Grin & Bear It!

Things have been really been busy out here—to say the least. So, since I haven’t had time to write, I am posting a story I wrote a while back about my dog, Bear. As soon as things slow down I’ll catch y’all up on what’s going on out here.

Back in 1981, in Fort Worth, Texas, I was the proud owner of a very successful embroidery business. I was thirty years old, newly married and for the very first time in my life, I was my own boss. What I loved most about being my own boss was that I could bring Bear, my Great Pyrenees, to work with me everyday.

My mother, Katie Culbertson, who was retired, decided to volunteer her services to help me out at the shop and to also get her out of the house. Mom, Bear and I worked Monday through Friday and we had a lot of fun.

Bear was a true asset to the business, too and he even became somewhat of a celebrity. My customers would always bring their kids in to meet Bear and he was great with them and especially the ladies. In fact, he loved the ladies so much he would often goose them with his nose while we were discussing their embroidery job. Once Bear goosed the bank president’s wife of my bank and her husband called me later to thank me!

After a couple of years as my business grew and became more successful I did what most people my age did—I bought a used Cadillac. And, even though my mother had strongly recommended that I ask my husband, Jim, if I could—I didn’t.

I bought the prettiest, biggest, 1981 silver, Coupe de Ville with leather interior and I named it Silver! I named it Silver because it was silver, but more importantly, my new feng shui book that I had been reading had strongly suggested that I give it a name so it could bond with me and we could become one.

I ‘m not real sure how bonded Silver and I actually were, but I was in love with my luxurious Cadillac and so was Jim! In fact, several times he would often borrow it for business trips and we always used it when we went out.

In 1984, two days before celebrating Santa Claus’ birthday, Bear and I took my mother out for breakfast at a very popular restaurant. We left Bear inside Silver promising him we would return with a doggie bag soon.

After waiting in line and finally getting a table, Mom and I enjoyed our conversation as much as we did our breakfast.

When we returned to Silver, my mother screamed—nearly scaring me to death! With the hair on the back of my neck standing straight up I looked at Silver and unlocked the car.

Bear was sitting in the backseat with a seat belt strap in his mouth! The other strap was on the floor. I looked at Mom’s face. She looked horrified and had her hands covering her mouth. I looked back at Bear with the strap in his mouth and his expression read, “What?” Then I burst out laughing.

By the time we arrived at my parent’s home, Mom and I were laughing hysterically. Dad came out to greet us and when he saw what was left of the seat belt straps dangling from the ceiling and one in Bear’s mouth—he laughed, too.

“What are y’all going to do with those straps?” he asked. “They look terrible dangling there.”

I reached in and tugged on one and let go. It recoiled itself out of sight into the ceiling as did the other one. “Not a problem,” I laughed. “What seat belt? Do you see a seat belt?”

When Bear and I were back home, I called Jim at work.

“Hello, this is Jim,” he answered.

“Bear and I took Mom to breakfast this morning and you’re not going to believe what Bear did to Silver while we were eating!” I said.

There was no sound.

“Jim, are you there?” I asked.

Still no sound.

“Oh my God, he didn’t eat the leather seats? Did he?” Jim said, with a tone of sadness in his voice.

“No,” I answered, as I handed a half-eaten biscuit, from the doggie bag, to Bear.

“Oh God, not the dashboard?” he gasped.

“Nope.”

“Nancy, what in the world did Bear eat?”

“He just ate a leftover biscuit.” I said. “We got a doggie bag for him.”

“I give up,” Jim declared.

“It was just the seat belts from the ceiling,” I said.

“Oh, thank God,” Jim said with relief. “You really had me scared.”

“I’ve already fixed the problem, too,” I stated with pride. “They looked like bus straps waving in the wind and when I dropped Mom off, I tugged on them and they recoiled back up into the ceiling and Silver looks fine. Nobody will ever notice.”

Six months before the seat belt law came into effect, I took Silver to a Cadillac dealership and traded him in on a brand new burgundy Coupe de Ville without telling Jim, again.

When Jim came home that evening, Bear and I were sitting inside the Caddy waiting for him and he was nicely surprised and happy for me!

I named my second and my last Coupe de Ville—The Bear-mobile.

The Bear-mobile was a great Cadillac until three weeks after I had paid it off. It had a meltdown in the engine so we sold it to a friend of ours in Austin who was a mechanic.

Then I bought a used 1983 Volkswagen Beetle that didn’t have a reverse gear from John Henry Faulk’s son. Not having a reverse was not a problem for me at all because I have always hated going backwards. I named that little car, too and had custom license plates made for it that read, “Che-Che!”

I kept the Che-Che Bug for a couple of years and it never let me down or went backwards.