Fond
memories of Mr. Fred Bear:
When my father lived in Grayling, MI and I went to visit him
in the summers; I worked at a cafe Fred Bear would come to have coffee almost
daily with my father. His coffee cost 25 cents and he always left me a dollar
tip and always kind words. Since then most of his stuff was moved to
Gainesville, FL, the museum and the Bow and arrow plant. I also worked at a
bottling factory which made camo wax for hunters to use on their face and hands
that was for Fred Bear Archery (that is the plant in Gainesville, FL). When I
told the vice president of the company (Val jeans in Indian Harbor Beach, FL)
about serving him coffee as a teenager, he told the guys he was making the
product for. He came to visit the plant and brought him a wall pluck of one of
Fred Bears Bows and Arrows with a special title plate Thanking Val jeans for
making his product.
I have the visited the museum many times in
Michigan and after it moved to Florida and remember the man with kind words in
light conversation with my father and a big tip when his coffee cup would be
sitting there empty and needed to be cleared away!
As I pondered over the post on face
book I came across this article, which is why I started writing this post,
because a part of my childhood memories of my father maybe lost and it was one
I didn’t want to forget to share with my grandsons as they get older. I have
posted part of the article and the link so that I can share with them when they
are older. I wish I could find the picture of my brother’s and I standing under
the arms of the big grizzly bear when we visited in Grayling Michigan….will
have to ask through the family to see if anyone has a copy of it.
So sad: Florida's Lost
Tourist Attractions
“Fred
Bear died in 1988. The Florida museum continued open until 2003, when Bear
Archery sold the museum's collection to the Bass Pro Shops chain of sporting
goods stores, which also took over operation of the Fred Bear Sports Club. Bass
announced that they would display parts of the collection at one or more of
their retail stores and planned to use parts in a traveling exhibition. The
Gainesville industrial plant continues to manufacture Fred Bear branded bow
hunting and archery equipment, but the museum is gone.” L!
Happy ending!
This week
has been an up and down rollercoaster for me at work. Expected to be Wonder
Woman is an understatement. But with lots of Faith and tons of Prayers, I made
it through it and Saturday was filled with Friendship, Family and FUN Creative
play in my HAPPY PLACE in the middle of my chaos Scrapping area. (No, I haven’t
got much in the way of the area ORGANIZED totally yet. But it is getting
there). Debi and I got lots of pages put together on her Project Life Album
that we are making together as a special gift for someone special. (It is a secret
so I can’t share right now, but will later in the year.) And yes, I am in my FAVORITE sleepwear and
Debi in her 70’s tie-die t-shirt that made me think of my brother, Mickey, all
DAY!!!! WHAT an AWESOME time was had!!!
After Debi
and Johnny left, I was picking up and going to get started on the ORGANIZING of
the area. BUT ended up very quickly looking through some photo’s I had just had
printed and very shortly after that, working on a couple of pages for my own PL
Album…. It is as I have heard said, “It is very addicting!” is an
understatement. Ended up finally going to bed around 2 am…. Here is what I did,
Although I have not been very creative in my photography on
taking pictures of my art to share with you, I am trying hard to at least get
it documented. That way I have time to edit if I so choose to add to one of my
albums.
I like to compare our weather each week with my BFF’s weather
in North Dakota. These screen shots were taken at 1 pm in the high of the day
Monday. See what 2000 miles different it can be….Stay warm my girly, Linda,
cause baby its cold outside your door!
Have a good Week 7 everyone! Enjoy, create, and be HAPPY!
