My special place forever

Last week I was sitting in my office when one of my colleagues mentioned that the Catskill Game Farm was closing its doors for the last time in October. There was a gasp from everyone in that office when the news was read out loud. From the oldest to the youngest, there wasn’t one person whose childhood memories didn’t include at least one trip to the Catskill Game Farm.

I wasn’t around in 1933 when they opened their doors. Petting zoos were a big thing back in the era of the big Catskill hotels. The Catskill Game Farm, which was family owned, was one park that you just thought would last forever.

As a kid it didn’t seem like summer until school ended and mom and dad took the day to go to the game farm. We always would pack a lunch and some goodies for the ride. Sometimes we could choose something from the snack bar, like a grilled cheese sandwich. Always we were allowed to go for a ride on an elephant, and feed baby animals from a bottle. The height of the trip was the train ride through the exotic mountain goat section, where all the greatest classic film footage of toothless little kids was taped on those first 8-millimeter cameras.

It seemed only fitting to me, the self-proclaimed park junkie, to make that one last trip to this classic place. I called my cousins and grabbed my kid and made my way through those beautiful Catskill mountains for the last time.

At the main gate, the scent of pine trees and animals filled the air. We grabbed our souvenir map and proceeded down the well-worn trails.

In the background, the shrill cries from peacocks filled the early morning silence. I was a little bit hungry, so I grabbed a coffee at the concession stand, ordered my grilled cheese sandwich and sat at a picnic table with my family before heading over to see the rest of the animals. Of course I had to purchase a tray of animal crackers to feed to the giraffes.

When I was a little kid my parents would buy a tray of these same biscuits. My father always carried them and doled them out evenly between the three of us little kids. Not because we wouldn’t share, but because my brother Bill would always try to eat them himself.

The first loop took us to the wild horses, and then to the white rhino. No gates needed, just that small moat. I had to wonder why he didn’t run around and try to get away. Maybe he just liked those biscuits. I tossed him one and he seemed to wink an eye at me.

Up the hill and around the bend was my favorite, the baby animal nursery. Of course, I had to buy several bottles of milk to feed to the deer and goats. My daughter wandered over to the baby piglets, who were waiting inside their pen by their storybook house.

I looked over at my grownup child and had to wonder, has it really been that long since I brought her here on a Super Kid trip with the school?

Lost in the moment, I was almost knocked over by some happy little goats, four of them nudging each other out of the way as they fought for the last drop left in the bottle.

Finally it was time for the gift shop.

When we were little, we were each allowed to pick one item from the $5 bins. Usually my brothers would pick rubber snakes, which they would use to annoy me on the long ride home. During our later years, we would find ourselves collecting pennants to add to our collections. Mine had a giraffe and would stay on the wall next to my New York Mets, Freedom Land and Howe Caverns pennants. Since I was daddy’s girl, I could usually get a change purse with a key ring holder too.

So on this day and on this trip, it was only appropriate to buy a snazzy pennant with a giraffe, which I will hang on my office wall for many years to come. In the clearance basket I found my change purse, which was a real value for $1. My daughter thought that I had lost my mind, but I lost my original change purse sometime after I discovered boys.

As I left this wonderful place for the last time, I collected my thoughts. I guess that life has become so high tech and complicated that animal parks in the future will have to feature dinosaurs. But for me, it’s nice just to have a great, gentle memory. Sometimes just a moment to pet a lamb, eat a cheese sandwich and ride on a train is enough to give us the greatest memories and pleasures of a lifetime.