Keeping a promise to plunge with the Polar Bears Sunday
“We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot.”
— Abraham Lincoln
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OK, it’s time to pay up, to fulfill a promise I made to a neighbor.
I gave my word. Made a promise and now, it’s time to live up to the spoken word.
While it will be a chilling experience, a guy’s word is HIS word.
So, come about 2 p.m. Sunday, at the Libby Creek Bridge on Farm to Market Road, I will take a dip with the other Polar Bears during the inaugural 2012-13 Polar Bear season.
It’s a long season that runs from the last Sunday in October all the way to April, and I thought bears hiberated during this time.
The promise was to Rick Klin, King of the Polar Bears and owner of Tech Appliance and TV Repair at 303 California Ave., just two doors north of The Western News.
It seems Rick has been trying to get me to take the “plunge” almost from the time I moved here about 19 months ago.
I suppose it was August when I saw Rick out in front of his shop. It was a hot and dry day.
So, when he asked me whether I was going to join him this year in one of his plunges, I acknowledged.
Somehow, taking a dip in a mountain stream sounded like a good idea then, when the mercury was hitting 95 degrees.
“(Are) You going join me this year in the Polar Bear Plunge,” came Rick’s inquiry as he rolled down the windows of his car to allow the searing heat escape.
Knowing Rick, I knew just what he was doing, and that was setting me up.
After pausing a moment, I relented.
“Sure, Rick. OK, I’ll do it,” I replied. “On opening day.”
Well, “opening day” has arrived, or at least it will come Sunday.
After the promise was made, logic beset me, and then the questions came:
“Can I wear a snorkeling shorty suit?”
“Nope,” came Rick’s response.
“Swimsuits and T-shirts that’s it,” he said.
Hardly seems right. I mean even polar bears wear fur coats. We should get something, I reconciled.
Not a chance.
So, it’s set. Come Sunday at 2 o’clock I will make my first — and almost assuredly — ONLY Polar Bear Plunge.
I’m sure by 2:01 p.m. I will be out of the water and toweled off and making my way to my warm truck, which probably will have the engine running and heater on high.
I understand besides the goose bumps and chattering teeth that will follow, I also get a participant certificate, which I will frame proudly and keep here at the office as a reminder of a moment that sanity left me.
Still, I will have kept my promise to a good friend and neighbor, it will be another lesson learned. And, that being: Polar Bears aren’t blessed with the gift of speech.
So, having achieved that status, next time I see Rick outside his shop, I think I’ll just wave a paw in acknowledgement.
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On another matter, the Kootenai Heritage Council is sponsoring its annual fundraiser — A Gala Event — tonight at the Memorial Center.
Tickets, which are $25, go to support the Memorial Center and its program.
Attendees will see live theater from the Montana Repertory Theatre group while supporting this most-terrific venue we have here in Libby.
The play is “An Unladylike Battle for Survival in the Sunnyside Library.”
There are hors d’oeuvres before and desserts after the performance.
Tickets still are available and may be purchased at Cabinet Books, The Last Straw, Rivermist, Mountain Meadow Gifts and The Western News.
(Alan Lewis Gerstenecker is editor of The Western News. His column appears weekly.)