book character of Winnie the Pooh to children throughout the world and in many different languages in culture one can envision the admiration and love that young Christopher Milne had for the black bear cub "Winnipeg" or "Winnie" the Pooh for short.

Morris E. Brown
Winnipeg Zoo Hotels
Winnipeg Hotels Polo Park

Many of us who write will turn our noses up at the thought of writing exercises. We feel either that we're already a creative writer, so why would we need to do any exercises to learn how to be one. Or we associate exercises with bad memories of our school years, and being forced to do things we know we're not good at, the pressure of sitting exams, and so on.

If you have either of these trains of thought, it's completely understandable why you're not jumping around with eager excitement at the thought of trying some new writing exercises.

But the fact is, you're missing out. You're depriving yourself of the chance to enrich and expand your writing repertoire into new areas you may not even know exist.

Another concern that's often voiced is that by using the guidelines of someone else's exercise or prompt, the writing will not be your own. Why would you want to spend your precious creative time writing something that you don't feel you can claim as your own words at the end of it?

When you use a writing exercise, you're simply giving yourself a starting point.

It's like taking your car out on the road, pointing in a certain direction and saying: "I'm going to head for California (or Calgary, or Canberra or anywhere else specifically named) and I'm going to enjoy the Tales from the Crypt along the way."

As opposed to sitting in your car on your front drive thinking about all the wonderful places you COULD drive to, but not even starting the engine.

Creative writing exercises give you the starting point and the direction. Beyond that, the writing is all yours.

Where you go, and how you get there is entirely up to you. The exciting thing is, you don't know where you'll end up, and you don't know how you'll get there.

After all, isn't that what writing is all about? Unfurling the adventures within you, that you didn't even know you had within you?

Right now the possibilities of what you could write about are so limitless they're overwhelming. But give yourself a little scenario or outline and notice how your creativity roars into life.

Imagine writing a letter to a male relative who left under emotional circumstances and you haven't seen for 5 years. Why did they leave? What do you feel about seeing them again?

Just this few lines of premise will trigger your creative mind into thinking about the possibilities. It's what it does best, you can't switch it off!

There's a girl in a red dress stood at the side of the road, clutching a doll with one arm and an tattered envelope. Why's she there? Where are her parents? What's in the envelope?

Notice again how your creative mind fills in the gaps and your curiosity kicks into action? Again, you're engine started!

Now get out on the road and have a wonderful creative writing adventure!

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From Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin