GlenCoakley.org - Introducing: Skiffer

Introducing: Skiffer

Text by Glen

Skiffer is a little bear that Jennifer's Aunt Janis found and adopted. Nobody seems to know where he came from originally. Janis can't even remember where she found him. There seems to be some kind of magic about him. Anyway, it is quite possible that he just followed her home one day and kept showing up at the house. "He just always seem to have been here.", she once said. Some say that he isn't real--he is just a stuffed animal. But, I asked him about that and he doesn't believe it at all. Perhaps that is part of his magic; he only appears alive to those he likes.

Skiffer loves to travel and learn about all of the different places in the world. He gets excited about going anywhere, even if it is just to the local supermarket. Skiffer also loves to talk and tell stories. This is one of the reasons that he and Janis hit it off so well. After getting to know Janis, he also met many of her family members and got to know them also.

Then one day he took a trip with some of them but not Janis. This was the clincher--how it all got started. You see, Skiffer came back an told Janis everything about the trip. He told her where they went, what they saw, what they did, who they met, what they talked about, etc. He must have a photographic and photophonic memory because he just went on and on about it. It felt like she was right there with them, experiencing every moment!

Now, Janis lives in Billings, Montana which isn't near most of her relatives. Most of her side of the family lives in Minnesota but some are all around the United States. So, whenever Skiffer came back from visiting with her family she got all of the details and felt like she was with them for a while. She could visit them without ever leaving home.

Here are just some of the exploits of Skiffer just since he has known me. Maybe, some day, we can get him to sit still long enough to tell us about some of the other places that he has been. I don't know about you but, I am looking forward to that!

This wasn't the first time I met Skiffer. That was up at The Shack. No, I don't mean this Shack but, this one Miltona, MN. I heard about some of his trips while I was there but, I don't recall much. He is much better about that than I am.

The first time I spent any significant time with him, was when the Weisses went to Germany, specifically just South of Ansbach in the Barvarian (Bayern) area. Here are some pictures from that trip:

Skiffer made some friends in Rothenburg
Skiffer playing with George and Curious George
Skiffer is in Awe of the beauty of Hohenschwangau
Skiffer joins us for dinner at the Gasthof FraunDorfer
We told him that it would be an awfully large mug for such a little bear. But, he swore to us that he could handle it. That he did! But, he did have a bit of trouble getting back out.
George and Skiffer wonder Where is the food?
You never know what to expect with Skiffer. He even got up and joined the accordianist to play some music.
We were a bit curious about this one, thinking it might have been a bit of a tryst or something. But, George explained, "There was only one bed left and it was plenty large enough for the two of them to share. So, neither one of them was about to sleep on the floor. Besides, unlike humans, it is quite normal for most animals to sleep up next to each other because it helps them stay warm."
We kept hearing, "Where's Skiffer?" and "Have you ever gone on an Easter Skiffer hunt?" taunts until we found him about ten minutes later.
Skiffer got a chance to see what it was like in the old days of Oberamergau from one of the locals. The guy was quite a friendly chap, though we never did get his name--he didn't say much.
Skiffer all of a sudden yelled, "Papa!" We don't think it was his real father but they sure did hit it off well.
He kept talking about these Hosen and those Hosen throughout the whole trip. So, before we left, we got Skiffer his very own pair of Lederhosen.

When I moved from Philly to Mpls. I decided to drive my car out there. I did this because I needed to get the car out there somehow, I would be between jobs at the time and it sounded like fun. I talked Jennifer into doing this with me so that we could see all of the sights in between. I knew the area from Philly to almost Pittsburg. She knew the Pittsburg area and northern Indianapolis near Lake Michigan. We both had friends in Chicago. She knew the Mpls. area and parts of Wisconson. So, that only left Ohio as unknown. Well Jennifer does know a good place to get ice cream there from her trips back and forth to home while she was in Pittsburg.

She decided to bring Skiffer along. Or perhaps, more correctly, she couldn't get out of bringing him along. It seems that he can be rather obstinate when he wants to go somewhere. I will put the other pictures from that trip up later.

This is when we were about halfway through the trip. We were on the beach at the south end of Lake Michigan near Valparaiso. Skiffer found a particularly large amount of sand and commented how it was analogous to the the trip we were on. When I asked what he meant, he said, "It is a mountainous route we travel. But, there are beautiful things on the other end of it... no matter which way you go." He can be quite a philosophical one at times.