More About Bear

Bear's Father didn't leave a will when he died. His 3 oldest sons wanted "their" share. Bear's Mother was forced to sell her home and all the rentals, so that debts could be paid and the rest divided. But before it could be settled, cash in the house, most of Doc's carpenter tools, and other things went missing. Bear's Mother blamed the older sons and didn't want Bear or his Sister to have any relationship with their half-brothers. His sister was already married, but Bear and his Mother had to find a small house to live in and get jobs. Bear had to quit school. Since Bear was underage, his Mother took his share of the inheritance to buy him this house. It was the old house that had originally sat where they built the house they lived in while they ran the coal yard and after. It was moved to this corner lot in 1947. The coal yard was between this house and the house they lived in, where this house use to be. There are only two houses on this block. Bear owns two lots and there are three lots with the other house. That house sits right next to our lots, and the huge old barn that housed the coal trucks (and his grandfathers horses before that) takes up the back of the other two lots over there.

Except for a few years before his Father died at the new ranch home, and a couple of years living with his Mother right after the death, Bear has spent his life on this street. It's a short street , only four blocks long. It's confined by the curve of the river on one end and a small woods on the other end. The woods itself is outside the city limits, and our street is just inside the city limits. Across the street, the river marks the city limits. The park between us and the river use to be the "circus grounds." Bear has memories of elephants being unloaded onto the bank in his front yard, and watching them set up the circus each year. The coal yard, the park across the street and the river were his playground. There were no gangs back then, but for years when I'd meet one of the neighborhood kids he grew up with, they laughingly called themselves, "the west end river rats."

Bear moved into this house when he married the first time. That marriage lasted about 10 years. She left him just about the same time FLF and I started talking to them on the CB. Then TK and I came to live with him........and I'm still here. Bear never had any children of his own. He was so excited when we came to live with him. He phoned his sister right away and told her he had a son. A 12 year old son. I can only imagine her confusion. But, I certainly remember Bear's confusion when the reality of having a young boy around the house began to set in. TK wasn't what Bear expected. TK wasn't the baseball, football, sports fan that Bear seemed to think all boys should be. TK would rather read a book. The kind of child who slid right into computers as soon as they came out. We all had a big adjustment ahead of us. Then TK's Father started his pity parade, and TK left us before everything had settled down.