This is a bit of an odd choice, since I never owned an AG Bear. I also didn’t own his competition, Teddy Ruxpin. Furry tape decks just weren’t my thing, man.

Instead, this is more of a flashback to very happy memories for me that involve an AG Bear. My grandmother received one of these bears, I believe as a Christmas present. It was the brown AG with the blue corduroy shirt, like the one in this photo, from the AG Bear Wikipedia page.

For those unfamiliar with this toy, AG Bear had a voice box inside that was programmed to respond to human voices with sing-song nonsensical vocalizations that were sort of mimics of what the person speaking to it had just said, only slightly distorted. So I guess they weren’t direct competition with Teddy Ruxpin, which actually “spoke,” its little servos making its mouth and eyes open and close in rhythm with whatever tape was playing in its player at that moment. Personally, I think AG Bears were cooler because they allowed for more imagination from the person interacting with it.

[Personal tangent: I love that AG Bears were manufactured by the company started by Nolan Bushnell, who started Chuck E. Cheese, a previous Flashback entry (and the second most popular Flashback, right behind the Crayola Caddy).]

I can still see my grandmother sitting in a chair with AG Bear on her lap, talking to it and listening to its “responses.” My grandmother was an extremely intelligent woman, but she had a strong streak of whimsy and the ability to allow herself the joy of letting that whimsy run free now and again. Plus, she had one of the most beautiful speaking voices imaginable. I wish I had a voice that pure, that wonderful to hear. I also wish I had things as eloquent to say as she did.

Sometimes I would see my grandmother sitting by the windows in my grandparents’ living room, staring out into the distance while holding AG Bear in her arms. Looking back with the hindsight of adulthood, I wonder what was going through her mind that she felt perhaps only AG Bear could understand. I know now that there was so much going on in her mind that none of us could know or understand. But as a child, I saw a woman I admired with all my heart but was too shy to tell, doing something to which I could absolutely relate…cuddling a beloved stuffed animal, sharing with it those thoughts and inklings that we thought only that toy could truly understand. I wish for only a moment I could know what that AG knew.

I’ve no idea what became of my grandmother’s AG Bear. I hope he’s somewhere safe, somewhere where he’s just as loved as he was when he was in my grandmother’s arms.