……………………………..…they smelled barbecue?  These pictures were taken at my sons house yesterday, and I’m thinking they were probably grilling on the other side of that fence.  As the story goes when they left his yard they went across the street to a neighbors and the Mother Bear went right up to the front door. Experiencing no luck there either, she then proceeded to another neighbors garage whose door was open, she entered and came out carrying a bag of garbage.  Mission accomplished she disappeared into the woods and had a real (teddy) bears picnic with her cub. I lived in and around that area all my life and at one point as a teenager lived in Walpack N.J. which bordered Stokes State Forest on one side and the Delaware River on the other.  We would ride our horses in the valley and into the mountains and never concerned ourselves with bears.  I’m sure in the 50’s they were there, but their habitat was so large they never had to venture out.  Now in the late 70’s I was walking with my best friend picking wild blueberries in the watershed property that surrounded our neighborhood in Oak Ridge NJ.  We were reaching into the blueberry bushes that were a thick tangle of branches, when all of a sudden their was a growl.  I turned white, screamed it’s a bear, dropped my blueberries and ran as fast as I could.  When I looked back my friend is hysterically laughing, she couldn’t get over that I thought it was a bear.  She couldn’t say what the noise was, but it was not a bear, there are no bears in NJ.  I hadn’t heard of any either, but only a bear could make that growl.  She proceeded for weeks, actually years, to tell everyone that how I, the country girl thought she heard a bear, and she, who was raised in Manhattan, the city girl knew it could not be a bear.  How I ran away home and she continued to pick luscious berries, and would take on this bear if he tried to take her berries. She told and retold her country girl – city girl story.  I would always just say..it was a bear!  About five years later I get a call from her and she is a little out of breath and apologizing profusely to me.  I couldn’t imagine what had happened.  She finally said, remember when we were picking blueberries and you heard…yes Vic how could I forget…well I think it was probably a bear.  Oh why now, after all this time do you think it was a bear.. because one just walked across my yard and actually stopped and looked at my sliding glass doors and I thought he was going to try to get in the house.  Thank you Bear.    Well, didn’t the country girl – city girl story change.  Still, at that time there was very little talk of bears.  As the years went by and the building of homes gobbled up more of their habitat, it has been a serious problem for them and us.  I had read some where, and I don’t know if it true,  that many of the bears are coming over from Pennsylvania, as the Delaware River has gotten very shallow at times due to drought conditions and they can cross it easily.  Whatever the reason, they are a part of Northern New Jersey’s landscape and now more than ever I will check my surroundings when I’m visiting.  They are beautiful though..from a far.