Well, (laughs) first of all, I learned there was a big world out there. I think the only place I’d ever been prior to that was the state of Florida. My father didn’t like to travel, and so as a kid growing up, the only place he would go, take… Read More
No, I was general curator. That would have been sometime in, like I said, that would have been right around the time the zoo opened in April of ’74. Things, the zoo went south very quickly. Going all the way back, all the way back to that group of gentlemen… Read More
There was no zoo, there was no revenue. So they would sort of… Mehrtens would on a piece of paper kind of figure out what he thought he needed to pay these people working in horticulture, in the maintenance department, and pay the electric bill. Then divide it by three,… Read More
And thankfully our local utility company, at the time called South Carolina Electric and Gas, allowed us to not pay the bill. The city allowed us to not pay for water and sewer. But they had to pay salaries. So those three governments, the two counties and the city, would… Read More
Fascinating. Now, you…… Read More
So these were the, until you became director, your last title was general curator, or did you continue to move up?… Read More
They’re on their way to the ship, and we made arrangements for you to take a train to Bremen, Germany to meet the tigers and get on the ship,” which is what I did. So I get up on this ship and I asked- I had, one of the officers… Read More
And the ship docked in Miami, and Mehrtens was waiting with his wife and Bill Chase, and who was a Miami animal dealer. And we drove the two tigers to Bill Chase’s compound in Miami, which was like this massive zoo. And we loaded up a truck with, and I’ll… Read More
He refused to believe it. But the significance of that story and the significance of that incident was that I stood up to him and told him, “Sorry, you’re wrong, and you kind of got took.” (laughs) And I don’t know, I can’t explain it, but he just kind of… Read More
I was assigned horticulture, which I did for about four or five months. Had a ball. My salary was $6,750 a year. That was my first salary. And I had an apartment. Life was good. And one day I was out in the zoo working with the horticulture department. And… Read More
And I had had very little contact with him because I was working in horticulture. The contact I had had with him was not always pleasant. He was not a good manager of people. But I reported to his office and he said, first words out of his mouth, he… Read More
That trip, which I think about all the time, was a very life-changing experience. And when I say life-changing, not because of the experience of taking care of two tigers, but by what had transpired with Mehrtens and animal dealers before, during, and after the trip. He actually had been… Read More
I’m not sure what, but anyway, he had been involved, John Mehrtens was a… He was a reptile guy. His entire career had been reptiles. And so he had been involved in the very first sea turtle sort of conservation project in South Carolina on a little island called Fripp… Read More
And then we turned them over to DNR, who put them on a ship, a boat, and took them out to the Gulf Stream and released them. That was called headstarting, and that was abandoned soon after as being ridiculously labor-intensive for saving only a few turtles. But anyway, it… Read More
So I worked in the horticulture department, planting trees and shrubs and clearing brush and doing this stuff out in the zoo site. There were only two departments at the time. There was the horticulture department and the art department, and those were the only two groups of employees. And… Read More
And she says, “This kid over here wants to talk to you about this letter.” And he said, “Well, come on in here.” So we go in and sit down in his office, and he again reiterates the fact that he needs this technician, and he says, “When can you… Read More
I need you to start.” I said, “Well, I have another year of school.” And he said, “Well, I need you to start before then.” And I’m thinking, “There’s no zoo out there, you know. You don’t have any animals.” And he says, “Well, I’m gonna go ahead and tell… Read More
And I go back into the office, which is now a building and now the office that I ultimately worked in for 43 years. And again he tells me that the animals are gonna be arriving anytime now, and you need to be ready, you know, for that phone call… Read More
And then I remembered that several months before, you know, I had gone. I thought, “Well, this is just very strange.” I didn’t answer the letter, but a few weeks later, I went home, got in my car, drove back down, and now there was construction going up. A lot… Read More
You don’t have an appointment, and you’re just gonna have to come back.” And I said, “Well, I can’t do that. I’m going back to school, you know.” So she said, “Well, sit over there, just wait.” Well, about 30 minutes later, the door opens and here he comes out,… Read More