Teresa was the baby of the family, about six months old with red curly hair that becomes very unruly when she gets too hot.
While we were walking through the zoo, I remember hearing a woman saying to my mother, what a cute redheaded, baby girl you have.
I remember that being a very hot summer and we were all dressed in our shorts and short sleeve tops.
My siblings ranged from the age of 10 years to six months.
The Birmingham zoological park opened in 1955 it had 50 acres with six exhibits.
“Monkey Island,” was filled with monkeys of all kinds, climbing, on rocks, swinging in trees, and just having fun.
We spent several hours just watching the monkeys play.
There was an elephant house, a bear moat, a birdhouse, a snake pit, and a sealed pool.
When we left the zoo, we stopped at a country store to buy lunch that was our dining out.
Dad would find a country store that carried stick bologna.
He would have the store clerk slice just enough bologna for each of us kids to have a sandwich.
He would also buy bread, potato chips, and sodas for our picnic.
Then we would search for a rest area that had picnic tables that were in the shade and that is where we would eat.
We did not have cell phones, Nintendo DS, or any handheld game to play.
Our games were made-up games.
We would read car tags, to see what state they were from.
When we were growing up all tags looked the same except for the ID number; each state had its own unique color and motto.
Today many people own specialty car tags and when you see them you have no idea what county, state, or even country they are from.
Billboard watching and repeating the jingles of the advertisement was a fun game.
We did not fuss, fight, or complain while traveling as children do today because if we did our dad would stop the car break a limb off a tree, and whip us.
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| Teresa age 6 |
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| my baby sister a few years later |
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