Zoo Chimps #9

Scan10915, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. Even I have a chimp story, when Barbara and I were married, she added to our family a five year old son named Ben, a giant brown poodle named Robert and a young chimpanzee named Tommy. Not to mention a house trailer pulled by a new Oldsmobile. One day Rex and Wally Naughton showed up from Clyde Bros. winter quarters in Edmond bringing Ben some Christmas toys during which time he asked Barbara if he could have the chimp back since it would help with whatever financial arrangements they had made. She reluctantly agreed. The next season with Clyde Bros. was the stuff legends are made of. "Tommy" rode in the cab of the elephant truck with Rex, ran free around the lot, proved to be an incredible chick-magnet and was always good for a free round of drinks in pubs. Much to the distress of Howard Suesz. Early the next year, the Choctaw County Sheriff paid us a visit, along with a finance official demanding full payment for the car and trailer or they would be repossessed. Needless to say we found ourselves moving into the front of the bull truck, a place I was right at home. Barbara was livid and went to my dad on a rant explaining that she could have Rex arrested and after thinking for a while he said, "Sounds reasonable to me, you got the guy's wife, son, dog and chimpanzee so now let's throw the son of a bitch in jail!" A few years later Barbara and Tommy were reunited on the Orrin Davenport dates where he was now a member of Helen Haag's chimp act. I was surprised that he still remembered her, so much so that Helen would ask Barbara not to be around whey they were being led to and from the ring. Buster told me that they had stopped by the Clyde Bros. lot and Howard Suesz was so glad to get rid of him that they got him for next to nothing.