Elephant in Paisley Museum

[janwbay]

Thanks for this Scotmum.

Well I think I may be a wee bit strange, but I actually liked the smell of the elephants at the Kelvin Hall.  It was (as I remember it) a sort of stable smell, not horrible, like dogs' or people's.

I may have forgotten the bad bits of course.

Janice
x

[carolineasb]

Hi,

I don't particularly remember the elephant, but, there used to be some kind of store of stuffed animals at the Museum as my father as a teacher was allowed to borrow them for classes through the Council.

He definitely borrowed a full-sized kangaroo and I also remember a duck-billed platypus!

Carolineasb

[janwbay]

That's brilliant Caroline.
Thanks
Jan

[dave oakes]

I remember that elephant from when i used to hang out at the museum as a kid  in the early 70s. It was in a sorry state then as I remember. It had long hairs sticking out of it and always looked like it was about to fall apart!
Its funny i never knew about this website until this evening, i was reading about Gerry Rafferty and found a link to the exhibition at the museum and i thought back to when i used to visit so long ago and i remembered the Elephant and wondered if it was still there! a Google search on that let me to this site.  I left Scotland in the late 70s and never returned to live there and several countries later i  now live in the USA so this site looks like it could provide a lot of memory jolts for those times when i have that longing for Scotland that sometimes comes.

[loobylooayr]

Hi Dave,

Welcome to Rootschat 
Yes there are certainly a good few topics being discussed that will jolt your memory banks.
And if you feel like tracing your roots back down the generations and researchimg your family tree/history this is an excellent site with friendly, helpful members from all corners of the globe

And as for Gerry Rafferty (he was a Paisley boy too wasn't he), I once saw him play the old Glasgow Apollo circa 1979/80. "Baker Street" was tremendous. But that should be a whole different thread!

Best wishes,
Looby

[Robdye]

Apparently and I've just been told that this elephant was called Nelly and believe it or not my Great Grand worked in the circus as the elephant Keeper, I cannot remember the Elephant outside of the museum but I guess it was stuffed.

[Malcolm33]

  For what it's worth I don't recall seeing the Elephant when I visited the Museum in 1991.   I guess my late wife Ede would have known it for she lived nearby with her then husband Dick Stewart during the latter half of the 1950's.

[Robdye]

Apologies Nancy the elephant not Nelly

[Robdye]

Funny enough I was doing a search regarding the elephant, don’t have much on the history of it but while it was alive my great grandfather was the trainer, unfortunately I’ve no history or pictures only what my father told me about how my great grandfather ran away from home to join the circus and ended being the trainer until the elephant died.