Bear

He was John Norris with a single W (congratulations to cousin Morris with a double W new mayor of Red Deer AB) (last name! Flewelling). One fine day Grandpa decided to get married so he got up in his Sunday go to meetin’ duds and said “I do!” Later strolling down Lacomb’s board walk he said to Annie, “well my dear I have exactly fifty cents left so which will it be, a meal at the restaurant or a movie?”
“Oh Jack dear, I can’t decide which one we should choose!” she replied.
“I know, we’ll flip the coin, heads we go to the restaurant” he said.
“OK”
Up, up, up went the shinny fifty cent piece flashing in the sun.
Down, down, down went Grampa and Grangran. They spent the rest of their honeymoon in a futile attempt to retrieve the coin from under the walk.
Lacomb is (or was) situated in bush country, the great boreal forest, lots of animals. They lived not far from Gull lake which like all Alberta lakes at the second last turn of the century had considerably more water in it (and less algae) than now. It was too wet for Grampa so off he went to homestead in eastern Alberta. (Ironically he settled in the Palliser triangle that blew over into Saskatchewan in the dirty thirties) For a few dollars you had a homestead and if you lived on it for a certain amount of the year and plowed so much of it, it was yours to keep. Grampa lived there long enough for Dad it be one year old before he got a house built and called for them to come from Lacomb.
Shortly after they got there its off to Hardisty for Jack to fetch supplies, that being the last town on the railroad.
“Mom can’t we go outside, it’s hot.”
“No”
Three days later “Mom can’t we go outside, it’s hot.”
“No”
A Week later “Dad’s here!” Three little kids spill out of the house and run pell mell out to meet the wagon. (ok, two kids, the baby was still a bit young for running)
“Oh Jack I am soo glad that you finally got back, it has been so hot and the kids have been cooped up inside ever since you left!”
“But Annie dear why ever would you keep them inside, it is summer and . . .”
“The Bear!”
Consort is on the north end of the great plains which extend all the way down to Oklahoma or somewhere down there. When Grangran moved to the homestead she could see one tree from upstairs in the house. You must understand that from those windows at that time you could see for thirty miles north and east, now the shelter belt blocks off the view to the north. Last lonely outpost of the foothills of the Rockies, down hill from there to the Hudson Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
“Bear?”
“Yes, down east there”
So Grampa gets on the horse and goes to investigate.
“It was a lost black angus calf !”