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Parks pro recalls monkey businessJohnnie Johansen has had more than 34 interesting years as superintendent of parks for the City of Big Spring, but the most interesting was that monkev businessWFor 15 years, Johansen had themonkevs in Comanche Trail Park on♦his back, and they were always getting into somethingT1IF MONKEY cage, which housedfour or five monkevs for visitors to the city park to see, was located where the jungle jim now stands Those monkeys kept the park superintendent’s job from ever getting dull.For one thing, they were drunk a lot Beer drinkers would open cans, drink just a little and then throw them up on top The result was a cage full of drunk monkevs Despite a sign that warned folks tostav awav from the vicious”•monkeys, people insisted on getting close and trying to feed them.TYPICAL W AS one man who called Johansen late one night and asked him to come down to the monkey cage and get his glasses and fountain pensbackThe man explained that he had justwanted to feed the monkevs a little,ii i ii Ibut one reached and snatched everything out of his pocket Anytime they were able to grab someone's glasses, Johansen said, thev loved it. The monkevs would sit. wv p* ~ ' ■' wback and laugh teasingly.Another time a monkev snatched a dress completely off a little girl, leaving her standing there in her underwear Once the monkeys all escaped, and the parks crew chased them up and down the mountain most of the day until the monkeys finally got tired and returned to their cageBUT JOHANSEN said the monkeys were good in that they attracted a lot of attention for Comanche Trail Park When they died of old age, they were not replacedJohansen became park superinten dent immediately following his discharge at the end of World War II He had worked brieflv for the citvw ■ ■ *prior to the warWhen I first came,” he recalled, I knew evervbodv in town, but IT ■’T# flpdon’t anvmore The town doesn’t lookthe same We used to go rabbit hunt ing where Howard College is now.”JOHNNIE JOHANSENCOMANCHE TRAIL Park wasn’t much when Johansen started, but it isnow The citv has made manv im-provements, he said.The improvement Johansen is theproudest of is the fret* tourist parkingBefore the overnight trailer park was put in. travelers would ask Johansen it thev could stav in the citv* Wpark, and he would line them up in thearea near the amphitheater.When the Parks and Recreation Board for the citv was created, Johansen approached the board with the suggestion of free overnight facilities.The board went for the idea with more enthusiasm than the park superintendent had imagined Rest rwm facilities had hot and cold water Electrical outlets were installed,The city receives dozens of letters each year from travelers who praise the facility Many call it the best place to camp between the East Coast and California.JOHANSEN, who lives with his wife Elizabeth on property which adjoins Comanche Trail Park, will retire in August The couple has a son John, who works in the out patient program at Big Spring State Hospital; a daughter, Dr Betty Johansen of Plainview; and a son Carl, who has just been discharged from the Air Force and plans to attend Texas TechThough he will retire, Johansen is not through growing things He plaas to go into the nursery business at his home.But he won’t be raising monkevs.-J TOM GRAHAM
Newspaper Details
Big Spring Herald
Big Spring, Texas, US
Sun, May 23, 1976
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 04 Feb 2022
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