Bensonian Childhood

Excitement Rose to Fever Pitch When we Saw This Sign

Occasionally I take a time out on reporting the mundane details of my all too sedentary life to remember some of the formative events from my childhood. Since I want the First Blog Reader and eventual siblings along with their first cousins to understand where their grandfather came from I do this more for them than any other reason. At the rate they are arriving on the scene I’ll be long gone from the scene by the time they’re old enough to understand.

I have to admit there’s an ulterior motive. Wandering down the paths of childhood memories can be a vastly underestimated pleasure, as long as they’re good memories. Benson’s Wild Animal Farm more than qualifies in that category. Anyone who grew up in the 1960s in Southern New Hampshire knew about and probably visited Benson’s. It was one of the true highlights of the summers of my youth. It was located in Hudson, New Hampshire which is also distinguished in the annals of history for producing the ABFA.

Benson’s was a perfect place for a family to spend an entire day. There was a less than first class zoo along with an amusement park. The zoo portion of Benson’s included some truly magnificent animals including a huge gorilla, bears, and a red assed baboon that I never forgot. I will also never forget the smell of the monkey house; my nose crinkles up just remembering it. The zoo never failed to amaze this much younger version of myself. I’ve seen a lot of zoos since then but I never recaptured the wonder Benson’s elicited. There was also a lion show where they performed various tricks. The trainer always seemed on the verge of being eaten as I recall every lion being decidedly unhappy doing tricks (typical cats) and voicing their displeasure in no uncertain terms.

Benson's Unhappy Lions

The other side of the park, I think it was called Kiddieland, was a low rent amusement park with all the typical rides along with food (now that we were away from the monkey house). We usually couldn’t afford going on a lot of the rides, there were four of us kids, but my parents always managed to get us on to a few which made the trip all the more special. We typically brought a picnic lunch which we ate on a small lake that had a fenced in herd of deer nearby.

A Map of Benson's in its Heyday

It wasn’t a day at one of the modern parks with all their pre-packaged closely managed fun but it still holds my heart in steadfast grip. It was a time before my parents split up and never underestimate how important just hanging out with parents/siblings is. This was also before you had to wait in an inevitable line for virtually anything at a park; probably why Benson’s went out of business in the 1970’s. So thank you Benson’s for being what you were – a landmark event and repository of so many cherished memories for an entire generation of New England kids. As mentioned above the ABFA grew up in Hudson and her parents have promised to take us on a walking tour of what remains of the farm which has been turned into a town park apparently. I can’t wait.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a blog post if we weren’t blessed with some of the First Blog Reader, whom I hope to take to a zoo someday, along with her brothers, sisters and cousins: