Today I was feeling sick. The “I feel like I’m going to throw up” kind of sick. I was heading towards the bed to lie down for a bit when someone knocked on the door. Not too many people knock on our door.

I opened it. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I definitely wasn’t expecting a bear.

But there, in front of me was a little girl in a bear costume, alongside a little boy, dressed as a little boy. I’d guess they were maybe 10 years old.

The boy had a basket in one hand, which held various packets of candy, along with some colorful plastic eggs.

Easter was just a week ago. Presumably, he was holding one of the kids’ Easter baskets with the leftover candy in it. It looked like it was mostly small packs of Skittles.

“Would you like to buy some candy?” the boy asked.

“How much?” I questioned.

“50 cents.”

“I don’t usually have cash on me, but let me see if I can dig up 50 cents”.

I went back inside, leaving the kids on the front steps. I knew there was a tiny bit of change in Elvis, so I opened him up, shook out a couple quarters, and went back outside.

The bear still cracked me up. For a few minutes, I didn’t feel sick. Instead I was grinning and giggling at the kids standing there.

“What kind of candy can I get for my 50 cents?” I asked.

“Well, we mostly have Skittles, and the eggs either have Skittles in them or M&Ms.”

“I want M&Ms”, I said.

“Ok, but we don’t know which eggs have the M&Ms in them”, he replied.

“No problem. I’ll just take that egg,” pointing to a pretty one that was half yellow and half blue.

Blue and Yellow Plastic Egg

Skittles inside blue and yellow plastic egg

We made our exchange. He received money, and I received food(ish). Just the way things should be.

I should note that the egg contained Skittles, not M&Ms. C’est la vie.

What A Difference A Bear Makes

That little value exchange made my day. The sick feeling has since returned, but the joy of watching two kids take on the task of door-to-door sales, with some leftover Easter candy…that balances out the sick feeling somewhat.

They didn’t pretend to be raising money for a worthy cause. They didn’t have a cause at all. Just hey, we have something that is worth something, and we thought maybe you’d want to pay us for it. No pretense. No B.S. A simple monetary exchange for goods.

I love the entrepreneurial spirit at a young age, with a kick of creativity thrown in to help with the marketing aspect.

Memorable. After all, how often do you get to buy Skittles from a boy and a bear?

But But But…

I can hear some of you wanting to throw out some negative vibes.

• Yes, it might be a tad bit illegal to sell door-to-door without some sort of permit or license or whatever. I have no idea if that would be true or not here in my little corner of the world. I, however, don’t mind a bit that these two might be breaking the law a little in order to fulfill their momentary dream. I won’t tell on them.
• Yes, it might be a tad bit dangerous to buy candy from a stranger. How do I know those Skittles in the egg haven’t been tampered with and poisoned? I don’t know. It’s okay. I’ll take the risk.
• Yes, it might be a tad bit dangerous for these kids to be wandering the streets. Who knows what evil people might take advantage of a couple of kids standing at their door? I don’t have a comeback for this one. It indeed might be very dangerous for them. Because…evil assholes seem to be everywhere, so yeah. Danger is truth.

Okay, we’ve dealt with the Negative Nellies, so I can return to my feel-good moment.

I wish I’d had the spirit that these two have when I was their age. I admire them.

P.S. The photo of the bear above is merely a representation of the real thing. I didn’t actually take a photo of the little girl in the bear suit, so I downloaded a similar photo from a stock photo online store to help you visualize what I saw today. Also, it should be noted that the little girl wasn’t wearing the bear head while she stood at my door. The bear head was sort of dangling on her back. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have known she was a little girl. Of course, I probably wouldn’t have thought she was a real bear either. Or at least, I hope I wouldn’t have thought that.