Breasts, Not For Public Consumption

On Columbus Day J and I had the day off. (I would like to thank my place of employment for acknowledging "Bankers Holidays" though we are not a bank).

J knew I would be tempted to spend the bulk of the day running errands, since I am behind on everything domestic with all my recent work travels, but he put his foot down and said we had to do something fun. This is one of the reasons I married this man.

So we headed to the Nashville Zoo. The zoo is only a few minutes from our neighborhood and when the planes from the airport aren't flying over and it's quiet, we can hear the monkeys hooting and hollering from our backyard.

J and I have been going to the Nashville Zoo for years, so we have seen a lot of improvements. On our first visit eight or nine years ago, I was appalled when we got to the elephant habitat and kids could pay a fee to ride the elephants. The elephants looked so bored and defeated, as one kid after the next jumped on their back and they walked round and round a tiny metal contraption they were tied too. Natural habitat, my ass.

But now the elephants have an elephant sanctuary, with a large grassland to roam, a pond to swim in, and all three of them look much happier. No I am not an elephant whisperer, but they really do look content and at home.

One of my personal favorite animals to visit are the monkeys. And judging by the crowd, I am not the only one. There are three monkeys. I am not sure if they are male or female, but they are always moving. Swinging from one branch to the next and then looking at you like "what are you looking at". Hilarious.

There is one monkey that always has a yellow plastic duckie. No matter whether he is swinging through the trees or hanging upside down, he never drops the duck. He moves it around, holding it in his mouth, his feet, his hands, depending on which part he needs to get himself where he is going. It is obviously his favorite toy or security blanket and for some reason that is so damn touching to me.

There is also a meerkat habitat that is neat to check out. These animals have so much expression and are super playful, so it is always entertaining to see what they are up to.

On this particular day in October, it was still hotter than hell and about halfway through I started dreaming of a bowl of dippin dots or ice cream, so we found the nearest concession stand. Sitting there at tables full of kids with their parents or grandparents we eavesdropped on the conversations. Not being a parent myself I am probably not the best judge, but adults say some stupid shit to kids. No wonder kids look at them like they're idiots and the cycle continues.

At the table beside us, a little boy about 5 or 6 years old sat with his grandparents enjoying his cup of ice cream. When the little boy would look done eating the ice cream, the grandfather would chime in, "you know once that ice cream is in the garbage you can't get it back out"? The boy would look up at his grandmother, hoping she would chime in with "shut your trap, if he says he is done, he is done", but all he got was silence. So he would eat a few more bites, in hopes that would be good enough. And we wonder why kids are overweight today. Could be due to all the crotchety grandparents that want to make sure they get all the bang for their $3.00.

After we finished our ice cream we headed off. At some of the animal exhibits the zoo has built little enclosures where you can walk into a covered area with seating and ceiling fans, to view the animals through a glass window. When it is hot outside these places are really nice.

As J and I walked in the Cloudy Leopard enclosure there was a woman sitting on the bench in the far corner with a toddler and a newborn. My first thought was, wow this woman must be super woman to be out here by herself with a toddler and a brand new red faced baby. After further inspection of the situation, I realized we had interrupted her nursing and she was hastily trying to put away all the public breast feeding evidence.

I wanted to say "really go ahead we don't mind". America your uptight attitudes to public breast feeding is total bullshit. We use breasts to sell everything in this country. And I mean everything. But a woman in who is trying to feed her newborn out in public should be ashamed and quickly cover-up. I do not understand this Victorian mind-set and I never will.