It was going to be a full day of nothing but fun for my older brother and I. My brother was four years and four months older than me so he got to help keep me entertained ( out of trouble). We left early in the morning for the forty mile trip to Oklahoma City Zoo so we could get an early start looking at the monkey’s in their open pit that people would throw mirrors and lit cigarettes to.The monkeys would look at themselves in mirrors and puff on the lit cigarettes and everyone would laugh at them . Then we would walk on down to the Lion Cage and the Bear Cage then we would go watch people feed the Seals . You could buy bags of fish to feed the Seals yourself . We would go look at the Giraffe’s and the Elephants PeeUuh . They stunk .  After a morning of long walks through the zoo we would go find a shady table in Lincoln Park . My Dad would build a nice wood fire in one of the grills , my Mother would peel and cut up some potatoes and my Dad would fry potatoes over the wood fire . It never failed , he always managed to get some ashes in the potatoes . Seems to me that it made them taste better . We would roast some hot dogs and have a wonderful  lunch under  the shade tree . After lunch we drive across the street to Springlake Amusement Park where my Dad’s company was having their statewide annual  company  picnic . They would give everyone that came $7.00 worth of tickets for the rides . Most of the rides were 10 cents and 15 cents so $7.00 was a lot of rides . My Mom and Dad didn’t want to ride anything so guess who got their tickets . You guessed it . My brother and I inherited them . We had a ball . We rode the Tilt-A-Whirl ; The Ferris Wheel ; The Bumper Cars ; The Merry-Go-Round;The Bumper Cars; the Jets ; the Bumper Cars ; We liked running into each other even though my brother usually got the best of me . Then there was this one place that you go into called “ The Fun House “ you could stay as long as you wanted . It had sidewalks that would go back and forth that was hard to walk on . sidewalks that would go sideways and steps that would go back and forth . It had a turning barrel that you could walk / run through and hopefully NOT fall down in . It had air holes in the floor that a man in a control booth operated to blow air up your pants leg or better yet if he could catch a woman with a skirt on he could embarrass her . After all of the play was over with we would go over to the pavilion where the Bar B Que ribs and hamburgers were at . My Dad always picked the ribs . The men would visit and play Horse Shoes . The women would visit and the kids would run around like wild Indians . By the time we got back home we didn’t have any trouble going to sleep.

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES MAMA AND DADDY