Are you gonna have any saltwater fish?” He was smart. “Well, how much do you really need?” We had a budget of 75,000 that our contractor friend had estimated. And it was probably 100% under. Well, I didn’t know that at the time. So I upped it 25,000. I said,… Read More
He said, “Who’s working with you?… Read More
Somehow Mr. Hittson and Mr. Carter had not hit it off at some point. And he said, “No, I’m not gonna go with you. You’re on your own. But don’t mention,” (laughs) it was a sea lion thing or something. Anyway, actually, I think it was a poker game. Mr. Read More
I mean, he wanted to know more about, “Well, here’s a tank, but what’s gonna be in it?… Read More
I’d drawn up what I’d call a shop drawing, but you could build it from it. And showed that to him. He was very impressed. Read More
His newspaper was running daily things on raising money. And I think they’d raised just, you know, 10 cents here and a dollar there and all that. I think they had maybe $2,000. He calls me up and I’ve never met the man yet, but he was a fixture in… Read More
What should we do? What’s the major thing?” Well, I thought about that. And I really haven’t thought that I would be asked this question. But I said, “I love aquariums.” I said, “Fort Worth needs an aquarium. You know Dallas has an aquarium.” Fort Worth and Dallas are very… Read More
“Well, Lawrence, what do you think we need the most?… Read More
So what to do with all of that?… Read More
Well, the… I’d been in Fort Worth maybe a week when Hittson brought the park board out to the zoo to meet me. I was very, I mean I was really… It was a 180 degree switch with what I was dealing with in Dallas, there I was as a… Read More
Plus a degree, masters and all. And I had a lot of publications, a lot of that I’d written, okay. Read More
the story about how the James R. Record Aquarium was built?… Read More
Sure. Oh, that was a one, that was my first real project in the zoo world. And I had come from Dallas, and I’ve told you the circumstances of Dallas and all. And here it was a new world. I wasn’t the kid next door. I was this college kid… Read More
“Who’s he conning now?” As my friend Dolan said. Well, he said, “Suppose you that you can’t pay, it doesn’t work, then what happens?” And I said, “Well, we will give them the herpetarium back.” “But it’s on city property.” “Yeah, they know that, but they haven’t figured it out… Read More
And then I had an attorney on my board. Now, Snakard was on the bank’s board. My attorney was very conservative. Read More
Isn’t it gonna be built in the zoo?” “Yes.” “Well, but that’s city property.” “Yes.” “Well, when we take a mortgage, we own the the land.” I said, “Well, we can work that out, I’m sure. I’ll get co-signers.” I didn’t have any co-signers. But I said, “How many co-signers… Read More
And probably good, because I was probably crazy on, you know, what the hell’s Curtis doing now money-wise?… Read More
He said, “My bank is just a pissant bank. Go down there and borrow the money, against you get some sort of a feasibility study, based on the aquarium. Hell, they give, they loan money every day to businesses. This is a business. Okay. So I went down to the… Read More
He said, “Well, where’s the building gonna be built?… Read More
Well, where are we gonna get it?… Read More