Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, August 19, 2023

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Mountain View News Saturday, August 19, 2023 

WALKING SIERRA MADRE - The Social Side

by Deanne Davis


“The best way of being kind to bears is not to be 
very close to them.” Margaret Atwood

“Bears are not companions of men, but children 
of God.” Charles Muir

“The gypsies believe the bear to be a brother to 
man because he has the same body beneath his 
hide, because he drinks beer, because he enjoys 
music and because he likes to dance.”

Ernest Hemingway

Sierra Madre is having more and more visits 
from bears, who like it here…and who can 
blame them. It’s such a beautiful place to be, 
with so many interesting things to examine. 
Like the bear on the front page of last week’s 
Mountain Views News, who was checking out 
the books in someone’s Little Free Library and, 
apparently, didn’t find anything he liked so he dismantled the entire little library! 
The Letter to the Editor and Susan Henderson’s answering plea to our community to 
Please Stop Feeding the Bears really resonated with me. As our house on Alegria was 
surrounded with high wrought iron fencing, we didn’t have many bear visits. However, 
the one time a bear did come over the fence, waltz down our driveway and walk 
over our 4’ high pool gate as though it wasn’t even there, was terrifying enough for me. 
He wandered through the pool yard and walked over the fence leading to the street 
with a jaunty and casual air. John and I were both somewhat shaken by this encounter 
and really didn’t want to experience another. This guy looked about the same size as 
a VW Bug, by the way. Of course, all this bear conversation brought to mind one of 
the delightful songs my friend, Rosalie Sorrels used to sing in her concerts: “Waltzing 
With Bears” (Lyrics by Priscilla Herdman). A little whimsy for today!

My Uncle Walter goes waltzing with bears; 

It’s a most unbearable state of affairs. 

Every Saturday night he creeps down the back stairs;

Slips out of the house and goes waltzing with bears.

Raggy bears, baggy bears, shaggy bears too.

There’s nothing on earth Uncle Walter won’t do,

So he can go waltzing, waltzing with bears.

I bought Uncle Walter a new coat to wear,

But when he comes in it’s all covered with hair.

And lately I’ve noticed quite a few tears,

‘Cause my Uncle Walter goes waltzing with bears.

We managed to keep him at home for one day;

But the bears all barged in and they took him away.

Now he’s dancing with Pandas, we don’t understand it; 

The bears all demand at least one dance a day.

Notice that while Uncle Walter goes dancing with the bears, he does not bring along a 
tray of sandwiches or a fresh salmon or two for them.

Seeing our Sierra Madre Playhouse honored as “A Leading Non-Profit of the Year” in 
the San Gabriel Valley was another good thing this week. Our family used to go to 
the movies there years ago when it was the Bogart Theater. I vividly remember taking 
Crissy with us all to see one of the Dr. Phibes movies, starring Vincent Price. This was 
around 1971, maybe a little later by the time it got to our little theater. Crissy would 
have been three at the most and spent the entire movie under the seat. See there, this 
shows you what kind of a mother I was! 

So many fine productions have been there, but the one that stands out for me is “Patsy 
Cline.” That was a great show with such fantastic music. 

The wildfires in Maui are absolutely heartbreaking. So many lives lost, the charming 
town of Lahaina wiped out. Some years ago, John was building a radio station 
on Wiliwilinui Ridge in Oahu. This necessitated many trips to Hawaii and he made 
a deal with the station owner to receive his pay in airline tickets. We went so many 
times to Maui with all the kids while he was waiting for parts to arrive or other holdups 
on the job. He had so many great stories about hanging on the outside of a cargo 
net while being helicoptered up to the top. The first time I ever knew one could stay in 
a condo instead of a hotel was on Maui. What a joy that was, grocery shopping and not 
eating in restaurants with several starving teenagers. We wandered Lahaina so many 
times. I bought this poster, which is the picture today, there in Lahaina. We had Mai 
Tai’s, found the Crazy Shirt store, ate awesome fresh fish, drank champagne on the 
beaches and felt we really were in paradise. I’m sure many of you have a lot of these 
same memories of this beautiful place. It is my hope that, like the Phoenix, Lahaina 
will rise again.

My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis

There are treasures there! Trust me!


The Sierra Madre Chamber of Commerce invites you to 

CENTURY 21 VILLAGE REALTY OPEN HOUSE

Thursday, August 24th 5-7pm 

38 W. Sierra Madre Blvd.

Sierra Madre


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com