It may still be like that, but I’m so far removed from it, but it was totally political in the city. And luckily my father knew somebody who was very influential in the park district, and I was able to get a job at Lincoln Park. It was actually very special in terms that I didn’t get a laborers job. I actually got an animal keeper’s job at Lincoln Park, which was unheard of at the time for multiple reasons, A, it was a summer job and you were supposed to be a laborer. B, I was 17 years old at that time. And you’re supposed to be 18 to be an animal keeper, but I got to be, it went through, I went to Lincoln Park and I was working, they signed me at the farm in the zoo, which I loved. Though I was working with domestic stuff, I just had so much fun there. It was a great first experience with large animals, that were probably a little easier to deal with than with the exotics.
