He’s Here, He’s There, He’s Everywhere

For those of you who have read my book Life Before Seatbelts, you may remember a story called The Bear That Wasn’t There. 

When I asked my sister to suggest events from our youth that I could write about, she immediately recalled the time a black bear rambled around the west end of Allentown scaring the daylights out of the residents of Hamilton Park and Union Terrace. Indeed, my dad found large, unexplained prints in our backyard prompting a police search of the fields nearby.

I, however, could not recall the incident at all. Of course, in order to remember it, I would have had to have been there or at least be interested in what was happening at the time. I was neither.

Still, I took her suggestion and proceeded to make a story out of her memory. A cursory internet search yielded nothing.  Had I had a subscription to online newspaper services when I wrote it, my tale might have been a bit different.

Although, judging from the article that I found recently recounting the event in 1956, even the policeman who took the report didn’t quite believe what he was hearing.  Apparently, the elusive bear had been seen everywhere. In fact, the beleaguered officer’s reply to yet another bear sighting went something like this.

“I’m beginning to think they’re coming from Mars.”

The peripatetic bear sounded a lot like that cartoon character of the 1960’s. Remember Klondike Kat’s nemesis, Savoir Faire?

He’s here, he’s there, he’s everywhere, he’s Savoir Faire.

Well, that was our bear.

Initial sightings had reported the bear in the vicinity of Quakertown. And in the days that followed, reports popped up, just like Savoir Faire.  A bear, appearing then disappearing. In fact, the bear had been roaming around and doing his disappearing act for weeks, causing some to wonder if there really was a bear. 

The erratic reports of a huge black bear near Bucks County, then Emmaus Avenue and then South Mountain reservoir, had police searching – well – here, there and everywhere. 

And then, just as our ursine friend was enjoying lunch and a rest at the reservoir – wild grapes, pears and apples – he was again spotted by police only to vanish once more. 

At that point, our bear made a fatal mistake. Because, now the sightings took on a more worrisome tone. He had moved into West Allentown and was seen at Raub Playground and the honeysuckle thickets behind Raub School.  

It was bad enough when he popped up beside the car of a family driving along Emaus Avenue. But now, to be seen rambling around a school playground, well that just would not do.

And sadly, it spelled the beginning of the end for the 260-pound wanderer. Around six pm, on an October evening, officers of the Allentown police department dispatched the bear ending the, was he or wasn’t he there, debate.

So, my sister was right, there really was a bear – there.