The Big Boot!

Today, while I was at work I decided to spend the rest of my day living in the past. Because the future is looking pretty bleak to me right now, even though I've been wearing blinders when it comes to the constant daily "Breaking News," that everyone seems to have to give me their own opinion on.

So to continue my day living in the past I have a true story to share about  how a pumpkin saved my life.

Back in the mid 60's I worked at the famous Fort Worth Zoo's Children Zoo, which is no longer there. This small petting zoo's theme was primarily about nursery rhymes.

The children's zoo housed baby animals and my job was to feed, care, protect the young animals, to keep their pens, cages or exhibits clean and to bring them in at night and put them out in the mornings.

And if I wasn't busy enough doing that job I was sweeping and picking up trash on the sidewalks. And please note that the trash was mainly empty sacks of peanuts or grain, feed etc. that children threw away after feeding, Sheba, an African elephant, ram, spider monkeys, ostriches, zebra, donkeys, birds, turtles, goats, piglets, bunnies, etc.

When customers, after paying, entered the children's zoo the first thing there was a gigantic dark brown boot that had many tiny windows—to represent "the old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children she didn't know what to do..." or something like that.

This cemented boot "sculpture" was probably over 10 feet tall and it always annoyed me, because I always had to walk around it to get to the small fawns enclosure. But I must admit that I did enjoy sit ting on the toe-end of the boot when I would take a break and visit with the cashier.

There was "Noah's Ark" that was surrounded by a shallow pond that ducks floated around in while gigantic turtles sunbathed on the bank. And inside this fake ark it housed exotic birds and small animals. I wasn't real fond of the ark, because it was difficult to clean and scrubbing the pond was a tiresome headache for me.

Across from the fenced-in ark area were six or seven, beautiful Macaws perched on tree limbs. And part of my job description was "first thing"every morning when I arrived at work I would put on a huge pair, of these heavy leather gloves that were about 2 feet long and one-by-one I would transport these magnificent (mean) birds, perched on my arm, to their designated tree limb. Then I would do the transport backwards at the end of the day.

Next to these lovely, noisy, messy parrots was a small retainingwall that housed 3 darling piglets and I wish I had a penny for every time that I had to climb over that wall. And of course, one house was made of straw, one of wood and one of bricks. The piglets preferred the straw house.

On the other side of the pond, so to speak, was this huge goat pen called "The Back Forty" and everyday I would get head-butted, stood on or shoved to the ground by about 15 goats when feeding them or cleaning their pen. And the children that watched me would think it was so funny.

Now back to the big boot and why I am actually writing this in the first place. About ten feet away from the boot where the old woman lived with her kids was this fenced-in bunny exhibit that had this gigantic pumpkin shell/house made out of cement. And the pumpkin was taller than me and it housed about twenty bunnies.

Every morning I would have to climb over that stupid fence to let the bunnies out of the pumpkin so I could feed them and clean inside "Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater. Had a wife and couldn't keep her. He put her in a pumpkin shell, And there he kept her very well." And all I can say is that I climbed back and forth over that fence all day long, because bunnies poop as much as they breed.

Which finally brings me back to my blast-from-the-past story about how a pumpkin saved my life.

One hot Texas summer afternoon while I was at work, some friends/guys that worked in the zoo's cafe, next door to the children's zoo, decided to play a prank on me and I fell for it—hook, line and sinker.

"Mitch" who I had a crush on and had named all of the male animals after him, came down to the children's zoo and he was all excited and he told me, "Nancy, a crazy man has escaped from the  mental hospital and it is all over the radio! He is armed and dangerous and he is somewhere in the zoo! You need to go hide! Now! The police are on their way...I've got to get back to work."

After "Mitch" left, I was frantic about what to do and I was wishing that Ronnie, my sweet, smart, older brother, was there, so I could ask him what he thought I should do.

Bottom   Line: I locked myself inside the pumpkin with the bunnies and I stayed there for over five minutes, until Mitch and his friends came and told me it was all a joke! 

Anyway, I've only given you a small description of some of the cute, nursery-rhyme-themed petting zoo exhibits and I have many funny stories that happened to me while working at the zoo. But, I will not discuss the monkeys at all—for personal reasons. And needless to say I loved that job so much and all of those sweet animals that I got to take care of. Except for the macaws, monkeys and Mitch.

Shortly after that incident I renamed all of the male animals—Paul. And that lasted for only about two weeks, before I had to go and change their names, again.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!