And Now for Something Completely Different

Learning the key people, events, and dates of our history is important, but sometimes nothing can tell us who we are as a family better than a simple photograph. With that in mind, I give you Aunt Maria riding an alligator.

It is unknown when this picture was taken, although it was probably in the mid-1940s. Neither do we know where the photo was taken, although my bet is on the Los Angeles Alligator Farm, which was, as far as I can tell, the only alligator farm in California during the mid-twentieth century. 

The Los Angeles Alligator Farm was located in the Lincoln Heights area on the west side of Los Angeles and so would have been an easy 40-mile drive from the Buller home in Ontario, California, If, in fact, the photograph was taken at the Los Angeles Alligator Farm, then one wonders if Maria might be riding Billy, the oldest and most docile of the farm’s many grown alligators. Indeed, Billy was so easy to handle that he starred in a number of movies over a forty-year career (see here and here).

Thanks to Carolyn Stucky for sending this and other family photos. Seeing Maria riding an alligator gives me a whole new appreciation for her—and for what it means to be a member of this family.