Oh, she lives 10 miles up the road this way. I didn’t have the money for a taxi one or too much money. So I started hitchhiking. And, and it’s a busy, people are going by, you know, white people are going by, nobody’s picking this kid up. That’s finally… Read More
I said, well, well, well, Ms. Addison. I, I, I, I’m a friend of Dan. I know who Dan Brennan is. What do you want? I said, I, I was wondering if I could come see you. Well, I’m free tomorrow. You can come to lunch. I’m in Lake Nasha. Read More
I get on this bus. I’m the only white guy on the bus, you know, I got, this is 19, you know, 74. I got these, I got a picture. I got these bell bottoms on and this polo shirt. And I’m carrying in a cache case, look like a… Read More
You said, you, you, how old are you in seventh grade, whatever, 13. And I said, well, I like animals. You wanna be a vet. That’s all they knew. You wanna be a veterinarian. So I took that course of, of, you know, of study and got into Cornell. ’cause… Read More
I I was also working at Jungle Habitat. We can get back to that part-time. But I go to Africa on my own with some letters of recommendation from, from an individual at Warner Brothers Jungle Habitat. And I stayed there until my money ran out, which was like four… Read More
And she says, who are you? Why are you calling me?… Read More
Just dogs. And my mom took care of ’em more than I did. I, I wasn’t the kid that went out there. I, and picked up everything and collected everything. I was fascinated with it. But again, a second grade, I think it started there. There’s not one moment in… Read More
And then we went to the museum in natural history and I talked about that and, and the Bronx Zoo. So I was fascinated. So I’m in seventh grade in junior high, and they call it middle school now, I guess. And you have guidance counselors. And the guidance counselor… Read More
Ricky, what do you wanna do?… Read More
Were animals part of your life?… Read More
And that worked out really well. I became captain of the wrestling team and there, there were things I did, you know, like that. And being the resident advisor at Cornell for two years, that really helped my people skills quite a bit. And you mentioned it, but tell us… Read More
And who were your parents? What did they do?… Read More
Winnie and Tony Barongi. Winnie or Winifred. My mother was from German and Polish parents, and who died way before I was born and was born in New York City and met my father in, I think, junior high. And then they went out in high school. She was very… Read More
My mom was just incredible. My dad was typical Italian dad, you know, always, always, always busting my balls because that’s what Italian dads did. And I was an only child, so I, I took the brunt of everything. So I was a little closer to my mother, which made… Read More
Well, my name is Rick Barongi, although my mother named me Roderick because she liked Rick, but she thought Richard was too common. So I had this name Roderick, which I hated when I was young, but I’m Rick Barongi. I was born May 25th, 1952 in Flushing Hospital in… Read More
My legacy is Peterman the chimpanzee, as you know. And well, I would prefer that people think of me as a good zoo director. Read More
How would you like to be Remembered?… Read More
And how would you like to be remembered your legacy?… Read More
I can say that I liked it very much, that I was very happy that they selected me as a zoo director and I did my best to do the job. And this was very satisfying. Read More
There are several of them in England. Almost all the zoos are privately owned. Only I think London, which is owned by a society and not by the city in the way, in that way. And they do all of them, not all of them, but most of them do… Read More