Gardner's Regiment

Gardner's Regiment has had the honor of knowing and marching with Big Bear.  He has also been a reliable sutler for many of our equipment needs.

About a year ago, our Captain received a letter from Bear following an exchange the two men had regarding our marching together in a recent parade.  In his letter to the Captain, Bear tells the story of how he got his name.  We enjoyed the story so much, we decided to publish it for others, as well.

"Hi Tom,

  Thank ye Greatly for the Kind words. I'll be happy to jump into line with your Company in the Future.  Perhaps you havent heard the story of how I got the name Big Bear.  Some folks thinks its because of my size, but there is a story regarding that.

  Back in the late 70's we used to have a Rev War event in May in Queens NY at Forest Park, part of what they called Remsen Days.  In 1980, we arrived on Friday night to Registration, there they told us to watch out this weekend.  The local Street Gang said the Park belongs to them and they were angry we were at the park and threatened the camp with violence.  So, we have the encampment and Battle on Saturday and when Saturday evening rolls around, its a cool drizzly night.  I'm sitting in front of my tent tending the fire and due to the weather, I have a Bearskin over my shoulders and wearing a wolverine fur hat where the paws hang down on each side of my head and my beard was reddish brown in those days so blended well with the wolverine fur.  Being part of the Company of Canadian Militia, my tent was way over on the far edge of the encampment right next to the treeline, so rather than walk across the camp to the necessaries, I proceeded to take a walk into the woods.  On my way back, I see what looks like a line of people crawling thru the woods and I can see the white of the arms and are wearing a tee shirt with some sort of symbol on it.  I start crawling behind the last one.  I get to about 10 feet from him and he must have heard me, I see him peering into the darkness and I hear "what the F**k is that?" and he reaches into his pocket.  I close the distance in case he pulls out a weapon.  He pulls out a lighter and the moment it lights, I go to full height and I roar right in his face.  The light goes out immediately when he drops the lighter and yells in the darkness "the F**king thing is Huge, RUN!"  Thru the woods they run with me after them snarling and growling like a Wolverine, the Camp erupts, the Guards are running back and forth, absolute Pandemonium.  Early the next morning, about Dawn, I'm tending the fire and I see 2 uniformed Cops talking to the coordinator and he points to me.  I think, oh no.  They came over and asked what did I do to that gang.  They were on duty near the basketball courts and suddenly down this steep incline rolls this group, tee shirts in tatters and there is a drop of about 5 feet into the basketball court, the whole gang keeps running out of the park, down the street and out of sight.  I didn't know, that in place of fences they planted whitethorn bushes.  I told them my part of the story and off they went.  We had the Sunday afternoon battle and you could see Black tee shirt material hanging from the thorn bushes.  Next year we came back and again signed in at Registration.  The Coordinator tells us the Street Gang never caused any more trouble in the park and for 6 months after, here was a rumor that a Big Bear was in the woods.  When my friends heard that, that was when I got the name Big Bear.  A couple of years ago, I bought a series of books, called Weird New England, Weird NJ, Weird NY etc.  These 2 guys traveled the areas and people told their stories to and from Newspaper clippings about weird happenings and places.  In the Weird NY book, I came upon a story "Bigfoot on Long Island?" a story of sightings of a large hairy creature from the late 70's to even the present.  That's how urban myths start.lol  Have a Great Holidays to you and all and will see you in the Spring,

Cheers,

Bear" 

You can visit Big Bear's web site by going to

www.webspawner.com/users/bigbeartrade/

Drop Bear a note and tell him where you heard his story.  Enjoy.

Go to our contact page and let us know if there is any aspect of re-enacting which you would enjoy !