Kiss Their Noses As Greeting

Emily about the age of this story and Papa


For a number of years our family had annual Disneyland passes with parking and could go any time we wanted and stay as long as we wanted. Sometimes it was just for dinner together in the park followed by the fireworks show.

Our first grandchild, Emily (now 20 years old), was three weeks old when she visited Disneyland for the first time. As she grew, we could watch her relate to the Disney characters and enjoy meeting them. Her big thing was she wanted to “kiss their noses” as her way of greeting and meeting. The characters all allowed her to do her thing and she became a hit with the cast members.

One day when she was still quite small, I was holding her on Main Street when we turned the corner and there was Br’er Bear standing next to the building wall frozen in space. Not a hint that anyone was in the costume. He about 7 feet tall and it would be difficult for Emily to do her normal greeting. I was talking to Emily and stating that I was not sure that anyone was in this costume and that he was too tall for her to kiss his nose.

Without hesitation, the cast member inside the costume slowly started lowering himself until he was at the height that Emily could give him her greeting. Emily planted one on the nose and then the “bear” slowly rose to his normal height. Never saying a word. No indication that he acknowledged her greeting.

We had a good laugh at that. It was wonderful for the cast member to recognize that this was important to Emily and he did what was necessary to keep the tradition going for her. It’s things like what he did that will bring you back for another day in “The Happiest Place On Earth”.