Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Tradition and the Knowland Park Zoo in Oakland California

Family Traditions... some of them are planned and carefully calculated. Like birthday cakes, family vacations and Christmas Eve. Others happen all on their own and come to be 'expected' by members of the family. Like spaghetti with no utensils on Halloween. (What were we thinking?)

A tradition at our house that just ...happened involves The Knowland Park Zoo in Oakland California. We've never been to The Knowland Park Zoo in Oakland California... physically. But every one of us has been to the Primate Village of The Knowland Park Zoo in Oakland California in our imagination a million times.

And I can tell you why...

Sunday is a special day. Dad is home and takes a part in getting ready for church that day. When the girls were little they liked to have Dad brush their hair while it was wet because while he brushed he told stories. Okay, he told one story but although the story always ended the same, the characters often changed because the victim girl getting her hair brushed got to choose the main character of her story.

To get the full effect of the story it would be best for you to run take a shower and wash your hair first.

Go ahead... I'll wait.

Now that you're back and all squeaky clean, have someone you love brush your wet hair while they tell you the story of:

A Visit to the Primate Village at The Knowland Park Zoo in Oakland California
As told by The Cycle Guy Dad

When Olga was in Kindergarten her teacher took their class on a field trip to The Knowland Park Zoo in Oakland California. (here we often hear about the long bus ride going all the way from NW Washington to Oakland California). Their class like all classes zoomed over to the flamingos because they were new at the Zoo (sometimes it's the hippos or maybe even the Tapirs). While admiring the pink beauties they heard some commotion coming from the Primate Village and decided to follow the noise. (There is ALWAYS a commotion in the Primate Village)

When they got there, they saw a gorilla going mad and banging on his chest. He picked up a piece of day old poop and flung it through the air. (I regret to inform you that the consistency and age of said 'poop' varies between tellings). It flew in slow motion flipping and turning and broke into pieces. They watched in stunned silence as one piece hit her friend McKenzie in the chest and the other hit Olga smack dab on the top of the head.

But don't worry, their teacher always carried baby wipes and cleaned them right up.

And they all lived happily ever after.

This, my dear friends, is a true although somewhat embellished rendition of an experience that actually happened to Cycle Guy when he was in Kindergarten in California sometime in 1970. The victim of the landing projectile was a grown woman and we're quite sure she did eventually live happily ever after.

Could it possibly have been the same day that a goat from the petting zoo ate the name tag off of little cycle guys coat and he worried all day that he would get lost?

What kinds of family traditions do you have that didn't come about with any careful planning?

7 comments:

Mike J said...

That certainly was a traumatizing day for me. Little did I know that it would make for a great over embellished story for years to come. Don't worry I knew how to ride a bike back then too.

Linda said...

Well, I was reading this at work and I got to the part where you tell us to go wash our hair and you will wait. Being an obedient type of person, I ran into the Ladies Room, pumped the soap dispenser a few times, stuck my head under the faucet and grabbed a bunch of paper towels. But I guess I should have read ahead because now I'm at my desk with a dripping wet head and no one here loves me enough to brush my hair and tell me a story. And my keyboard is soaked. That'll teach me to read blogs at work. But it was a good story so it's worth having to buy a new keyboard.

Jenny-Jenny said...

Linda... you crack me up. I hope that high quality office soap keeps your hair soft and shiny all day.

everydayMOM said...

That's hilarious. I'm sitting at Caribou laughing out loud. I think I'm going to have to start reading Cycle Guy's blog.

By the way... does your mom have a blog? I'm dying to know more about her Wii Fit workout. Mine isn't producing quite the same results.

Xazmin said...

I love it! That's an awesome story! I'll have to think about what traditions we have...I know we must have some!

wenderful said...

I love the Oakland zoo! But we once saw a gorilla poop into its hand and then eat said poop. My kids were grossed out as was I.

Thanks for stopping by and helping me celebrate my sits day! I had ginormous fun.

Joy For Your Journey said...

What a fun story. How not fun to have poop thrown at you though. I have to give the tradition question some thought. We have a lot of things we do regularly, as in weekly, daily etc., but nothing creative like story time at your house. :-)