Berenstain Bears Moving Day

Since Elena is a veteran of so many moves, we have a library of moving books to help with the transition. There are the little critters moving, books of maps, books about the places we have been and then are going. By far, the most popular is The Berenstain Bears Moving Day.

The Berenstain Bears live up in a cave on Great Bear Mountain - and though there are many wonderful things, it's time to move. Everything goes in the truck, but the friends. When the Bears arrive at their new home, they have a new little tree house, that needs a bit of work, but momma and poppa bear have 'big plans' (sound familiar?). The truck is unloaded and the bears start to settle in. Then they are greeted by their neighbors, the local bird, squirrel, and bear families come rushing to meet them with gifts of honey and nuts and there are tons of cubs to play with.

Now it is usually here in the story that we explain to Elena that your moving van is not met by hoards to people bringing gifts, it is just a way of showing that with time you will make new friends. That is unless you happen to be moving to Kutztown. In the first week that we arrived Kurt (new colleague and chair of the search committee that hired us) brought over a 6 pack of homebrew and a loaf of fresh bread, Lara and Sierra (new geology faculty who lives down the street with her daughter) brought an apple pie, Richard (next door neighbor) loaded us his pick up truck for a dump run, Jon and Perma (across the street) brought a coffee cake, Donna and Jim (across the alley) a plate of cookies, and, my personal favorite because it was hot and he heard we were painting, Earl (across the ally) brought us a cold case of miller lite (and really cold beer in PA is no small feat, we have learned). What am I forgetting? Oh yes, the cubs...within three houses, there are two other kindergarteners, a 2nd and 5th grader who run around in the evenings together catching fire flies and playing hide and seek. Elena used all her courage and ran off with them - to be rewarded with arms around her shoulders and pats on her back from the bigger kids before the screaming games continued.

Who knew that page of the book could be true.