Bears, sailors and stow-aways...

Scruffy has been visiting us while Brother T is on a business trip to California. You might say that Scruff has been on a business trip of his own. He's been conducting a little business of his own with mom. But more on that in a future post.

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Scruffy and I spent some time visiting with the Tricia Jean and Jeremy Sailor; another bear that lives at Lake Cedar Chest. During our visit I asked Tricia if she would share with you the story of why she wears a sailor dress. She graciously agreed. I had to apologize because I was unable to bring along her favorite treat of donut holes. She was a little disappointed but agreed to tell her story of why she wears a sailor dress. She said that she and Jeremy had been planning to sit and swap tales of the sea today anyway, as they frequently do.

Tricia Jean:
Well when I was a young bear, living in San Diego California, our people dad was serving in the US Navy. He was stationed on a submarine. He and mom had been married for a couple of months when he had to go out for a short cruise. He was to be gone for a week, so mom decided to fly up to San Francisco to her see her grandparents while dad was gone.

The night before they were to leave mom was packing her suitcase and dad his duffel bag. Being a young and curious bear, I wanted to go with dad to see what the navy was all about. I snuk into his duffel bag.
He found me, and put me in mom's suitcase. She found me and took me out. I snuk back in dad's duffel bag; he found me again and put me back into mom's suitcase. I kept going back and forth for sometime. It got really late, mom and dad went to bed.

The next morning there was a mad rush. Mom drove dad to the base dropped him off. She had just enough time to rush home, get her suitcase and a ride from the neighbor to the airport to catch her flight. She had just put her key in the door and heard the phone start to ring. She rushed inside and grabbed the phone and heard these words. "I have a stow-away!"

Yes, I'd gotten my wish to go to sea with dad. However, I didn't realize that wish would land me in the dark for an entire week. It all happened so fast it's still a blur. I roused from my sleep when Dad's bag went thud on the berthing room deck. The next thing I remembeared was a flash of light as the top of the bag opened then quickly shut, and opened again. I was snatched out of the bag and just as quickly as that happened, I landed with a plop in the darkness of dad's locker. I guess dad was making sure he wouldn't be embearassed before he tossed me in his locker.

Buttons:
His rack? What's a rack?

Jeremy:
Rack, that's sailor lingo for bed. Sometimes on submarines there are more sailors than racks. When this happens, some sailors do what is called hot racking or bunking, they share a rack with a sailor on an alternate duty rotation. Please go on Tricia and finish the tale.

Buttons:
Oh yes, do go on, I'm sorry for the interruption, but thanks for the clarification Jeremy.

Tricia Jean:
Well I was nearly finished anyway. Like I said, I spent the entire week in the locker. Dad had a top rack and had a locker up in there, that's where I landed. Because of the duty rotations on board each rack has it's own blackout privacy curtain. Except for the time or two, when dad slipped me out at night and just looked at me and shook his head in unbelief that I'd ended up in his bag. Heehee,
I was a sneaky young bear.

Mom told me later, the whole week she spent with her grandparents, she'd get the giggles just thinking about dad and me on board the sub. So one day years later when your mom was out shopping she saw this sailor dress. It reminded her of my adventure on the high seas or rather under the sea; looked to be my size so she bought it for me. That's the reason I wear a sailor dress.

Hey do you want to see dad's dolphin pin? I'll go get it. Be right back.

Tricia went off to find dad's dolphins. When she got back:

Tricia Jean:
Here are dad's dolphins. See the submarine in between the two dolphins. Dad wore these on his Navy uniform.

Scruffy:
Wow, those are cool. Tricia, you have certainly had an adventurous life. I wish there was a picture of dad's face when he found you in his duffel bag. I guess this was probably the most exciting thing you've done.

Buttons:
No, she also was bear-napped and held for ransom.

Tricia Jean:
That's right, but I'm not the only bear in this hug that has been bear-napped. But once again that is a story for another day.

Buttons:
Thanks for sharing your story with our readers.

Grr-bye for now,