Childhood Memories . . . Destroyed!

First, it was the revelation that Mike Brady wasn't enjoying his time in bed with Carol.  And that Marcia and Greg and Greg and Mrs. Brady were an item. . . ewwwww!

Then, this guy

turned into this guy

 

But did they have to ruin Sea World for me, too?  For those who missed it, #Blackfish was blowing up social media right before the holidays.  From the CNN website about the film:

 

Blackfish traces a 39-year history of killer whales in captivity leading up to the 2010 killing of Sea World trainer Dawn Brancheau by the 12,000-pound orca, Tilikum, a whale previously associated with the death of two other people. Blackfish chillingly shows that this incident of violence is hardly an isolated one, along the way exploring the extraordinary nature of orcas, thought to be one of the most intelligent species in the animal kingdom.

 

It was a hard film to watch, and it took me several evenings of going back to it, till I caught the whole thing.  The film blames Sea World, and other marine parks around the globe, for not protecting its trainers as well as for the injustice of keeping whales in captivity.

 

Going to Sea World was an annual event every summer for my family.  For a kid stuck in the Midwest (and never even seeing an ocean till I was 17), it was a huge thrill.  I can still remember walking through the entrance for the first time the year it opened (1970), even though I was only seven years old. (**None of these pictures are mine**)

 

Sea World was a little bit of magic.  There was the star, Shamu (and later, Namu), the killer whale.  You were warned when you entered the outdoor theatre that if you sat in the first six rows, you'd be getting wet.  Shamu would swim around the pool with his trainer doing various stunts and at the end of each show, an audience member would be chosen to come up to the pool and get a kiss from Shamu.  Another popular show featured dolphins/porpoises who would jump in the air through hula hoops and whatnot.  This was in the day when kids could be captivated by low tech entertainment, sitting on an aluminum bench in the hot sun.

 

There was also a waterski show on the lake with some corny theme every year, such as the Hatfield & McCoy's. I didn't ever enjoy it, but my parents were impressed by the waterskiing acrobatics.  Another weird part of the park was a Japanese garden/pagoda area, where you could pay to watch a female diver retrieve an oyster with a pearl (?) in it from the bottom of a pool.  As a kid, I had zero interest in any of that.

 

No, what I loved was the Clyde & Seymour sea lion and otter show.  Those sea lions and otters were just full of hijinx!  You could always count on one of them to push a trainer into the pool or to blow a clown's horn, conveniently located within their reach.

 

My other favorite was the penguin encounter.  You rode a people mover (like in an airport) through a sub-zero (that's how it felt) building, while passing every variety of penguin standing around on blocks of ice.  The only natural part of the whole thing was probably the smell!

 

In today's world, Sea World doesn't seem like such a good idea. But I still have fond memories of a time when I could sit next to my brother and actually enjoy his company while watching a sea lion, dressed as a waiter, deliver a breakfast tray to two otters on their honeymoon.  Good old fashioned family fun.