Monkey See, Monkey Doo - at the Hampton Park Zoo

If it had not been for the numerous witnessed accounts of others, I would have sworn that my lineage derived from a fictional story.

When touring Charleston, South Carolina and looking for directions to the Old City Zoo, you would be hard pressed to find assistance. But ask any local and they will tell you, that in fact, Hampton Park was just “the place''.

My Great Uncle, Loyd Burris, was a superintendent for the City of Charleston, and he married my Aunt Julie Barrineau. She was a beautiful woman who was known for her fantastic legs . It has been told that when Julie died, in her late seventies, her legs still looked as if she were a young girl. They never held a spot or visible vein… who can imagine?

Now, Uncle Loyd was privileged by his position in that the city allowed him to hold residence on the property as long as he operated as zookeeper. And it was at this home that my family threw some of the best parties in all of Charleston! Now, it may not have been elitist, BUT, if you were lucky enough to have been invited once...then you would wait and hold your breath for the second. Imagine Christmas time and the house bustling, filled with hundreds of people.

The party would start at noon with guests arriving throughout the day and staying on into the night. No one wanted to leave so the adults and children alike would sprawl-out on pallets throughout the house and just like little pigs in a blanket, you might see three in a row on the sofa. While the adults would be inside dancing, telling stories and just enjoying every moment that the party would bring, Sweet Uncle Loyd would win the hearts of the children.

Late at night, around midnight, he would open up the zoo allowing the children to run about, all of them squealing with delight. They would play with the animals, swing on the swing set, and play hide and go-seek on the grounds. It was a time of jubilee, one that the cousins had no doubt talked about all year long. Great Uncle Loyd opening up the whole zoo, just for them!

These were the things they lived for when coming to visit their favorite uncle.

Uncle Loyd was also an amazing fisherman. He was especially fond of flounder gigging. Our family is proud to say that he held a record for the largest flounder ever caught! Exactly where or from whom, I don’t know, but the story goes that the prize fish was the size of a croaker sack. I asked my daddy, “Daddy, was the flounder really the size of a croaker sack?” “Yep”, he said, “I know it was because Uncle Loyd measured it in an o-l-d wash tub and the fish was coming out on both sides”! Yikes, I thought, is this the way they measured things?

Uncle Loyd would fry the fish whole unless they decided to bake it, and in that case, it was cooked in the ground. Either way my Great Grandmother (whom the children called Mama Neil and Big Sister - more on her at a later time) would always start with the eyes and eat them first. She told the children they were some sort of delicacy, the head being “the sweet meat” as she called it.

Now this one particular Christmas, it was especially cold. Uncle Loyd needed to bring some of the animals inside to keep warm. He lined the wide halls of the old house with cages and placed a thin white sheet to cover them. He brought in the parrots, myna birds and even the little monkeys, leaving the larger animals to adjust to the cooler air. The exotic animals had been brought to Charleston from Brook Green Gardens by the Plantation owner himself. Uncle Loyd knew that being from a different environment, they would need special care.

The children watched as the cages were brought in but were told “DO NOT POP the sheets back, from the cages” Well, I know and YOU know, that to say this to a child, WELL it would be as good as done...the temptation far too great! However, dear Uncle Loyd and Aunt Julie were never able to have any children of their own. This explains why they devoted so much attention on the little nieces and nephews. Uncle Loyd would have NEVER imagined that on that night, little mischievous Larry Hoover would choose to do some zookeeping of his own.

It must have been a “tricky deed” what the sneaky child taught those animals. Sure, the adults would be busy drinking their merriments and enjoying the festivities, however, the hallway was open to any passerby. So while adults were “rocking around the Christmas tree”, that bad little boy was teaching nasty business to a barrel of monkeys, and teaching unassuming myna birds how to say dirty words.

Ooh yes, it was my father that taught the parrots, “sailor profanity”. The busy, busy boy! And Poor Uncle Loyd never knew what his favorite nephew -the naughty boy - had done. In fact, once the holidays were over and the Hampton Park Zoo was opened once again, those wayward animals had all sorts of tricks to show the Holy City. Monkey see, monkey do. Like the Christmas gift that kept on giving.

Last Thanksgiving, we gathered around the family table with all the cousins and as is the norm, they started telling “their stories”. And in all of the laughter, my Aunt Jane, (by marriage), piped up and said, “I thought Charlestonians were a more civilized bunch”. “Not this group”, said Uncle Johnny”. “We didn’t know any people like that” “Oh hey, Larry...do you remember what you taught all those animals that one Christmas at the Hampton Park Zoo?” Indeed he did!

And those disgraceful monkeys, their reputation has preceded them. Just last year my father took a friend to her family reunion in North Carolina. When she introduced my father, she told her family all about our “family ties to Charleston”, and about my father’s love of being a tour guide for the city. She also told them about our Uncle Loyd Burris and how he was the zookeeper for Hampton Park. Her sister exclaimed, “OH, I remember the old zoo!! Such fun as a child. Ugh, but those dirty, dirty little monkeys”!!