SL_EditorsNote_3_20_Editor's Note 3 / 13 / 20 12 : 53 PM Page 2 e E D I T O R ' S N O T E Wild at Heart handle seeing an animal that was so dear When I was four years old , my parents packed to me . I still remember staring down the some suitcases , stuffed my sister and me into the backseat grill of the car that nearly ran me over . of our metallic - pea Chevy Impala station wagon , and My point : I’ve been fascinated by animals drove south . Our destination : Orlando , Fla . , home of all my life . That makes this month’s issue Gatorland and Disney World . The trip began rather in - special to me , because it features a number auspiciously . I have only the vaguest memories , but my of stories about the furry , feathery , and scaly parents still talk about it . companions in our lives . Take our feature At a roadside gift shop somewhere in the Carolinas , on Harrison Ford , the man who brought I picked up a trinket off a glass shelf and subsequently Han Solo and Indiana Jones to life . In his dropped it . This set off a chain reaction , shattering shelf latest film , Mr . Ford is doing his part to intro - after shelf , thereby causing hundreds ( perhaps thousands ) duce a new generation to Jack London’s of dollars in damage and lost inventory . After a heated The Call of the Wild . It’s a story about the exchange with the shop’s owner , my parents high - tailed precious bond between man and beast in a it out of there with their butterfingered son in tow . cold , hard part of the world . Count me in . Another moment from that trip remains burned in my memory to this day . While at a rest stop to recharge and top off the gas tank , my parents noticed a group of people gathered by the side of the road , near a stand of trees . A snake , someone said . BILL DONAHUE Like many four - year - olds , I was in love with snakes , lizards , turtles — every kind of reptile Editor and amphibian , among other animals — so my father took me over for a closer look . As bdonahue @ suburbanlifemagazine.com he put me down , I bolted away , right into the street , apparently because I just couldn’t SUBURBANLIFEMAGAZINE.COM MARCH 2020 8 |