A MEMORABLE HUG

Sharing Stories

November 7, 2022 at 12:24 p.m.

Baby Orangutan Pinterest

...by Pat D'Amico

A MEMORABLE HUG

In the late 1950s, I was teaching third grade at Webster School in Ballard. The dad of one of the boys in my class was the director of The Woodland Park Zoo. I don’t remember how it came about, maybe at a PTA meeting, but Ed Johnson offered to have some zoo animals brought to our classroom.

It was an exciting prospect. We decided to combine the two third grade classes in one room for the visit. We didn’t know what animals they would bring.

On the day of the visit, about fifty children were doubled up on wooden seats. (The desks were attached to runners and had inkwells.) The two teachers were at the front of the room.

Anticipation was high. Finally, the door opened, and two zookeepers came in. One had a large, docile nonpoisonous snake wrapped around his arm. The other carried an orangutan wrapped around his chest. They gave a wonderful presentation, then one man walked up and down the aisles of desks and let the children touch the snake to prove, as he had told them, that snakes are not slimy.

When the keepers were about to leave, they both approached me. The “snake man” offered the snake for me to touch.

Snakes have always given me a zap up and down my spine, but fifty little faces were turned in my direction…so I petted the snake.

Then the other man asked if I’d like to hold the orangutan. Indeed, I did. The little animal wrapped his long arms around me and nestled his head on my shoulder. It was an experience of a lifetime, and I will never forget it.

Pat D’Amico is a columnist with Northwest Prime Time and sometimes a Sharing Stories author.

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