The town is so small that it does not have a name, so I will call it Chester. The Quaker meeting house has been around for 150 years with generation after generation of Quakers worshiping in profound silence sharing an inner-light. The silence was only punctuated by only am occasional message from the divine which they shared with each other. A lot of them were atheist, but that didn't matter. The Quakers were quite tolerant about this and really asked very few questions of anyone who comes to them. Which is how I got involved with them when I moved to Chester Wisconsin as a 53 year old recently former graduate student who was trying to convince the student loan collectors he was presumed dead while his wife worked through her two year appointment as a distinguished visiting professor at Beijing U n ive rs ity.

So I hid out in Chester renting a room above Emie's Tavern for twelve dollars a week with the stipulation that I sweep the place out seven time a week and mop the floor once a week. Then I started to go Quaker meetings. Then things started to happen.

That is where I met Bruno. At first when Bruno Knocked on the door we just thought he was a very large hairy biker in a fur coat. But when I tried to help him take the fur coat off, it didn't come off because he was a bear who over the last few decades had become very attached to his hide.

He looked at me and in very deep voice growled a little and said "ouch!!!

As far as anybody knew this was the first time that a black bear, actually a very big black bear weighing around 475 pounds had ever shown up at a Quaker meeting. It was very cold outside, even though it was only October so they let him stay, but what else could they do. It would have taken a very weighty Quaker to make him leave. So there we sat in a circle eight Quakers Bruno an myself. The reason we knew his name was that he told us.

"He said Hi my Name is Bruno Bear" Then He laughed really loud and said. "Of Course all bears last name is Bear, though some take a middle name like Polar, Black,Brown, Panda, orCinnamon"

I was going to tell Bruno that Panda's were not Bears, but he did not appear

The town is so small that it does not have a name, so I will call it Chester. The Quaker meeting house has been around for 150 years with generation after generation of Quakers worshiping in profound silence sharing an inner-light. The silence was only punctuated by only am occasional message from the divine which they shared with each other. A lot of them were atheist, but that didn't matter. The Quakers were quite tolerant about this and really asked very few questions of anyone who comes to them. Which is how I got involved with them when I moved to Chester Wisconsin as a 53 year old recently former graduate student who was trying to convince the student loan collectors he was presumed dead while his wife worked through her two year appointment as a distinguished visiting professor at Beijing University.

So I hid out in Chester renting a room above Emie's Tavern for twelve dollars a week with the stipulation that I sweep the place out seven time a week and mop the floor once a week. Then I started to go Quaker meetings. Then things started to happen.

That is where I met Bruno. At first when Bruno Knocked on the door we just thought he was a very large hairy biker in a fur coat. But when I tried to help him take the fur coat off, it didn't come off because he was a bear who over the last few decades had become very attached to his hide.

He looked at me and in very deep voice growled a little and said "ouch!!!

As far as anybody knew this was the first time that a black bear, actually a very big black bear weighing around 475 pounds had ever shown up at a Quaker meeting. It was very cold outside, even though it was only October so they let him stay, but what else could they do. It would have taken a very weighty Quaker to make him leave. So there we sat in a circle eight Quakers Bruno an myself. The reason we knew his name was that he told us.

"He said Hi my Name is Bruno Bear" Then He laughed really loud and said. "Of Course all bears last name is Bear, though some take a middle name like Polar, Black,Brown, Panda, orCinnamon"

I was going to tell Bruno that Panda's were not Bears, but he did not appear