For All My Omaha Peeps...

Anyone and everyone who grew up in Omaha, Ne (circa 1980s) had parents who shopped at Richman Gordmans.  And that was FANTASTIC!  Not because they had lay-a-way and our parents could make payments on the new schools shoes for months before we got to wear them...but because they had the Elephant!  Yep...the Richman Gordman Zooland was where it was at back in the day!

Back in the day...my parents, my brother, and I would head through the front doors of Gordmans and immediately diverge to our assigned areas.  Mom and Dad headed to the carts to fill up on all those bargains and Eric and I rushed to the Zooland!  We could have cared less how long Mom and Dad shopped...hell, for all we knew, they could have left the store, gone to dinner and a movie, and come back for us later!  (I'm only assuming they never actually did!) 

Richman Gordmans had an elephant, a hippo, a kangaroo, and a few camels!  And as I recall..the Elephant was HUGE!  It was like 20 feet tall and the trunk was SO FAST!  You'd crawl up in the elephant and sit down on the inside and laugh and joke and then climb ALL THE WAY up and s-w-o-o-s-h on down...it was amazing!  And you could fit like 29 kids inside the camel for secret meetings and the kangaroo fit about the same on his tail.  Man...those animals ROCKED!

But...like all good things, the animals came to an end.  Richman Gordmans packed em on up and let em collect dust.  Probably because they could not longer scrub the stench of urine out of them...or they simply invested far too much money in disinfectant to keep them afloat...but to all kids Omaha-an, it was devastating!

So..you can only IMAGINE my excitement when Omaha Children's Museum started a campaign to bring the animals back to life!  Donations poored in and restoration began on the elephant and his best buddies.  New patches, new paint, a whole new start...

I phoned a friend and made plans for a playdate..this would be perfect!  We made a pinky swear to recapture our youth...Kensington and Bailey could play their hearts out and Stacy and I could relive our dreams and take one last slide down Mr. Elephant's trunk!  Bring it on...

Insert Photo!

What the hell!  Note the 2 year old perfectly fitting through that opening behind me!  Did the Elephant shrink!?  Is my memory REALLY that poor?  20 feet tall my rear!!

There was NO way in THE WORLD I was even trying to go down the slide...I mean, my counterpart Stacy tried..and she got stuck!  She's half my size!  So...in an instant, I had to hang up my childhood...and my memories of the Elephant and his friends were slightly adjusted...I guess that's what happens when you're the mom!

In honor of all the amazing times we had...for all my Omaha peeps...here's to our Richman Gordmans Animals!  They'll always be HUGE in our hearts!!

The Elephant

The Hippo

The Camel

The Kangaroo

On a quick sidenote:

I have to admit, they look better now than I ever remember them looking.  And they smell a whole lot better, too!  And it helps to know they are forever preserved at the Children's Museum for all our future munchkins to climb up, slide down, and stuff into....and maybe, just maybe...one day, when its NOT so crowded and I haven't had such a huge lunch...I'll take my chance and squeeze on in for one last slide...sideways! lol