Visiting Hospital in T.O.

Hi. I'm Charles the Bear Cub. You know me. I live on Sparkle Road with my buddy, James. He's really old. He was the second Canadian to get off Noah's Ark, you know.

 Oh. Wait! Chance lives with us, too. He's a newborn cubby someone left in a basket on our doorstep. He's a wee little thing. Chance doesn't talk, yet. He makes little squeaky noises when he's happy.  I look after Chance, too. He climbs way high on things and can't get down. Then he makes little squawky noises 'cuz he's afraid. I have to help him get down. Chance is a handful! 


Know what? We're in Toronto. We come here on the train. VIA Rail is a fast way to travel. It's fun to ride on the train. Toronto is pretty far from our house. It's four hours away by train. We sing songs on the train. We like to sing. I know a song about trains.

The railroad comes through the middle of the house
The railroad comes through the middle of the house
The trains all come through the middle of the house
Since the company bought the land.


The railroad comes through the middle of the house
In and out of the middle of the house
Right smack dab through the middle of the house
Where the parlour used to be.


The railroad comes through the middle of the house
The railroad comes through the middle of the house
The trains all come through the middle of the house
And here comes the Five-oh-Nine! Whoo! Whoo!

Chance and me and our buddy James live in Windsor. Chance and me are sons of Windsor, you know. Windsor is the centre of the known universe and the nicest part of Detroit. Detroit isn't in O Canada. It's in the Knighted States. Detroit is on the other side of the river. We can go there on the bridge or through the tunnel. We need a passport to go there.

James says  six million people live in Toronto. That's an awful lot of people. I don't know why they would want to live that far away from Windsor.

When we come to T.O. we visit the hospital. I know what a hospital is. It's the big building where sick people go to get well. I could work at a hospital, you know. I could be a doctor or a nurse or a dietician, you know.

James says, "Mind your manners in hospital, my sons. " We use our inside voices at hospital. We don't shout. We don't race in the hallways.  We're not racists! We walk slow and carefully and we look both ways. Lots of people use the hallways. Some of them are visitors. Some of them are sick. We are cautious. That's 'cuz we're polite bear cubs.

We visit with Denise and Christina and all the nice people at the bariatric clinic. They measure James and he stands on a machine that tells how many kilos he weighs. They ask him questions and write down his answers. I think it's a test.

James is doing pretty good, you know. He used to be sick but now he can ride bikes with us and swim and walk and run, too. He lost 75 kilos. I don't know where they went when he lost them, do you?

I know a poem about Toronto. It goes like this-

I don't wanna
Live in Tranna.
'THE END.

I always say, "The end, " so you know I'm done with my poem. I'm a pretty smart bear cub.

Oh. Wait! Did you hear that? James is hollering, "Where are my handsome bear cubs? Where are my Sons of Windsor? Where are my Princes of Ontario? That's me! Charles! That's Chance! We're handsome bear cubs. We're Sons of Windsor and Princes of Ontario! We gotta go find James so we can get our ears tickled and our noses kissed. 

This is me, Charles the Bear Cub saying, "Be good citizens. Be kind to your friends and neighbours. Do good deeds. Then you can eat Smarties and drink root beer. Oh! Wait! Come over to our house and play with us! We can have fun together! Okay! Over and out!"