I was three
when I rode the elephant.
She was big.
They said she was old.
She went slow.
I was very high up.
My Mum, running beside us
and waving at me, looked little.
The seat swayed and wobbled.
I asked if I could get down.
All the grown-ups, my family,
told me it was a treat.
They said I would always remember
riding the elephant at Melbourne Zoo
the day I turned three.
the day I turned three.
Elephant at Columbus ZooPHOTO: SHELL KINNEY[CC-BY-3.0 (HTTP://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/3.0)], VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Ah, so sweet. Very vivid. k.
ReplyDeleteSuch a delightful read :D
ReplyDeleteAlways we tell little ones what we wish we had known at their age. Ha!
ReplyDeleteMy mother-in-law rode an African elephant on the occasion of her 70th birthday. That was something she had always longed to do.
ReplyDeletelucky you!
ReplyDeleteI can imagine how high up you felt at age three! Wobbly!
ReplyDeleteFunny how adults can be blind to a child's not taking a thing the way they assumed she would! From a 3 year old's perspective, riding atop an elephant could be a genuine thrill, OR it could be pretty darn scary.
ReplyDeleteInteresting ... What I'm picking up on is that maybe the adults thought the speaker would remember this as an extremely thrilling moment, whereas how it was actually filed away was much more matter-of-fact -- perhaps because a child that young doesn't have the context to know how unusual this event is. Am I on the right track?
ReplyDeleteYou are. But even more than that, it was, as others have noted, scary – and no great pleasure, it seemed, for the elephant either. And yet ... it has indeed remained in memory all these years.
DeleteMixed emotions indeed.
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing these lovely memories Rosemary
ReplyDeletemuch love...
Rosemary, the feeling I get from those last lines is dead on...what was viewed as "harmless fun" when we were children, we now know is very often animal abuse. This is so well done.
ReplyDeleteYes, that feeling is what I hoped to convey.
DeleteThis one is so great, the child's perspective of being scared... yet you do remember more the thrill afterwards... what a true treat.
ReplyDeleteThe clue is in the title. Not thrill remembered, but the child's fear and elephant's tired plodding.
DeleteSomething to remember indeed. I believe that most things we rem from early childhood are unpleasant experiences. My youngest event that I remember was an undeserved beating by my enraged father. I also remember my first and only camel ride at age 47.
ReplyDelete..