Charlie Bear Family Visits the Alps
Tuesday, May 14, 1963
One day in early spring, papa Charlie Bear was out in the yard planting petunias when little Charlie and Annie came running out of the house. Little Charlie said, “Papa, we just saw some pictures on television about the mountains in Germany. Can we go to see them?”
“You mean the Alps?” asked papa Charlie Bear.
“Yes.” Answered Annie, “I think that’s what they are called. Can we go?”
“Well, let me see, now,” said papa Bear as he scratched behind his right ear. “I have seven more petunias to plant. That will take me about seven minutes. Then I have to clean up. That will take about ten minutes. If you two children can comb your hair and wash your faces and meet me on the front porch in twenty minutes – with your traveling caps on – we’ll go see what the Alps in Germany are like. What about your mother? Think she wants to go, too?”
“Oh yippee, yippee, yippee!” cried little Annie as she ran into the house to tell her mother about the wonderful trip and ask if she would like to go to the Alps, too.
“To the Alps!” exclaimed Mama Bear. “Good Heavens, isn’t it awfully cold there now?”
“Well, mama,” replied little Annie, “the pictures we saw on television showed men and women skiing without any sweaters on. That means it can’t be too cold.”
“We’ll take some warm clothes along anyhow,” decided mama Bear.
“You two children run along and get cleaned up. I’ll finish these dishes and we’ll all be ready to meet papa on the front porch by the time he finishes planting the petunias.”
In just twenty minutes little Charlie, Annie, papa Bear and mama Bear were standing on the front porch with their traveling caps on. They whirled around three times, turned a somersault and there they were in a beautiful little town high in the mountains of southern Germany.
“Oh, how beautiful,” said mama Bear. “I had no idea there were so many, many mountains. And they’re all rock and they’re so huge!!”
“Can we go over to where they are skiing?” asked Annie.
“All right. Perhaps if we just take one somersault, we’ll land up there on the slope,” answered papa Charlie.
With one somersault the Bear family landed right where the men and women were coming down the last slope of a ski run. And, it WAS warm enough without sweaters! The sun was shining so brightly that it reflected on the snow and made the air warm.
“Can we go skiing, too?” asked little Charlie.
“That might be fun,” answered papa Charlie Bear. “Let’s go see if we can rent some skis in that little shop over there. I’m sure we can find a gentle slope for us to have some fun on.”
They walked over to the ski shop and found just the right skies for little Charlie, for Annie, for mama Bear, and even some for papa Charlie Bear,
When they went to the ski slope, they found other people there too, who didn’t know very well how to ski. And there was a man telling them how to bend their knees, lean forward and do all the other things that skiers have to know before they can go downhill and expect to stay standing up on the skies.
The Bear family joined the group and had lots of fun skiing down the gentle slope.
Just when they were getting so they didn’t fall all the time, mama Bear said, “It’s getting late. I think we’d better go back home.”
“Not yet, mama,” said Annie. “This is fun.”
Papa Bear said, “Mama said it’s time to go, so let’s.”
They returned their skies to the shop, put on their traveling caps, whirled around three times, turned a somersault and there they were back home on their front porch just in time for supper.