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7

HENSON: Not so easy. Would you at that point--because you mentioned in [[underlined]] From Jungle to Zoo [[/underlined]] that you weren't that interested in that type of thing--would you have wanted to have gone on the trip at that point?

MANN: Oh, yes.

HENSON: You would have, it struck your adventurous spirit.

MANN: I didn't know much about zoology or natural history.  I'd grown up with dogs and cats and horses, and I loved to ride.  But I didn't know anything about wild animals.

HENSON: Or being out in the jungle. Did you have a lot of pets while you were growing up, a lot of animals around?

MANN: Nothing wild, though.

HENSON: Right, but all domestic.

MANN: Nowadays, children have hamsters, and gerbils, and parakeets. I just had dogs and cats, and our neighbors had very good riding horses. When I was living in Washington, shortly after World War I, I used to hire a horse in a livery stable and go riding in Rock Creek Park.

HENSON: Also, did you attend circuses very much as a child?

MANN: No, I went often as my father would take me.