January 19, 2025

Most people are fans of actors, athletes, musicians, or other entertainers, but not me. No, one of my celebrities of choice is . . . Smokey Bear. He’s been around since 1944 to plead with us to help prevent forest or wild fires. He appears in TV PSAs, although it’s been a long time since I’ve seen one.

Here’s the story of Smokey Bear (complete with ugly WWII caricatures).

I look for Smokey Bear wherever I go.

When the Forest Preserve District of Will County announced they would be showing prints of Rudy Wendelin’s Smokey Bear paintings, I was interested. When I found out the display would open at Plum Creek Nature Center with Smokey Bear himself (along with Willy Woodchuck), I was ecstatic. On January 19, I got to meet my long-time hero. Although the strong, silent type in person, he seemed happy to pose for photos. I’m also going to participate in the contest for a basket full of goodies through the Goosechase app (you go to all the places where the prints are being shown and take a photo of each of Smokey’s rules for wildfire prevention).

I love the Rudy Wendelin prints. Along the Gunflint Trail in Minnesota, I’ve seen the devastation left by human-caused Ham Lake fire of 2007. The prints cover the devastation and the little effort it takes to prevent it. One even shows careless campers leaving trash behind — perhaps a job for Woodsy Owl.

One of the most striking prints is, almost funnily, over the fireplace at Plum Creek Nature Center.

After meeting Smokey and Willy and checking out the prints and information, I started to watch the birds — and the cat someone had dumped that the staff had not been able to trap. Birds included the usual winter flock types — chickadees, nuthatches, dark-eyed juncoes, cardinals, downy, hairy, and red-bellied woodpeckers, house finches, etc. I hoped for a pileated woodpecker, but something almost as interesting briefly appeared on a branch for a few seconds — a Cooper’s hawk. It took off almost as soon as it landed.

The staff pointed out a tree sparrow and another sparrow whose name I missed or can’t recall — white-crowned or white-throated, I think.

After that, we had a pub dinner at Main Street Exchange, where the patrons were cheering for the Los Angeles Rams over the Philadelphia Eagles like they were the home team. I have no idea why.

Happy 80th birthday, Smokey Bear!