Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Flashback

Sometimes history repeats itself. Let's take this trip for example. My family took this exact same South Dakota trip some, ahem, 30 years ago. As I page through my mom's photo albums, there are pictures of me next hanging on dinosaurs, posing by Mt. Rushmore, and visiting Reptile Gardens.
Reptile Gardens hasn't changed a whole lot in the last 30 years as far as I can recall. They still have lots of reptiles and put on shows every hour, but it seems that the man who wrestles the alligators has either retired or succumbed to the inevitable death and the rattlesnakes that they had in the gift shop have been moved to a safer location!
The good thing about tortoises is that they get really old, and one of the tortoises at Reptile Gardens is 127 years old (or something like that. So here's a little then and now.
Then:
That's my mom (rockin' the Farrah look) and me (and my brother is the boy jumping) circa 1983.

Now:
Ok, so I can't be sure it's the same tortoise, but whatever, it makes for a good blog post. And they don't let you sit on the tortoises anymore, which is probably good for the tortoise but not so good for those who like to recreate photos!

4 comments:

tomandcheryl said...

Oh my GOD.....thats a real turtle? I totally thought that was a statue and I thought they moved it to a different location. All I could think was yeah, it's probably the same one. But holy crap....thats real! I didn't realize it until you made the comment about not sitting on the tortoise anymore.
~Cheryl

Mom2BeautifulGirl said...

That is the coolest thing Sharleen. It makes me want to take the kids to the lake where we vacationed when we were little. What precious memories.

Josh and Rya said...

Aunt Sharon rocks!

phdmommy said...

I'm sure it's the same tortoise! They live for over 100 years, it must be!