Monkey Island Memories

I'm not sure how I got to talking about the Como Park Zoo.  It was I suppose a natural topic to get to eventually, as my grandson is very, very interested in animals and many of the books we read together reflect this.  One of his favorites for a time involved Naughty Monkeys (actually, is there another kind?) at a zoo who reach out and grab the hats of visitors.

It brought to mind a time very long ago, when I was maybe 7 years old and my class at Lowell Elementary school went to visit the Como Park Zoo in St. Paul.

I don't recall much, just snippets.  There was a Galapagos tortoise you could ride. There was a big, languid gorilla; you could put a dime into a vending machine and it would cast a plastic sculpture of "Casey" for you to take home.

And there was Monkey Island.

It was like a big cement swimming pool.  I remember the bottom as being painted turquoise.  The central area was a jumbled pile of rough stone.  The inhabitants were monkeys, seals and alligators.

Each had a role.  The seals swam round and round making rude noises and begging for bits of fish.  These were conveniently for sale.  The monkeys scampered about.  Probably kids also threw them snacks but I don't recall seeing this done.  And the alligators just sat in the sun.

Naturally my young brain saw alligators and monkeys in close proximity and envisioned the possibilities.  Mind you, I did not want the monkeys to get eaten but I did want to see them tease the alligators enough for them to take a lunging snap, followed by general monkey howling and the throwing of sticks and dung!

 

The last photo no doubt shows a school group much like that in my memories, but a decade or two earlier.

It has long since been renamed Seal Island, the simians having been moved out to sweller digs that have no murderous reptiles to add dramatic effect.

For the best I suppose.

Incidentally, Monkey Islands were once quite common.  Like the Como Park example many were WPA work projects during the great depression.  Changing attitudes towards the care and treatment of our distant cousins seems to have relegated most of them to obsolescence.  

Hmmmm, I could see adding another category called Monkey Island to my subject listings, and start hunting them down with the diligence I have previously devoted to Brewery Caves.......