Seriously.. that bear will mess you up. Smokey the Bear (apparently, he’s officially “Smokey Bear”, but that’s news to me) has always been at the forefront of the fight on forest fires. Yes, I enjoyed getting to write that. Anyway, I grew up with the image of him telling me that only I could prevent forest fires – which at the time I didn’t entirely understand. I realised that I was a child, and I wasn’t really sure why they would give me – a child who rarely ventured into the forest – all of this fire fighting power. At some point I suppose I came to the conclusion that Smokey was speaking to all children individually, but regardless of how he went about it, he did reinforce some bits of fire safety. Well, other than the phase most boys go through where they enjoy lighting things on fire. Fire is pretty cool. Oh, the shirt! Right. This violent and aggressive side of Smokey isn’t one I really remember, but if the man (or, I should say, the bear) wants to really hammer his point home to children who won’t listen, sometimes a wallop with a shovel is the only answer. Most bears would use their claws, but not Smokey – this shirt shows how civilized he truly is. (Available at Threadless)
