Papa Bear Says...

So the school the kids go to had their bookfair fundraiser today to raise some money for the school. Ginger volunteered for the morning shift manning the book sale. The big event was in the evening though. They had decided to hold have the book sale run into the night so that people could stop by after work and they even had entertainment. The Berenstain Bear's Papa Bear there. Only there was a catch, they didn't have enough people volunteer to be Papa Bear, so Ginger called me this morning and asked if I could come by and give it shot for a while.

So let's get some stuff out of the way initially. We all know what papa bear looks like (at least those of us with kids probably do). So the costume isn't exactly accurate (not even close really). And the hat is broken, and the hat covers up the face (although kids can see the face fine since they're looking up from below). But it was "sold" to the kids as being Papa Bear, and they all seemed to buy it. Anyway, I came out twice for 10 to 15 minutes each time. The suit is really hot (which is why I needed the break in between). And to top it off, your field of vision is almost nill. You can see a little bit right in front of you, but that's it. So moving around is pretty tough (which is why one of the volunteers from the book fair walks around with you). Even so, I still managed to whack one little girl in the head with my nose as I turned around too fast.



The first time out the kids insisted on taking me for a walk. Luckily we own probably about half of the Berenstain Bears books, so on our walk when the kids would talk to me about brother and sister going to grandma's for a week, or brother getting in trouble at school or the bears not watching TV for a week, I knew what they were talking about and could respond appropriately (and just to prove I know what I'm talking about, for the no TV week book, Papa Bears continuously tries to sneak in some television time, I knew I liked Papa Bear).

Before I came out the second time, my 'handler' suggested that we try and get the kids to play a game. She was suggesting a bunch of games that actually involved physical activity. So I suggested Papa Bear says (a variation on Simon says). There were probably only a few kids old enough to really understand that you had to listen and *not* do something I said unless I said "Papa Bear says". Most of the other kids were out the first time I didn't start with "Papa Bear says". In fact, the very first time I got them all out. Then the older kids caught on. After that I started running out of thing for them to do (there's only so many times you can have them raise their arms or hop or turn around) they switched games on me to "Duck Duck Goose". The kids insisted I be the first person 'it'. So I sort of cheated and picked Catherine as the "Goose" knowing that while she knows what to do, she doesn't actually try and catch the person running and just runs after them. In the end, I think all the kids there had some fun, so I'm glad I was able to help.