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If you've ever rode behind a truck, you might have noticed one or two of them accompanied by a soft, fluffy, and probably, dirty friend.
And if you're like me, you've probably wondered about these formerly-cuddly toys, where they came from, and why are they being hung on trucks?
Today we'll be discussing the unusual Southeast Asian phenomenon of soft plushies being hung on trucks.
In case you might not know what I'm taking about, maybe this image will help you.
Spark a memory?
Well, there are many speculations on why people hang these little friends on their trucks.
One of those theories is that the "tradition" came from American country singer Red Sovine's 1976 song "Teddy Bear."
The song's main character is a young paraplegic boy whose semi-trailer truck-driving father was killed in a road accident, leaving him and his mother with just the father's CB radio to keep them company.
The young boy, who uses the moniker "Teddy Bear" then uses the radio to contact truck drivers in hopes that someone can keep him company. Teddy Bear recounts his one wish to ride with his parents in his father's semitractor trailer truck that summer but now that his father had passed, his dream was never going to come to fruition.
Touched by the young boy's tragic story, the narrator of the song visits the boy only to find that numerous other truck drivers have been listening to Teddy Bear's story and are taking turns to give the boy rides in their trucks.
The touching tale may have inspired truckers who've listened to the song to keep a "teddy bear" of their own in honor of the fictional young boy.
It's pretty tragic.
But here in Southeast Asia, we may have another reason for hanging these plush toys.
And it has more to do with superstitions and fear.
That's right, it's for ghost-related reasons.
If you search on Google for this, you probably won't find anything. That's because the spooky tale is passed through word of mouth rather than writing.
In various Southeast Asian countries, it's believed that road accidents are often caused by bored ghosts who are up to no good.
Many truck drivers attempt to prevent these accidents by hanging toys like teddy bears below the car boot as it will prevent the ghosts from playing with your car. Instead, the ghosts, particularly those who passed away at a younger age, will be distracted by the hanging toys and will not cause any accidents.
Some members of an old Reddit Thread also theorized that it may be in honor of any road accidents that have taken lives.
Though there's no way to verify how true this is, you can't deny that it may sound plausible to those among us who may be a little more sensitive to the supernatural.
Have you heard of these spooky tales before?
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Cover image sourced from Wikimedia Commons and Car Throttle.
