Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My

The economy, as all of us are aware, is pretty much hitting rock bottom. It’s getting harder and harder for many places to pay their bills, especially those places that have a hefty amount of fixed costs and are considered a luxury by the working class individuals that frequent them.

So it came as no surprise that a local Zoo started handing out free entrance passes within our community. By forgoing the usual $8.00 entrance fee that they normally charge, they get a hefty amount of foot traffic through the gates and start making money on snacks, lunches, and souvenirs. I wouldn’t exactly call it a trap, but it’s a clever way to trick some individuals into coming and pay the bills, so I applaud them.

This is exactly the way that they roped my wife into driving the 1 ½ hours to the Tulsa Zoo. We loaded up the kid (and everything else we owned) to make the trek and enjoy the day. I spent the better part of it trying to point my 9 month old son’s eyes in the general vicinity of animals and name them for him. Which is why I’m standing in front of a 5000 pound pachyderm pointing and repeating “Elephant, see the Elephant …” all the while my son is trying to grab the string on his little pants so that he can put it in his mouth.

As it turned out, the people handing out those free passes must have hit every trailer park from here to Tulsa. I didn’t realize it was national meth lab day, and every homemade chemistry department must have shut down for them all to make the pilgrimage. We must have seen everything from a 16 year old mother of 4 (no twins mind you) to a twenty four year old grandmother.

The Count felt right at home since few of them had any teeth there either.