We let all the little towns know, and sure enough, he did it, let me get this right. One, two, three. On the fourth day he went into Daytona beach in the ocean and we raised, didn’t do too good. We only raised $11,000. His feet were bloody. That was… Read More
Now, as you were raising money, did you have a vision for what you wanted to do with this money?… Read More
He ain’t going anywhere out here, okay?… Read More
So that was one of my fiascos at that zoo. I had another one, too, I can’t remember what it was about diarrhea. But that’s another story. I can’t remember it. So you were, you were looking for animals for the zoo. You were approaching people to try and sponsor… Read More
I made up to 15 over two years. No healthcare or nothing. Robbie hooks the trailer up. We go out to the golf course. We’re going out there, and I’m going 35 or 40. I make the turn going to golf course like this. Unbelievable, Robbie’s still alive if you… Read More
Flies off the back of the car, goes a golf course that way, don’t, thank God it wasn’t a ditch. Goes across the golf course and hits an oak tree. Didn’t hurt the elephant ’cause he flew out the back of the thing, but broke, Robbie, two of his ribs… Read More
He said, “Paul,” I said, “Forget it, Robbie, you didn’t hook it up right.” I finally got the elephant after two-and-a-half hours. It cost me a little over $8,000 for the golf course, $8,000. He got on the greens and we, and I didn’t want to hurt the elephant. I… Read More
The Pachyderm Emporium, by the way, the golf store I created?… Read More
Well, I took the pachyderm, little So Big, I told you, the elephant?… Read More
I had me a little horse trailer. while you always on a farm, you always check your trailer. You put it all your, you always, no matter who puts your trailer on, you check it. You have to on the farm. Well, Robbie, my buddy Robbie. Robbie got a $4… Read More
And you think I’m kidding?… Read More
You ask my wife. I literally wanted to die. I learned my lesson then. I said, I finished the Lord’s prayer, they did. And I said, “People, I’m sorry, I,” They did start laughing, thank God, after the prayer. But I felt like a piece of garbage. I said, “I… Read More
I said, “I can’t do this with Petie. “He’s just not good for my speeches.” but that’s kind of what happened. I mean, everything happened. I even had a central, you’ve read my book, maybe. At the center for our zoo, I tried to create everything. Read More
Didn’t have a secretary. Do my stuff, go back over to the zoo, help clean cages, help feed, do speeches for like Kawanas. I don’t care what it was. If there were three people, a little church group of women, I don’t, oh yeah, that’d get me a mynah bird,… Read More
And Petie, I got him from a guy who was a, I don’t know where he hung out, but Petie did say all S H I T, Okay. He’d say he acted like a vacuum cleaner. He did about four or five things. I took him to church. I didn’t… Read More
It wasn’t, you didn’t have much back then. I took him to this church, and I’m sitting there and talking to women. And I said, “Could you folks,” I started, my wife’s father’s a minister. So the ladies said,”Can we start the Lord’s prayer?” I said, “Yes, Ma’am, go ahead.”… Read More
Oh my gosh. Read More
Were you an animal keeper or just sit at a desk?… Read More
Oh I didn’t sit at a desk, but I had a little desk in a bank building on the second floor about two blocks from the zoo ’cause we had no office at the zoo. We had a freezer and cooler, and a fence and a parking lot out of… Read More
But to me, that was the biggest thing in my life. I had an office. They put Zoo Director Jack Hanna sign onto that door. You’d think that I was president United States of America. I swear to God. I’d go like this, I’d walk through there. I didn’t wear… Read More