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Dancing with the bears

Downtown storefront features vintage Holiday display

Times Observer photo by Lorri Drumm A decades-long holiday tradition continues as a family collection of animated bears entertain passersby in the storefront window of Virg-Ann Flower Shop on Pennsylvania Avenue West in Warren.

Folks of an earlier time, before high-tech became the norm, may recall the wonder of watching animated Christmas displays.

While even children may not wonder “how the magic bears move,” children and children-at-heart still enjoy watching and likely capturing the action for others to enjoy.

Although time has slowed down that animation just a bit, decades after their first appearance, the wonder of the dancing bears lives on in downtown Warren during the holiday season.

A collection of animated “dancing bears” are on display in the storefront window of Virg-Ann Flower Shop located at 224 Pennsylvania Ave. West in Warren. The bears range in age from 40 to 50 years in age — since their purchase and first appearance in the window, anyway.

Taking center-stage are a brown bear couple first purchased by the grandparents of current flower shop president, AnnaMarie Dicembre-Miller. She is the third generation head of the family flower shop.

Dicembre-Miller described the bear couple’s dance moves. “She hulas,” she said of the bear on the right if you’re facing the window. The bear to her right sort of crouches down and pops up as she dances. She actually admitted that he used to “pop up.” “He’s not quite as perky as he used to be,” she said.

The smaller bears to each side of the dancing couple were purchased about 40 years ago. A pair of small bears are perched at the bottom and top of a branch while another balances a present on his nose.

“They’re all vintage,” she said. “It’s nostalgic. It brings back the old days.”

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