A Fun Saturday Back in the 1950's

The banyan will also be there after I'm gone.

My parents often took me to the Honolulu Zoo. By the standards of today the Zoo was primitive, but it did have the basic bigs: lions, tigers, giraffes, seals, rhinos, gorillas, and elephants.

The hippos were usually submerged, and it was a treat to catch one of them in full view. I also liked to stare at the Galápagos tortoise, who, when they did move, moved with a slowness that was excruciating to a hyperactive child. The tortoise, like the redwood trees in California, would be there after I grew old and died.

One of my favorite things to do was to feed peanuts to the bears--yes, feeding was permitted. The bears would sit upright and wave their right front paw in a human-like gesture. I needed to make a long (for a 7-year-old) accurate throw to hit the bear in the chest, else the peanuts would fall into a pond, be snatched by a pigeon, or tumble into the moat surrounding the enclosure.

If I behaved, at the end of our excursion Mom would buy me a strawberry shaved ice, then use the exit-only revolving gate (now gone) by the concession stand to go to the car.

And that, kids, was a fun Saturday back in the 1950's.