The Hippopotamus and the Hippocampus

Everyone talks about how wonderful the San Antonio Zoo is. I guess there is just enough counter-culture in me (and Jeremy), though, that we resisted going just because everyone raved about it.

Turns out that some times, everyone is right. The San Antonio Zoo is amazing.

We went there with the Fords on our second day in San Antonio. Jeremy and Jenny had a vague sense that there parents had taken them there once when they were small children. Paul had never been. I had gone as a child and had a single vivid memory of walking in the entrance and seeing the flamingos. The memory included a hill at the flamingo exhibit which my sister's stroller rolled down. Since I am four years older than my sister and the stroller was definitely an umbrella-type stroller, I imagine it was either the summer I was five or the following summer when I turned six. Either way, a very long time ago and I didn't expect to actually see anything as it was in my mind's eye, both because of the likelihood of remodeling and the trickiness of memory.

When we walked in, we did see these statues, which both kids immediately wanted to climb all over. We picked a direction and walked steadily up the hill to the other side of the statue and the landscaping behind it.

When we turned the corner, I was shocked to see... flamingos! I turned around, and sure enough, over the built-in bench and planter box, I could see the entrance. I could also see, in the absence of the obviously new built-ins, that a stroller would indeed, roll down the hill from the flamingos to the entrance. It was very strange to find my memory so validated.

From the flamingos, we went on to the aquarium, because of course we hadn't seen enough fish at Sea World the day before.

We saw a lot of different mammals, and I was really enjoying the zoo too much for a lot of pictures, although I did find that the look of the animal enclosures was more in line with what I remembered the bears' habitat looking like as a kid, so I wonder if the San Antonio Zoo was more of a memory-maker for me than the Houston zoo.

As we walked through the zoo, Mr. Ford kept getting text messages and e-mails. Mrs. Ford was giving him (and really, through him, his boss) a hard time for working on PTO, so I had to take this picture of a very guilty-looking Mr. Ford working at the zoo.

I had asked Summer about the San Antonio Zoo before we went and although I couldn't remember any of the things she told me about the kids' section, I did remember that they sounded very neat and so we headed out to find it.

Sydney really enjoyed the indoor play space and wished we could have spent more time there. We also played at a couple of the outdoor areas, including the wading river.

Of all the things we did, though,I think feeding the fish was the kids' favorite. There was fish food dispensers all over the place, so Sydney got to feed the fish three times. (Jack was asleep for one of those.)

Our favorite exhibit as a family, though, was the hippos. We actually had to go there twice just for the experience. Neither the Waco nor the Houston Zoo have hippos, so they were a real treat. I also had many fond memories of the hippos at the Houston Zoo as a child, back when they had them, so it was another section of the memory lane for me.


When we first walked in, it actually took all of us a minute to realize the hippos were in the tank. All of these fish were swimming around what looked like two large rocks in the water. Mrs. Ford had already walked through and had told us there were hippos, so I did a double-take with the "rocks" and realized it was the side and head of the two hippos I was looking at. A minute later, one of them moved and Sydney asked, "Are those real?" in an incredulous tone. It took the hippo moving enough to come up for air for Jack to see past the fish to the giant water mammals.

Between the flamingo moment at the entrance and seeing the animals that were my favorite as a child, I had a lot of activity going on in the old hippocampus. The strangest moment, though, came when we passed this machine.

I am sorry, in retrospect that we didn't shell out the $2.00 to get one. I don't know why we didn't, other than it only took quarters and it seemed impulsive. I swear I not only remember that machine but that I once had one of these giraffes.

It wasn't something I had ever thought of without seeing the machine, but once I saw the machine, I could feel the heat of the plastic, smell it, and could remember the texture of the figure, with the sensation that a fingernail, dug deep, could peel at the plastic. Sure enough, when I got home and read about these machines, they date from the 50's and 60's and so were likely at the zoo in the early 80's and yes, the molding process is very hot, they use a burst of dry ice to quick cool it, which still leaves it hot to the touch, just not quite as burny, and you can indeed smell that burnt plastic smell off of them. (No one on the internet seemed interested in digging their nails into them, so I couldn't verify that piece of sense memory.) I know few people with childhood memories as detailed as mine, so it was very strange to find a hidden memory like that.

It also made me think about Sydney and her memory. She is closing in on an age where her memories will begin to "stick." Anything we do in the next year or so (or possibly that we have already done) will become the foundation of her conscious childhood memories. She has already forgotten much of her first two years of life. She cannot remember a time without Jack, so she thinks it's strange that there are picture of our family without him. She cannot remember any of her time with Uncle James, which breaks my heart, but makes me all the more resolved to cement her relationship with Uncle Jonathan. She is starting to have expectations regarding holidays, so I know she has some memories that are lasting from one year to the next, but she doesn't have a lot of specifics yet. I expect that this coming summer and the following holiday season, from Halloween to New Year's are going to be HUGE for her.

It makes me so excited that I get to be there for it.