Amusement Parks
I just realized I left a lot out of these stories. When Dad first went to work for Storytown it got us going to a lot of these places over the years. Between these and museums I've personally been to a lot of them.
While living in Kingsbury we made our first of many visits to an Animal Park. I got to talking with some of the workers who noticed how some of the animals responded to me. I was asked if I'd like to make a few bucks but keep it quiet what I was doing. At first they just wanted me to come in as a "visitor", sit in the audience and hold exotic animals. I was a calming influence on some of them, especially cats and canines. I wasn't working at the time so it was a way to earn something.
Eventually, they took me on to work with some of the babies. I fell in love with the lions. I really hated the snakes and the monkeys. The birds were fine. They didn't bother me. I worked there for a summer before going on to a job at the Catheter Factory. The pay wasn't great but the lions made up for it and especially a baby bobcat.
I don't have a lot of the photos from this time. Sadly, they were left behind in Ohio. I do have a few that I will put here.
This was a rabbit they had years later when I took my son there when he was little. A child would hold a piece of paper under the rabbit's head. The rabbit would bite it. It was supposed to be like the rabbit was punching the kids ticket. Tommy loved it.
This is Mom holding Bobby McGee. She loved the animals but especially the little ones.
Me sitting in the audience with him while people took pictures.
The next year when I went back the baby bobcat was chained up in a dog pen like enclosure. This man did not treat his animals well. They were constantly getting loose and running into traffic on the Northway.
A lot of his animals starved because they were not fed before the opening and I somehow doubt they were given much after. I was told it was to make them more happy to socialize with the visitors. You could buy "treats" for them out of vending machines all through the park.
I have forgotten the name of the man who owned this place. He was in trouble with the law at one time for bringing in illegal wild alligators from Florida. I don't know what happened with that either.
I was doing other things at the time and didn't even notice a lot of things in the news unless it was something I wrote.
This is one of the baby lions with our Mom.
When the lions reached the age of six months they were taken away and sold to other animal farms and zoos. They had lost there "value" at bringing in more visitors. It cost him too much to feed and care for them. Of course visitors couldn't feed the lions so they didn't bring in enough money.
I heard from others that the lions I loved so much got sick in the winter and froze to death.