“How about you, you, you?
You can come too, too, too,
We’re going to the zoo, zoo, zoo.”
Lyrics by Tom Paxton
That’s a song I remember from a children’s tape we used to have…anyone remember cassette tapes? Little rectangular boxes with a set of toothy holes you could stick your finger through and twirl, and long strings of miniature tape that would unravel and gnarl in curly hoops on the inside of your cassette player. Yes, cassette tapes were fun.
And without any sarcasm, zoos are more fun.
When my parents came to visit over Memorial Day, we all experienced Hovatter’s Zoo in Kingwood, West Virginia, for the first time. Annalise experienced a zoo for the first time.
Hovatter’s was perfect: relaxed and child friendly. Because visitors are allowed to feed the animals with food purchased at the zoo, the animals are quite tame and interested in the visitors. Giraffes bend long necks over their bars to lick up carrots, and parakeets land on shoulders and fingers to peck up seeds. I have a feeling we will be returning to this zoo many times.
And now, without more ado, pictures.
That chimp, by the way. A sign on his cage read something like: DO NOT TEASE CHIMPS. THEY WILL THROW POOP. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
I did not tease the chimps, I promise. I was just standing there innocently with Annalise in my arms when he scooped up some brown stuff and hurled it, quicker than it took for me to realize what was happening. I screamed. A small brown splatter landed on my leg. No further damages, thank God.
He was out of poop when Mom stopped by to visit, but he waved his arms and ran at her, like the silly bully at the end of the movie who can’t hurt anyone anymore but keeps blustering anyway.
Dad and Ivan stood in front of his cage and blew raspberries and teased him freely, with no consequences.
We think he didn’t like our dresses.
Ah, well. Not everyone does.
At the end of the day, we took the golf carts over the road and across the fields to Saffiticker’s, to buy ice cream.
It was a wonderful day.
My parents liked zoos but only if admission was free. My dad heard the Brookfield zoo in suburban Chicago was really great, this is back in about 1955. We made a long trip from Milwaukee to Chicago. My dad reluctantly paid the admission fee. It was one of the 1st open air zoos. Most zoos were indoor buildings with animals caged in a building with a double set of bars and a ceramic tile floor that was hosed down daily.
Wow, I’m glad they improved zoos. They must have been smelly places back then with all the animals cooped up inside!
So fun to see life through a little child’s eyes! And what a stinker of a chimp!