Well, primarily I would say my mom and dad are my biggest mentors as I was growing up. My dad was very hardworking, had a very long stride, and I spent most of my time, I walked very fast, and my people at the zoo always wanted to know how… Read More
I like to do carpentry, woodwork, and I played with that. And so each one of us kind of had a skill that we did as the three boys and myself growing up. And so we kinda learned from all of the things around the farm. So it made you,… Read More
Well actually I didn’t go to any zoos at all until I went down to Auburn, Alabama, where I went to vet school. And while I was at Auburn, we worked with the Montgomery Zoo and the Birmingham Zoo, and I got involved there, and those were the first zoos… Read More
Horses, and cows, and goats, and sheep, and dogs, and cats. Read More
Did you have any teachers, mentors that affected your life when you were doing this and at school?… Read More
We were the only kids in our school that were happy when we went back to school. All the rest of the kids were like, “Oh God, we gotta go back to school.” And we were sitting there going, “Hallelujah, I don’t have to get up at 5:30.” (Barbara laughs)… Read More
Not a zoo veterinarian, ’cause I didn’t know anything about zoos, North Carolina didn’t even have a zoo at that time. But I knew I wanted to be a veterinarian. Read More
Well what was your first, what zoo was the very first zoo that you remember you actually saw?… Read More
What kind of animals were you dealing with?… Read More
Just all farm animals, horses?… Read More
Yeah, farm animals. We had farm animals. We had cows, and horses, and pigs, and chickens, and all that kind of thing. So we basically had the farm animal setting, the old farm buildings, and everything you could think of from a farm standpoint. I was involved in 4H, showed… Read More
Very much so. We grew up on a farm, and so I had three brothers and myself, and I credit my parents with a lot of the gusto I have, for lack of a better word to put it, because they treated me just like the boys. I was no… Read More
So on the farm, were you, did you go to the city?… Read More
Piano, piano. Piano and organ. Tell us a little about your childhood, growing up. Read More
Were animals part of your life?… Read More
And who were your parents?… Read More
What’d they do?… Read More
My parents are Joe and Peggy Thomas, and my dad was a school teacher and also has a farm with tobacco, and soybeans, and corn. And my mom was a music teacher, actually. So she taught music and raised four kids. Read More
Piano, violin?… Read More
Okay, I’m Dr. Barbara Baker. I was born in Sanford, North Carolina in 1956. Read More