I don’t think that really hit me until the very late ’50s, early ’60s because at the time I was still getting used to working there and getting to know the people that I was working with. I spent a year in the Bird House. I spent 2 1/2 years… Read More
So they had cottonmouth, and rattlesnakes, and copperheads, and then a few Asiatic vipers. And just, I don’t know, at one point, Armstrong said, “Could you pick up that copperhead?” And I said, “Are you crazy?” He said, “No.” He says, “I’ll do it.” So he reaches in, picks up… Read More
But there was no way to restrain these animals except by hand or with net, because they hadn’t gotten to the capture gun, which I’ll talk about later. But so we would go in with mountain lions, the two of us with the net and net these guys and hold… Read More
So was this your baptism?… Read More
That was my baptism by fire, yeah. And it was always, they take me out and train me on some of the outside yards and the guy would say, “Well, this is what you’re supposed to do. Okay, you have to close just like this. You have to make sure… Read More
So we stuck up there for an hour and a half. Well, what kind of keeper for us now, so you’re a young kid, these were all older farm people. Yeah, mostly older farm people, predominantly African-American for the most part. But they knew their animals, they really did. I… Read More
But he actually was a very nice guy. And he finally loosened just before I was moved out of the Reptile House. And I think back about those days, and there’s so much that went on with me in all these different areas that I just, I don’t know where… Read More
it was funny except for the Bird House and the Reptile House, all the mammal departments, and they weren’t even departments, they were just areas had to report in the morning first thing to the basement of the Reptile House and the head keeper at the time would tell us… Read More
I mean, I really would have, I mean, they didn’t know what a volunteer was at that time, but I mean, I would have certainly been tickled to death being able to volunteer, but fortunately, I was hired and I spent a year in the Bird House. A year that… Read More
But anyway, and we did had an old guy that was blind in one eye. And at that time they had what they called a sand cart and a trash cart. So you’d clean the cages by scraping out the sand into one side of the cart. And then there… Read More
It was just, you’d go into an exhibit. And the next thing you know, you’d hear a click and they’d lock you in. And I was in with a harpy eagle for two hours sitting on the floor of the cage ’cause you couldn’t get through to unlock the lock… Read More
And if it had been five years later, it would have been a totally different situation as far as our careers concerned.” ‘Cause Block moved up the same way. I mean, she was good, she started out in as a supply secretary down in the supply office and then moved… Read More
And that was what Reed was handed when he started as director. And I mean, I was able to see a zoo that could only move forward. And I was fortunate enough to be involved in that, but I forget what I was going now. (chuckles loudly) Well, let me,… Read More
So were you in school when you were doing this gardening?… Read More
No. in high school. I’d graduated high school. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I mean, I wanted to work at the zoo, but I wasn’t sure, I mean, college wasn’t really on my horizon at the time. But about a year later after I started working there,… Read More
And Dr. Mann had retired, Walker retired shortly after Dr. Reed was appointed as acting director because I think he got very angry over the fact that he was passed over. I think he was expecting to get the directorship. So he left and Ted hired, Lear Grimmer from Lincoln… Read More
And I went to Maryland and again at night and it turned out, I was in my third year at Maryland and the courses I needed, I couldn’t get at night, I’d get during the day. And I tried it and it just wasn’t working. I mean, this was actually… Read More
Yeah, I mean, in fact, I used to go out and collect box turtles and we had a garage and during the summer months I’d built this box in the garage that was probably 12 feet by 12 feet and it was full of dirt. And I put all these… Read More
So when did you think that I wanna work in the zoo?… Read More
Always wanted to, well, I mean, literally when I graduated from high school, I went and I tried to get a job. They didn’t have any openings. So I started working, I think my first job was at a picture framing company in Downtown Washington. And then I went and… Read More