For the Regulars, It Wouldn’t Be a Good Day Without a Visit to the Zoo

They call themselves “the regulars” and most mornings they can be found at the entrance to the San Diego Zoo shortly before 9 a.m. waiting for the front gates to open.

They are men and women, many retired, who don’t feel quite right about a day that begins without a visit to the zoo. They like to come first thing in the morning, before the caravans of school buses and hordes of tourists arrive, so they can have it all to themselves.

“It’s something to do, when you’re retired you’ve got to do something,” said Jerry Murrie, 55, an almost daily fixture at the zoo since he moved to San Diego from Illinois in 1975. “I’ve always liked zoos.”

Murrie retired early at age 42 after operating a family-owned business, a mobile home park.

Loves to Walk

On Thursday morning, the first regular to catch Murrie’s eye was Tillie Barrett a 75-year-old woman in a red sweat suit and white sneakers who race-walks around the zoo every morning.

“Even the traffic out here would like to move as fast as she walks,” Murrie said admiringly.

Barrett said she considers walking the best form of exercise.

“I feel better mentally and physically,” she said. “You meet nice people. You talk to the animals and they respond.”

Murrie said that Barrett was typical of the regulars.

“Most of them come for the exercise,” he said.

With his khaki pants and polo shirt, his straw hat covered with pins made from snapshots of zoo animals and his San Diego Zoological Society staff pin which lists his title as “zoo nut,” Murrie is the most regular regular of them all.

“I’m treated almost like an employee,” he said.

The other regulars are as likely to go to Murrie as to one of the keepers for information when a favorite animal looks peaked or has disappeared from its usual spot. They also look to him for information about the 20 or so members of their informal network. “Has Rose gotten over the flu yet?” they’ll ask. “Was John here yesterday?”

“The regulars kind of look for each other,” Murrie said. “If you don’t see someone for a couple of days, you check up on them to make sure they’re not sick . . . If my kids don’t see me for two or three days, it’s not unusual. But if they don’t see me here, someone’s going to call the house.”

The camaraderie among the regulars continues to draw them back to the zoo. Although they watch the animals closely and have definite favorites, most regulars say that the zoo is the most pleasant place in the city to just walk and pass the time.

“I do a lot of walking,” said John Evans, 57, who has been visiting the zoo regularly since he retired from the Air Force. “I had a little heart problem, so I need the exercise. And it’s safe here. You don’t have to worry about getting mugged. There are places to sit down and if you get sick, one of the vehicles will pick you up and take you to the hospital. There’s always people around to help you.”

Ellin Krumholz, 56, says that on weekday mornings, she too comes to walk and makes a special trip on the weekend to visit the animals. During the week, she stays away from the areas where the most popular animals, like the gorillas and the pandas, are kept because they draw big crowds that get in her way. Dressed in sweat pants and a down vest, she moves at a brisk clip.

“When I’m walking, I stop only for major things,” she said, citing the recent birth of a baby giraffe. “It’s heaven in here. You don’t have stray dogs or stray males or anything else to bother you. You’re comfortable and can walk without any cares . . . . It’s got a serenity. It’s what you think San Diego should look like when you come from New York.”

Members of Zoo Society

Like the other regulars, Krumholz is a member of the San Diego Zoological Society. For a $40 annual fee, she gets unlimited access to the zoo.

“I couldn’t do this if I had to pay $15 every time,” she said. “I don’t think most people take full advantage of their memberships. They think they have to come here and spend the whole day. They don’t realize they can just come for an hour. It’s the best place in the world to walk.”

But some of the regulars come primarily to visit the animals.

Phil Franklin, 65, and his wife Michael, “over 60,” returned home Wednesday night after a three-week vacation and rushed to the zoo first thing Thursday morning.

“We left Christmas Day and we were here that morning,” Mike Franklin said. “But we’ve been gone three weeks and that seems like a very long time to be out of our routine and not see our animal friends.” Mike Franklin has been coming to the zoo about five times a week since 1983. At first, her husband came with her only on Saturdays but since he retired from his job as a marketing executive last summer, the zoo visits have become a daily routine for both of them.

“We usually start with a cup of coffee with the gorillas,” Phil Franklin said. “We like to catch them early. They get a little lazy later in the day. But in the morning they come out and get the food the keepers throw to them. They’re a little more active.”

Brought Up to Date

At 10:30 a.m., the Franklins joined a handful of regulars for a coffee break at one of the zoo’s snack bars and learned the details of what happened in their absence. Barrett tells them that a sable antelope was born and that a favorite tiger and a beloved polar bear are being shipped out to new homes.

“The human company is very nice too,” Phil Franklin said. “People who like animals can’t be all bad.”

Mike Franklin said she had been delighted to find that she and her husband were not the only San Diegans for whom a visit to the zoo is a daily pilgrimage.

“There is a big group of regular zoo people,” she said. “I was surprised to find that. I thought, ‘My, there are other people who do this too.’ ”