When I was a little kid and my parents took me to the zoo the thing that fascinated me were the pigeons. We lived in the country, where all animals in their right mind ran from people. The zoo was in the city, and I was drawn to the bold but wild birds walking around all over.
I’m still kind of fascinated by pigeons.
To a little kid, a goat is just as exotic as a lion.
Probably some type of ground squirrel. Otospermophilus is one possibility based upon the picture, don’t know if any extend into Arizona. Glad you liked them, but in urban settings they’re a bit of a pest.
Not just the face. Their whole bodies are striped.
Ahem: the cute little guys at Brookfield Zoo are called thirteen-lined ground squirrels.
And yes, the city kids on their end-of-the-school-year field trips would go absolutely berserk over these little guys, long before they got near the lions and polar bears and giraffes (and dolphins and tigers and fruit bats and orangutans…).
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On a trip to some theme park full of roller coasters and water park rides, we were most enthralled watching a duck from the lake downhill of us laboriously make its way all the way up the hill. Took a good 10 minutes. It might have spotted us eating something, because it stood there with its little head to one side waiting for a handout. When nothing was forthcoming, it metaphorically shrugged and made its way all the way back down the hill…
Back when we were kids, my grandmother would have Thanksgiving, a long labor-intensive meal, everything made from scratch including mincemeat pie, bread, and even home-growed vegetables. My brother piped up, “gee, this celery is good, grandma”. They thought that was hilarious and told the story over and over. Ha ha.
The best thing about New York … we rounded a corner and suddenly there he was … Barbar the Elephant! I rushed up and got my mum to take a picture of me and him, from within the costume I could hear muffled words: “Get this woman off me”. I was about 41 and a half at the time.
My friends spent a fortune taking the kids to Disneyland - what did the kids enjoy most? The Mickey Mouse outlines printed in the butter.
All I can remember from my first trip to the Ringling Bros Circus is that I had a snowcone.
When my daughter was - well, I forget, maybe 4 or 5 - the place that really got her excited was the reptile house. She was running from display to display shouting out “More snakes! More snakes!”
That first Fennec pic just melted me into a puddle of goo. Terminally cute!
My first memory of Ringling Brothers was a trapeze artist falling - not into a net.
The only thing I remember about Parc Safari was being licked by a giraffe. It’s kind of hard to focus on anything else after you’ve had a giraffe tongue on your face.
On the chance that the McDonald’s you’re talking about is the one with the giant play area just off the 40, then yes, it’s still there. If you’re talking about another one…well, there’s a chance it’s still there too! We like our McDo’s here!
Another Disney-related one; from when we went to EuroDisney, one of my sister’s strongest memories was the Mickey Mouse pizzas. Lucky for us, my father managed a pizza place at the time, and he’d make her pizza with Mickey ears!
I visited Paris when I was 9 or so. The thing I remember the most was the stench of urine in the subways and the dogshit on the sidewalks. 
All fine stories, but what the HELL is a cupelo?!
Assuming it’s a misspelling then, cupola
And just to confuse things, Antelope Ground Squirrels look a lot like chipmunks :). Really the differentiation between squirrel and chipmunk is pretty arbitrary - they’re all more or less closely related.
They’re not two separate groups - a chipmunk is a type of squirrel. People will look at you funny if you talk about the “chipmunk squirrel,” though.
Bit of a whoosh here obviously. Have no idea where it was located (hense the point of the thread).
I remember it was cool for 1978 (and “big” by 6 year old kid standards), basically, I remember climbing inside the structures that were shaped like the McDonaldland gang (you remember those guys? Grimace? Hamburglar? Mayor McCheese?) The play area (which I think was outside) was McDonaldland themed that way.
I highly doubt that particular aesthetic standard has withstood the test of 30+ years of time (find me a six year old today who knows who Grimace is!*), if it really has, though, I am in awe! :eek:
I took my younger niece to her first movie. She couldn’t remember the movie afterwards, but told her parents how much she liked the way the curtain went up and down. Hey, it was way back in the day when they actually had curtains.
I got your Grimaceright here!
I all fairness to the kid, that* is *pretty awesome.
My mother loves to tell about how we went to Ringling Bros Circus when I was 5 and I fell asleep.
As for the boxes-as-toys, my kids have a crapload of toys. They have everything they need to play with and then some. But for a time, the thing that each was passionate about—and they would fight bitterly over—was one of the attachments to the vacuum cleaner.
Weirdos. I love those little weirdos.
