”If you go down in the woods today…”
A brave and excited group of youngsters, all clutching their favourite bears, dinosaurs, monkeys and other stuffed friends, converged on Fort George and Buckingham House on Saturday, eager to head off to the woods for the Provincial Historic Site’s first-ever Teddy Bears’ Picnic.
Numbers grew, with the crowd by now including a friendly dancing bear that is said to make her home at the Northern Lights Library System. Little artists got to work as commemorative t-shirts were coloured with special pastel crayons, which when ironed, would provide a permanent reminder of the children’s visit to the event.
Then it was time for disguises, and the Forts’ program director Ross Stromberg and assistant Sarjenka Kuyliw painted a long line of faces while Shirley Stromberg entertained everyone with stories.
Families got in the act as well, teaming up with the children for the Bear Games, two of the three adaptations of the fur trade games enjoyed at the site’s Riverland Challenge. Parents and children raced to fill buckets of water and hurry back to fill up larger pails in the “Wake the Bear” relay, then took turns tossing pie pans into containers, and finally, tossed “the berries” from stick to stick across ever-increasing distances in a game similar to ladder-ball.
Points earned by each of the teams were added up, and prizes awarded, with first place going to the Rockin’ Rhymings and second to the Five Cents.
Everyone then crowded into the interpretive centre, where Shirley read “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic” aloud before Ross, also in disguise, showed the youngsters the ‘bear track’ clues they would be looking for on their trip into the woods.
Then it was off to the woods, down the long, tree-lined trail to the original site of Fort George, and beyond, to a point where the bear track pointed the way off to the right. There, the children and families discovered Forts’ interpreter Bailey Oster, with a well-filled picnic basket and a blanket spread on the ground, inside a clearing ringed with teepee frames.
Juice, oranges and snacks were enjoyed, before Bailey entertained the crowd with a few more stories, including Robert Munsch’s ‘Smelly Socks,’ as everyone rested up for the walk back to the interpretive centre.
The Teddy Bears’ Picnic was only one feature of Saturday’s event, the Bears and Berries Festival, a revised version of the Saskatoon Festival of other years. Saskatoon lovers were not forgotten in the changeover, with delicious slices of saskatoon pie piled with ice cream served up by Friends of the Forts Donna Chamberland and Loree Reynolds in the interpretive centre, and whole pies, jams, jellies and syrup as well as fresh berries at one of the tables in the craft sale outdoors. Handmade moccasins, bear-topped crocheted hats, books and other wares were also available at the sale, and Forts’ volunteer Rob Holliday and his helpers, Paul Chamberland and Dennis Jasinsky, cooked up a steady stream of elk burgers for hungry visitors.
Another special feature of the day was horse-drawn carriage rides, and as usual, the Forts’ interpretive staff also offered guided walking tours to the original fort sites.
The next special event at Fort George and Buckingham House is the Forts des Prairies Jamboree on Sunday, Aug. 25.