It was wonderful, wonderful experience getting around the place, learning what was going on. I’m curious when you said it was interesting working at the Great Ape House. Well, because the great apes were very intelligent. And at the time, the great apes, like the gorillas and stuff, there was… Read More
So you had to really know where you were standing. And at that time, the older keepers would sometimes want to pleasantly beat up or set up the younger keepers. And here I was a brand new keeper, and Sinbad, the gorilla was the big guy in the building. So… Read More
And as I’m walking there and all of a sudden, I see him on a top shelf with his hand cupped and I go, and I knew what was gonna happen. And I knew they had set me up, but I can’t go anywhere. I can’t retreat. I gotta keep… Read More
And I ducked as I got through the door, the big steel door and it was like a machine gun and he hit the wall behind me. It was a babababap, and the keepers are laughing. They think it’s so funny. But I think they respected me a little that… Read More
And at the time I took the exam, I think there were like 30 or 33 people, many of them were keepers already, wanting to become civil service ’cause they were TAs that they took the exam with me. I was the college kid who took the exam. And I… Read More
And my name was on top just ’cause I scored high. So Mr. McFetridge who originally had gotten me the job through my cousin, he sees my name and he’s circles my name and he sends it back to my cousin and says, most politicians will, I think it’s great,… Read More
So what were your responsibilities?… Read More
Well, it was different. They farmed me out to everywhere. I worked in the nursery. I was in charge of the nursery or you know, temporarily. I was worked at the bird house. I worked the reptile house. I worked the primate house with the great apes and that was… Read More
(interviewer laughing) Now, when I would go out and I’d talk to friends or something, like I’d take them on a tour. You know, friends would come, I’d say, “Hey, you wanna see the marmosets? I got the keys for that.” That was about it. And I’d go, we’d go… Read More
Can you talk about that?… Read More
Well, the zoo at the time, Lincoln Park had what they called a lot of animal keepers. Some were civil service, but many of them were TAs, temporary appointees. And they liked having temporary appointees ’cause Lincoln Park was somewhat political, Chicago Park District. And they liked having part-time TAs. Read More
I got my shot, but that followed me throughout my whole college career. Whenever I had an issue and I had to go to the health service, they would go, “All right, now you were (blabber) you were bitten by a gorilla.” So it was the unique part of the… Read More
Can you tell me about that?… Read More
Well, I was working toward my master’s degree and so I was going to school at night to get my master’s degree. But I needed to work and they had a part-time position, taking care of the marmoset colony, and Lincoln Park had a large common marmoset colony that at… Read More
So when we would get a volunteer, who was a good looking volunteer, a woman who would come in to volunteer, ’cause we had volunteers, they would always pleasantly say, “Well now, you have to clean this cage.” And they were willing to do it. “Now, you take these rubber… Read More
I don’t wanna get to a far ahead of myself, but life is a bell curve. You get 50 employees, some are gonna be excellent, some are gonna be bad, but most fall in the middle. You get seven employees, some are gonna be good, some are gonna be bad,… Read More
Didn’t have to have anybody tell you, “You’re gonna do this. You’re gonna do that.” You knew when your lunch hour was, and it wasn’t a factory thing. I mean, you just knew what your job responsibilities were for the day. And that was an important lesson of managing people… Read More
I had to go back to the university of Southern Illinois, but I’d worked till the very last day because I loved it so much. And well, I was bitten. I knew the next day I’d be at school. So I’ll get my tetanus shot at school, so forth. So… Read More
So I didn’t have much to do with the, Gene Hartz, the assistant. Gene Hartz would collect the money. I’d bring the money to him from the wishing well, but we never really had much to do with the higher ups. Yeah. Yeah. Understood. So you mentioned several names. Read More
I was gonna ask if there’s any staff at the Children’s Zoo who helped school you?… Read More