Monday, February 3, 2014

Time Marches On...

Den of the Beastly Bear

Hi Folks!

Saw this commercial last night during the Superbowl,

Definitely Beastly Bear worthy:


Made this ole Bear smile!!!

Also made me think back to when my nephew was 2 or 3 years old and my sister got called up for jury duty.

I was working third shift at the time, and my sister couldn't get a babysitter until noon. So she asked me if I couldn't come watch him for a few mornings, just till noon when another babysitter could take over.
I agreed and after I'd put princess bear on the bus, I'd head over there.

When I got there my sister gave me the rundown on his routine, what he liked to watch on TV, what toys he was allowed to play with(he had an older sister already in school), things like that.

That first day was torture!!!!
Not because he wasn't good, he was...but the crap that passed for children's TV was about enough to make me blow out the pilot light and stick my head in the oven!
Seriously, have any of you ever tried watching the "Teletubbies"?!? Dipsy? Laa-Laa? Po?

What inane drivel!!! 
At least Barney taught kids something!!!
Even "Bananas in Pajamas" was better...and that's saying something!
Now my nephew Ethan was a big time animal lover, sooooo I had a thought. At home I had a VHS tape of Jean-Jacques Annaud's 1988 film "The Bear".









The movie is about an orphaned cub that meets an adult male bear.

Looking for guidance the cub tries following the older bear, only to be driven off.

Until the older bear is injured by some unscrupulous fur hunters, and the cub helps him out.

My Nephew was enthralled, he referred to the cub as the "little bear" and the adult as the "big bear".

He'd say things like "Why'd the little bear do that Uncle Joe?"

"Do you think the little bear's scarred Uncle Joe?"

"The little bear and the big bear are friends now, huh Uncle Joe?"
Still from the movie "The Bear"

I said "Yeah, kind of like you and me, you'd be the little bear and I'd be the big bear."

Well that just tickled him to no end. And it stuck!

Ever since that day, I've been Uncle Big Bear and he's been my buddy "Little Bear"!

As the movie goes on the older bear teaches the cub what it means to be a bear. Outsmarts, and has a chance at revenge on the hunter that injured him, but shows mercy and let's him live. There are less than 25 spoken words in the whole 96 minutes!

I ended up having to leave the tape, as he wanted to watch it over and over, obsessed as only young children get. Oh, I got it back eventually....about four years later!!! I didn't mind, it brought him joy and that was good enough for me.
Yeah, he liked it THAT much!

He'll be 18 this March, my buddy Little Bear's growing up!
My sister took him to look at colleges last week for goodness sake!

He's damn near as tall as me, and still growing if his rate of food consumption is any indication! I've told him before long he'll be "Big Bear" and I'll just be an "Old Bear"!!! One day he'll be married and have a little bear of his own...

Such is the way of things,
Time marches on...

Be Well Folks!

Beastly Bear















6 comments:

  1. What a sweet story!!! I remember that movie, it was so cute. I call my fiance' 'Bear' all the time and without knowing that many people in our hometown refer to him as The Big Teddy. As for Teletubbies...I only saw it once, on a waiting room TV in a walk in medical clinic when I was extremely sick. Just like with that Paul McCartney song, I thought I was hallucinating due to fever.

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    1. That was certainly what I thought JoJo! "What kind of drugs are the people that made this on?!?"

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  2. Isn't it funny how kids get attached to movies?? For my daughter it was "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and for my son he loved Nicholas Cage in the "Ghost Rider" and now everything and anything Spiderman. I had to laugh about the Teletubbies because my daughter loved that show. LOL She thought Po was the Bomb Diggity. I liked Tinky Winky. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

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    1. That was absolutely the first and last time I ever saw the Teletubbies, gratefully! I Applaud your resilience for watching it with your daughter, I actually felt my mind melting...LOL! Original Ghost Rider was good, the second was awful!!! Gotta love Spidey! But there is only ONE Grinch, and that is the 1966 animated version narrated by Boris Karloff!!! ;-)

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  3. For my kids it was Ninja Turtles, He-Man and Punky Brewster. It's still the turtles for my grandson Seth. :) The more things change, the more they stay the same..

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    1. Katie was Barney! God I hated that big purple bastard after the first 500 times I heard "I love you, you love me...we're a happy family!!"
      Later it was Rugrats! While I myself became a Ren and Stimpy fan, way too much adult humor for the kids to catch!

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