The Jesus Bear

A buddy of mine works for the Village of Evergreen Park, where I live. His father worked for the Village before him. They have both spent most of their careers in public works department.

Rogers' father was only a boy when he got the job, but that was a long time ago, before labor laws were so strict, and Rogers' grandfather knew the Mayor.

In those days Public Works meant you did just about everything, from washing the windows in the tiny village hall building near the tracks to scraping up the unfortunate remains of deer and fox and other wildlife that shared this space with humans back in the 1930s.

Roger still does everything, more or less. Part of his job is to make sure the Christmas Decorations get up along the main streets in town.

The other day Roger mentioned a story that I had heard about as a child, but had forgotten.

Being a rebounded life long resident (so far) of Evergreen Park, I remember the story of the Bear. One time the South-town Economist, the local newspaper at the time, ran an article about it. More likely it was in the special section that they ran on the Village's anniversary of incorporation. But even that article ran in 1953, for the Village's sixtieth, so I only heard stories about the article.

The year the Bear in the Manger Story took place was 1933, the worst year of the Great Depression.

Twenty-five percent of men were out of work. There was drought, even here in the Midwest, crops failed, and many people lost their homes and farms.

At this time Evergreen Park and the surrounding area was mainly farm land.

Small plots, really --truck farms -- with the majority of the produce going into Chicago near-by for sale in the city's supermarkets and restaurants.

Times were very hard, even in Chicago. People didn't have enough to eat, much less frequent restaurants, and grocers felt the "depression" too. Many closed.

A good number of local farmers here lost their small plots. The building and loans foreclosed, or if they were tenant farmers they sometimes couldn't pay their rent on the land, and they were booted off.

Roger knew some of this story, and I knew other parts. I like history, and I like to know what was here before I was.

Turns out Roger had found the old manger, or what remained of it, in a corner of the old village warehouse.

"Too bad not the Bear," he said.

Too bad.

It was in December of 1933, sometime, that the Bear made its appearance in the manger. Even back then the media of the time was hungry for a story with so-called "human" interest, and they found one in the "Bear in the Manger" story.

Mayor Klein also did everything in the 1930s, including working for nothing as mayor, and one morning he arrived at the little building and noticed the teddy bear placed in a small blanket next to the baby Jesus figure. Joseph and Mary stood nearby, along with the oxen, lamb and the wise men.

The story as it read in the papers and even that was reported on radio, by Charles Coughlin, a radio priest out of Detroit area at the time, was more about the note than the bear.

The note, attached with a safety pin, read that the bear's owner had to give it up. Her parents had to leave the area, having lost their farm. It was signed "Missy".

Nobody ever could determine who "Missy" was. Nobody seemed to know a family with any girl named Missy.

Some people think that Missy was not from the area. A real possibility, because US route 12 and 20 run right through the Village, so maybe Missy and her family were passing through.

The bear stayed in the manger that year.

The teddy bear didn't have a name, but somehow people through the years began calling it "Jesus" or "The Jesus Bear".

It was a one year, one Christmas season thing. I once saw an old picture of people crowded around the manger, but couldn't see the "Jesus Bear" in the photo.

Roger said his father remembered the whole thing really well. He was a bit disappointed that his father had died some eight years ago or so, as the old man would have gotten a kick out of seeing the manager, though it was a little broken down and missing its roof.

Some people who went to see it said that it gave them hope and faith again, and that it made them feel good in hard times.