Smarter than the average bear
On one of these occasions we were having regular visits from our four legged friends; Bears do tend to scare off the campers a little. Danny is a man of big presence reaching well over six feet tall; he fearlessly volunteered to keep everyone safe from any encounter with bears, which apparently satisfied in particular the women and children. At the camp fire Friday evening everyone was on high alert watching over their shoulders and in the woods for any sign of the stealthy predators, the evening passed without incident. By Saturday afternoon Danny was prancing around like a proud peacock patting himself on the back for having done a spectacular job of keeping the camp safe. When I passed through the campsite the majority of people were under a canopy having a few sociables’, playing Bull Ray, a card game which managed to render some good pots as a player was forced to stay in, this seemed to keep all the players attention. Adjacent to the card game was Vic I saw he was working on a fishing rod & reel, inquiring he told me that there were sure .to be bears in camp tonight, he was rigging a garbage bag on the fishing line and placing it in the woods, he would then be able to reel it in from his lawn chair after dark, while everyone was around the camp fire, hopefully causing some adrenalin to run. I informed Vic the bear rug hanging in the house may be the necessary prop to go along with the prank, he agreed. We decided he would get everyone’s attention with the bag then I would come through the woods with the rug draped over my back crouching on the ground and come close to the campers. Later that evening when Vic started pulling on the bag he instantly had everyone’s attention, people were staring into the dark woods trying to get a glimpse of the bear. As I approached closer Vic would say look there can you see it, Danny was saying where, where I can’t see it. When Danny finally saw what he thought was a bear, there were some frenzied moments of yelling, screaming and people heading for their trailers also some talk of getting a gun which prompted me to come out of the woods, revealing the source of the bear. As it turned out Danny the fearless protector had a very difficult time explaining how it came to be that he was the first one into the trailer ahead of the women and children. I understand he was gripped by fear and fear does change your capacity to function in a normal or rational way, when we looked in the trailer the sweat was running down his face and all we could do was laugh almost uncontrollably. The gag was a good one. Danny was a good sport; he regained his composure and joined his friends back at the fire. There were no further Bear sightings that weekend. |
