Like a Good NeighBear State Farm is There!!!!

Today was the annual Fisherman's Breakfast held in St. Anthony. It is a huge community event where everyone comes to enjoy a free pancake breakfast. There is a long wait in line (I waited an hour and a half at least) and along the way there are booths set up by local businesses. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure why it is such a huge event. It's really not that exciting, but everyone goes. People even let their kids skip all or part of school for this.

Anyway, Michael sighed the State Farm agent he is working for up for a booth, and, lucky him, he was chosen to come help out. His coveted position was that of the State Farm Good NeighBear! I guess since he's the intern he gets to do what nobody else wants to do and he gets to do it for free! He had to leave at 4:45 this morning so he could be to St. Anthony with their booth set up by 6:00. He has some pretty funny stories. He said he had never been huged by so many different types of people in his life. He was not allowed to talk the entire time he was in his costume; he didn't even talk to me!!! He said there were kids following him all the time. He had a group of kids that wanted their picture with him, and then they tried to push him over; he said he could have taken them! He had another little kid that followed him around for a few hours. He kept tapping Michael on the arm and told Michael he was doing a good job, then would hug him. This kid just kept following and hugging Michael for a long time. Michael was asked several times if he was a real bear. Of course he always shook his head yes, but one kid did not believe him. The kid said that bears don't stand up like people, they bend over on their paws, so Michael curled up his paws like a bear for the kid.

The hardest part of the whole experience was trying to walk around without tripping over people (especially small children that would hug him without him seeing them coming), his own big bear feet, and other obsticals that were not in his contract or line of vision.

Needless to say, it was quite a fun experience for Michael. He got to be a bear and now will be in the photo albums of half the children who attended the Fisherman's Breakfast (including Samantha's).