Once upon a time the three bears lived in a cozy cottage in New Jersey. Momma bear and poppa bear loved their little baby bear very much and they were all very happy. Had Goldilocks come to the cozy little cottage in New Jersey, she would have found everything just right. But then, one day, momma bear and poppa bear came back from a walk in the forest to find that no one had been eating baby bear’s porridge. No one had been sitting in baby bears chair or sleeping in baby bear’s bed, because baby bear had left the cozy cottage to go far away to Dartmouth Cottage in New Hampshire. Momma bear and poppa bear still loved baby bear very much but didn’t get to see her as often and had to send a lot of money that expensive cottage in New Hampshire, but they were glad that baby bear enjoyed it so much and was learning so much. They were also glad that this was the last year they would have to send so much money to New Hampshire, since baby bear was graduating in the spring with a degree in English. Although baby bear was hinting that to get her teacher certification and be really happy, she might want money for one more quarter next fall. Baby bear isn’t giving any hints about what she might do with that certification after she gets it but all the bears believe she’ll teach little bears in some forest.
Momma bear and poppa bear were getting used to living in an emptier cottage, since baby bear was always away at the Dartmouth cottage. She had even spent last summer there working at the Montshire Museum, teaching very young baby bears about science and the environment in a day camp.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times [oh, no, this is not the Tale of Two Forests]. But momma bear and poppa bear still had many adventures of their own at home and out in the forest. Some made momma bear and poppa bear very happy and others made them very sad. Poppa bear’s poppa (Milo Anderson) passed away in February after a long struggle with Parkinson’s. Poppa bear’s momma (Margie) was still living in a cozy cottage in a far away forest called St Helena, California. It had been a sad year for his momma as two of her sister bears also passed away during the year. Poppa bear flies out to his momma’s cottage to visit at least a couple of times each year to fix her TV and computer and do other son-bear stuff.
Poppa bear was quite busy this year, traveling across the great waters to Geneva twice, to Brugge, Belgium and also to Raleigh, NC on business. Poppa bear chairs a committee of the International Telecommunications Union that specifies some of the standards for carrying bear voices over the Internet and has to travel to four or five meetings a year. He also journeyed across the waters to Edinburgh, Scotland for a week on business for his job with Lucent. In June, Lucent decided that poppa bear had been such a good bear that they gave him a promotion (to Consulting Bear of Technical Staff) and a raise (very unusual this season) but then in the fall the big bad wolf appeared and he huffed and he puffed and he blew the Lucent cottage down [oops wrong story] – but then Lucent decided that they had too many bears in their cottage and so poppa bear will no longer be working for Lucent in the new year. The project that he worked on was terminated and all of the bears he worked with up to vice-president bear were sent out into the forest to look for new cottages to work in. Unfortunately, most of the other cottages doing similar work were also too full, so poppa bear is hibernating. Hopefully by spring some of the cottages will discover that they are not so full after all.
Momma bear continued to teach bears with learning disabilities at Governor Livingston High School. For the first time this year, she had a section of bears with cognitive impairment which she found more difficult but has learned to help them. Momma bear planned to leave the high school cottage at the end of this school year and enjoy having more time for pottery, writing and reading. Even now the cozy cottage seems to be filling up with little pillows made from all momma bear’s needle point patterns. Of course if poppa bear still has no new work cottage, momma bear may delay her retirement a bit.
Momma bear and poppa bear enjoyed a wonderful week in Maine during August, staying in nice guest cottages on Mt Desert Island (Acadia National Park) and on Booth Bay. They enjoyed the wonderful views, waves, sunsets and honey trees. Poppa bear also enjoyed riding his bicycle up Mt Cadillac and all around the island and kayaking in both Acadia and Booth Bay. Over the Independence Day holiday, poppa bear journeyed far away to the White Mountains of New Hampshire to hike for five days along the Appalachian Trail again including Mt Washington.
For Thanksgiving, momma bear and poppa bear journeyed even further to a guest cottage at Cannon Beach in the far, far away forest of Oregon. It was a reunion of the group of bears that many years ago used to spend each Thanksgiving on the beach, when momma bear and poppa bear lived in the Walla Walla forest. The weather was unusually warm and sunny and they enjoyed walking the beach with the dear bears from far away.
The cozy little cottage also got a new roof this summer. Now momma bear and poppa bear don’t have to worry about getting their fur wet when it rains. A whole crew of bears showed up and did the whole job in a day and a half. When they left the bears found that they had a couple of new skylights over their stairs. Momma bear likes walking through the sunlight without even going outside.
But now that the holidays have come to the cozy little cottage, the ground is white with snow and all the bears: Momma Bear, Poppa Bear and Baby Bear are all together and again everything is just right.
The Anderson Bears –
Poppa Bear: Terry (tlatla@verizon.net – note this is new)
Momma Bear: Jan (jstjan@verizon.net)
Baby Bear: Katherine (katherine.m.anderson@dartmouth.edu)