My wife, Gwynne, proudly proclaims her “tacky tourist” credentials. Whenever we visit a town and stay in the cheapest motel, she'll go to the lobby first thing and load up on 3-fold travel brochures from the rack. There's always a couple coupons & money off at the water park, maybe some horseback riding, but that's not what she's looking for... Gwynne wants the tacky places. Anyplace called Monkey Jungle, “where humans are caged & monkeys run wild” is a must see.
Monkey Jungle was started in the mid-1930s when Joseph DuMond released half-a-dozen Crab-eating Macaques onto 30-acres in Miami, Florida and let them breed. To make an amusement park out of it, he built wire-covered enclosures the tourists could walk through while the monkeys, now in the 100s, climb over the top & drop down little dishes tied to chains for the tourist to put raisins into. The monkeys are quite sophisticated, if you only put 1 raisin into the cup, they will shake the chain until you add more before pulling it up & munching them down.
Monkey Jungle met our expectation of tacky to the tee & we were perfectly satisfied but sometimes these things turn into goldmines & Monkey Jungle was El Dorado... We got our first hint when we walked to a dilapidated concrete cliff face enclosure housing an old Orangutan. It was hard to believe a roadside attraction had monkeys, let alone a great ape. The orangutan looked lonely but he seemed healthy enough, and we could see some toys laying around for him to play with. He didn't seem to care about us. Now the day was totally a winner. We were satisfied, UNTIL... There was a sign that said “King the Gorilla.” A gorilla? In some place called Monkey Jungle on the outskirts of Miami? You gotta be shittin' me!
The sign with King's history on it said he was born in Africa in 1958 & brought to America to work in the circus. “OMG, does it get any better than this?” I thought. King quit touring with the circus in the mid-1960s for reasons of political correctness and Monkey Jungle “adopted” him because his teeth had been pulled so he could not go to a zoo with other gorillas. It all sounded plausible, we couldn't wait to see him so we bought some tickets into a grandstands, and after a minute, big old gray-backed King the gorilla came out, and he was happy to see us, especially Gwynne. King must like small blond women. The keeper through a banana at King to get his attention & it must have trigger his circus routine because he stood tall & pounded his chest, turned summer-salts, jumped in high in the air in a back flip (I didn't know gorillas could do that), and danced in a circle. Every so often, King would look to make sure we were watching, and reassured, he would redouble his entertainment efforts. Apparently King can add, sleeps on a BarcaLounger & he has his own TV with a remote he knows how to use (he watches “Ellen” & Disney movies). He drinks whiskey & smokes cigars, and has no contact with other gorillas, so he doesn't know he's one. Like all the gorillas Gwynne & I have seen in our touring, he is a ham & loves attention & would have continued prancing around for us had we not been escorted from the stage. (Limited exhibition time per human society orders.)
Mark this down as one of the best roadside attractions ever, right up there with Gatorland. But it got better! When I was a kid & my parents would take me to zoos which I loved more than anything but the library, there were machines you could put 50 cents into & it would inject mold a plastic statue of one of the animals. A couple of times my grandparents paid for me & my brother to each get one but they we too expensive, and eventually went away. I hadn't seen one of these complex devices in year but King had one! $2 now but well worth the money, and it says “King” on it.
Then, because life just keeps getting better, the gift shop was selling finger-paintings by King for only $20. It's hanging in my house right now, right next to Lilly the tiger's painting, and the penguin: one of our prized possessions. It was such a great experience, Gwynne also bought a “Monkey Adoption,” for my youngest son's, Haven, birthday so that he now sponsors one of the Macaques, raisin money is my guess.
Absolution Style by Premium phpBB Styles
