I went to any, the Indiana University campus at South Bend, that was literally across the street from the Potawatomi Zoo. Powan Zoo is in a park called Potawatomi Park Mis Walk Avenue. And there was Indiana University, literally across the street. So I could actually go from cage to… Read More
Obviously, grammar school, high school, but where did you go to school for your higher education?… Read More
When I was growing up, you know, because I grew up in South Bend, Indiana, just 90 miles east of Chicago, could convince my folks to, let’s go to the Brookfield Zoo, the famous Brookfield Zoo. Okay. So almost annually we would do a summer trek to the Brookfield Zoo… Read More
So yeah. Just all kinds of zoos. So tell me about your schooling. Read More
And we had herpetology, well, people showed up ’cause they thought it was herbology herbology. It was about plants and herbs. No, it’s about reptiles. And so it was a small cadre of geeks. Okay. And John, who formed that group, I still keep in contact with him. He’s a… Read More
And we were able to go, and Dr. Adler, who I think just passed away not too long ago, welcomed us into, into his facility and gave us a tour and visited with us numerous times. So we had questions, but we would go see Dr. Adler at the University… Read More
So when you were growing up, what zoos did you see growing up and what impression did they have on you?… Read More
’cause I guess there weren’t a lot in captivity then for breeding purposes. Several years later though, Ray Polly calls me up and says, hate to tell you John, but that, that that tortoise got stolen out of the exhibit at the Brookfield Zoo. So they actually walked out with… Read More
Would you say you started out as a herpetologist?… Read More
Oddly, yes. Okay. And it all goes back to my freshman year in high school, I guess turtles were easy to acquire and I was very fascinated by them. And my freshman year in, in, in high school, another guy in my homeroom, John Burling, was very interested in snakes… Read More
Pet shop gave me credit and I was able to get a turtle and swap for, for the skunks. But yeah, it was just kind of, I lived in the country and just thrived on it. And we’re talking about, you said you had a turtle credit for bringing the… Read More
But then I grew up and I, I bought my own little house in, in, in, in South Bend, Indiana, and established a big facility in the basement. I’ve actually built pens in the basement that I could keep all my turtles and tortoises in. And, and just kept, and… Read More
When you caught the skunk in the trap, how did you deal with that?… Read More
You, you very gingerly walk over and unhook the little latch that holds the door shut. Then you get a very long 10 foot clothes line pole. That was back when people hung their clothes out on clothes lines. And you had these very long aluminum poles with little fork… Read More
When he was ready to go. And I can even remember the neighbor down who I, I mowed their lawn. They had skunks in their backyard and they were really upset. And I set a trap to help move the animal out. I caught three baby skunks and I took… Read More
And my mom in particular, we went to the library all the time. Once a week on Fridays. Mom would pick us up at school, head to the library, head to the library. I always headed to the zoo section. I always headed to the zoo section. And my mom… Read More
And Menagerie manner was just a classic back then for people who loves Zoo was about Gerald Durrell’s building the zoo on the Isle of Jersey in, in the Channel Islands. And he had other books too that I’d read, you know, animals in My Suitcase and all kinds of… Read More
And my dad built me a big shelf and everything in the basement so I could keep all these animals. And, and it was just, and then when I was a young volunteer at the Awa Zoo, in about 15, they had a little Cayman, which is a South American… Read More
We always had dogs. I always had beagles. I was raised by beagles. Okay. ’cause my dad was a hunter and encouraged us to have animals. So besides the dog had parakeets Guinea pigs. Okay. Then when I got a little bit older and started catching the turtles across the… Read More
People didn’t like spiders and snakes, you know, it sounds like a, sounds like a song. You know, I don’t like spiders or snakes. And so, especially when I was in high school, I actually acquired some tortoises. There was a animal dealer, reptile dealer in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Larry… Read More