JOHN THE BEAR WHISPERER

         This is post #151, and I sincerely hope I’m not repeating myself. Today, Friday, I finally got that Kidd Valley bacon-cheeseburger and deep-fried mushrooms I was Jonesing for a couple of weeks ago. I picked up the orders on my way to Claudia’s deck. Maryanne was with me and we both wore our masks like good girls. As we were leaving, having eaten our lunches and had a nice visit, I don’t remember what Claudia’s husband said, but it reminded me of the year John fed the bear.

          It was June 1970, and we had borrowed his mother’s boyfriend’s truck and camper for our vacation. I was pregnant with AJ. We drove all over the place in that thing even though it got like 3-5 miles per gallon…gas was really cheap back then. At one point, John decided we would go over White Pass. It had just opened for the summer. At the top, there were people standing by the side of the road looking down into the little valley below. I believe the white stuff in the photos is snow.

          John stopped and we got out to see what was interesting enough to make other people stop. There was a black bear down in the little ravine. It had to have just come out of hibernation. People were throwing cookies and other food over the edge and the bear was slowly eating its way up toward the side of the road. Everyone seemed to be throwing things that brought the bear just a bit closer to the top. It was interesting.

          Fang the Wonder Dog, didn't think much of the bear as you can see in the photo. The next thing I knew, John was in the camper covering two thick pieces of bread with a half jar of my homemade raspberry jam. I asked him what he was doing. 

          He said, “That poor bear is hungry. I’m going to give it some food.”           

I told him he was crazy. Fang had already decided this was nuts and retreated beneath the truck. So, Fang and I climbed back into the truck and watched from afar as John went across the highway. 

          By the time John got back to the side of the road, the bear had traversed the entire hill and was on the side of the road. John had a slice of bread covered with jam in each hand. He held his hands out, or at least that’s what it looked like from where Fang and I were located. I'm sure I had a photo of John's back and the bear, but it must be in AJ's baby book. At one point, this bear reared up and kind of waved its paws. It was taller than John.  I patted my burgeoning tummy and said, “Sorry honey, I think that’s it for your daddy.”

          I was wrong. John turned around and was totally unscathed. He began to walk back to the truck. The bear began to follow him. John turned back and firmly told that bear to “STAY.” The bear did.

          John got back into the truck. It was at about that point when another kid who had tossed the bear a couple of wieners, was chased back across the road. That teenager had to leap into the bed of his truck to avoid becoming a bear snack.

          I told John Fang and I thought he was an idiot. He proceeded to tell me,

          “If I had been afraid, the bear would have known that. I wasn’t afraid at all. It ate the bread and jam out of my hands and that was it.”

          When I worked at the zoo, I made arrangements for AJ to feed the bears, probably in 1998. He’d gotten married and spent his honeymoon in Glacier National Park and was terribly disappointed he hadn’t seen any grizzly bears. Personally, I was extremely thankful he was unable to follow in his father’s footsteps.

          When I made those arrangements, I didn’t tell AJ what was up, just told him to be at the zoo at 9:00 am. I walked him down to the grizzly bear exhibit and introduced him to the keeper, Carl. AJ was given a bottle of honey and told to go out into the exhibit and spread the honey around anywhere he wanted to. He did while I watched.

          Then, Carl brought out a bunch of fruit for us to feed the Denali and Keema And, yes, I got to feed them too…a first for me even though I had worked there for years. You cannot feed one and not the other. The grizzly bears stood up and put their paws on the steel mesh. The size of their nails was amazing. AJ and I, under Carl’s tutelage carefully fed the bears.

          Carl left and came back with a bowl of grapes. He told us we could feed the grapes to the bears one at a time. I was watching AJ. His eyes went immediately to Carl’s hands and I could almost hear him counting, 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, and thinking, okay, I can do this. And, we did.

          By the time we finished, I had bear spit up to my elbow, but all my fingers, and AJ’s were intact. I never took the opportunity to take John to the zoo and so he could feed Denali and Keema, but thinking back, I now wish I had.