Charlie Bear Visits The Fagot Family – Part Three
November 9, 1966
Continued from Last Week
After a few minutes Mr. Bob Fagot excused himself and got up from the table to continue his work around the house. Mrs. Fagot explained to Papa and Mama Bear, “Directing a team of engineers and technicians for Volt Technical, which provides contractor support for biomedical research at NASA’s Flight Research Center at Edward Air Force Base, doesn’t leave much time for Bob to do the thousands of jobs necessary to reconstruct an old home into a new one. In addition, his summer vacation is spent on training exercises as he is a Major in the Marine Reserve.
“This past summer,” Mrs. Fagot went on proudly, “He scored the lowest bombing average in an official competitive exercise (COMPEX) at Yuma, beating about 60 fellow Marine A-4 pilots from Los Alamitos for top bombing honors. Bob’s average miss distance from the bullseye of only 32.2 ft was accomplished under rules calling for a pop-up maneuver to a 30-degree dive from the desert floor on two separate passes over the target dropping one bomb on each pass. The Navy ‘E’ is given for achieving less than a 50-ft. bombing average. This was the second time he has received this ‘E’!”
Mrs. Fagot apologized for speaking so proudly of her husband. But she was proud of him.
Mama Bear did not really understand all that Mrs. Fagot said. She was more interested in the house. She looked at the walls separating the dining room from the living room.
“My,” she said, “these walls are as thick as the walls on the outside of our cave in the mountains. Are all the inside walls really this thick?”
“Yes, they are all 8 to 10 inches thick,” replied Mrs. Fagot. “Would you like to see the rest of the house?”
With that they got up and went into the living room. Mrs. Fagot started pointing out the wall-to-wall carpeting in the living room and bedrooms. She explained that the house was originally all on one floor with four small bedrooms and one bath. One of the bedrooms was changed into a bathroom. “A large family needs more than one bath,” Mrs. Fagot explained.
As they went on around the first floor, Mrs. Fagot showed where a large “cool” room and the old fireplace were converted into a furnace room to take care of the forced air gas heat and a closet.
“We have 1600 Sq. Ft. downstairs and will have 700 Sq. Ft. upstairs when it is finished,” explained Mrs. Fagot.
They went upstairs and found one bedroom for the four boys and framing already up for two more rooms.
While they were looking around, little Charlie and Robert came running up the stairs. They listened just a minute to the adults, then little Robert said, “And you know what? When we were clearing out the original house, we found some old papers — some back even as far as 1921 — and an old World War I bayonet, and bet you can’t guess what else.”
“What else?” asked little Charlie.
“A book cover that had ‘Alpine School’ printed on it with the date 1917,” announced little Robert.
“Common with me, little Charlie,” said Robert, “I’ll show you something really something.”
With that the two children ran down the stairs and out of the house to the nearby hill. There Robert showed little Charlie a vent pipe sticking up out of the ground.
“What’s that?” asked little Charlie.
“I don’t know,” replied Gregory.
“It’s the chimney from a room in the ground,” explained Robert. “The people that used to live here had what Mommy calls a ‘wine cellar.’ There was even a tunnel in the ground that connected the ‘wine cellar’ to the house — but it’s been all cemented up now.”
“Do you have any animals besides the donkeys?” asked little Charlie.
“Yes, we have a lot of them,” answered Robert. “There are two boys who are holding the sick hen.”
The two boys ran down the hill to where Gregory and Arthur were still holding the sick hen.
“Why don’t you put it down and come with us. We’re going to show little Charlie our animals,” said little Robert.
“Here, John,” called Robert as the half setter-half collie dog came over to the children.
“John!” exclaimed little Charlie. “That’s a funny name for a dog. But I think it’s a good name for your little baby.”
“Here in this shed are the hens. And over there are the ducks and geese,” Gregory pointed out to little Charlie.
“Where’s Raisins?” asked little Arthur.
“What is Raisins?” asked little Charlie.
“He’s our raven. He adopted us and stays here all the time,” explained Robert.
The two kittens, Daisy and Freddie, came scampering after them.
“Where are you going?” asked little Charlie.
“We’re going to have a picnic today,” stated little Charlie. “Suppose your mother will fix some sandwiches so you can eat with us?” asked little Charlie.
“I don’t know,” replied Gregory. “Let’s go ask her.”
All the children ran up to the house and burst into the kitchen just as Mrs. Fagot was making some sandwiches.
“Can we have a picnic lunch with the Charlie Bears?” asked the three Fagot boys together.
“That’s just what I’m getting ready now,” answered Mrs. Fagot. “Time to get your hands and face washed. Then we’ll all eat together outside.”
Some of the children went to wash their hands in the other [room]. By the time everyone was cleaned up, they all helped carry the lunches outdoors.
When every last sandwich was finished the children started to get up to go play, but Papa Bear said, “I think we better put on our traveling caps and go back to the forest. We have some getting ready for the winter to do in the mountains too.”
When Papa Charlie said it was time to go, little Annie and little Charlie knew that’s just what he meant.
When all the “Good Byes” had been said to the Fagots, and little Annie had asked Leslie to be sure to visit them again in the mountains, the Bear family put on their traveling caps, whirled around three times, turned two somersaults and there they were at their own home in the mountains, just in time for Mama Bear to make some blueberry jam for her hungry family.