Tufts Blogs

So fun fact: I’m a third generation Jumbo. Both my Mom and my Nana went to Tufts which is something I’m pretty proud of. It’s especially fun walking around campus and seeing places that you’ve heard stories about or having phone conversations without having to explain where/what all the building names are. It’s like having a piece of my family with me all the time, which is pretty cool.

A few weekends ago, I went to the Stone Zoo with some teammates. Little did I know, just ten minutes from Tufts at probably the cutest zoo ever was where my mom fell in love with my dad. My mom, having studied early childhood education at Tufts, was working as a special education teacher a school in the Sommerville public schools. She had grown particularly close with one of her students, let’s call him Sam. Once Sam was no longer a student of my Mom’s, she and my dad started to take Sam to do fun things that his home life didn’t allow for, like going to the zoo. Rather than visit all the animals, Sam was focused on the polar bears and the polar bears only. As soon as they were admitted into the zoo they made a beeline for the polar bear habitat, only to find one totally zonked out polar bear. It was the winter, and that polar bear was in full hibernation mode. For Sam, this easily could have turned into a potential crisis. Well, my dad being the great guy that he is, stood with Sam on his shoulders for close to two hours singing “wake up polar bear, wake up!”. Finally (and probably because it was so sick of hearing that song), the polar bear woke up, looked right at Sam, opened its mouth to yawn, and plopped right back down. Apparently that’s when my mom knew my dad was the one. 

Sadly, the Stone Zoo doesn’t have a polar bear anymore. Major, the Polar Bear that resided at the Stone Zoo starting in 1975 lost his battle to cancer in 2000. There are, however, two black bears in the old polar bear habitat now. Those bears were also completely conked out when I visited, only this time it was because it was so hot outside. But who knows, maybe if I had sung Sam’s magical “wake up” song long enough they would have awoke for the occasion!

Feature Image courtesy of ZOO New England: Stone Zoo (http://www.zoonewengland.org/stone-zoo/our-animals/mammals/black-bear)

Image of Major to the right (when he wasn't so sleepy) courtesy of: http://www.massmemories.net/Stoneham.php?pageNum_Images=13&totalRows_Images=423