Zoo

Week 1 -- 6 July 2007

Phrases like "This place is a zoo" or "He/she lives in a zoo" come to mind before the idea of the place the zoo where animals are kept for people to see. I wonder how many other people wouldn't think of the place the zoo when given the word zoo and asked what came to mind first. I, for one, haven't been to the zoo since I was an elementary school-aged child.

My father, way back when he enjoyed having children, used to take my sister, Mary, and I to the local zoo in Orlando, FL several times a year. I remember the animals and the heat. There were some elephants, a few hippos, and several otters in a pool with cement islands. After visiting the Miami zoo, which had natural looking habitats, our local zoo's animals seemed too caged and uncomfortable. I don't remember the lions, tigers, or other big cats, if there were any. These are my favorite animals now. Oh yeah, I also oddly remember a machine that would made a plastic animal for you in front of you for a few coins. I don't even remember the last time I went to the zoo. My father must have stopped taking us as we grew older.

By high school, our lives were a zoo. Three kids and two parents in a modest-sized house. Friends were often over and relatives lived just around the corner. College and dorm life were, of course, zoo-like. Then on to adulthood with it's frantic, hectic zoo-like pace and volume. Is it any wonder that this is now the type of zoo I think of instead of the place I visited as a child where animals were kept?