When our kids were young, we took a Griswold-ish trip from the East Coast to the Southwest in a loaded-down minivan with a classic Sears X-cargo strapped to the top. One of the non-human passengers was a stuffed monkey named Bonzo, who for reasons unknown lived in a large Pepperidge Farm Goldfish cracker box, whose insides were devoid of crumbs and scrubbed clean. Occasionally, Bonzo would appear outside of his box and hijinks would ensue, sometimes waving to and entertaining passing vehicles. This continued until a night was spent at the Wigwam Village Motel in Holbrook, Arizona. The trip resumed in a loop to the Grand Canyon, through Monument Valley and on to Four Corners and Mesa Verde, Colorado. Eventually, it was notice that Bonzo was no longer with us. We determined he was last seen at the concrete wigwams in Holbrook. We feared the worse, because if he was fully encased in his cracker box, someone may have found him and toss him into a dumpster. However, we hoped that maybe a child traveler discovered him while spending a night at the wigwams, and he continued to give joy to another family. Or possibly, he was given a seat upon a shelf in the motel office, where he could greet travelers from all over. Our son grew up and eventually moved to California. When he drove through Holbrook all those years later, trailering his belongings, he stopped in at the Wigwam Village just to see if maybe Bonzo was still there, keeping watch over the historic Route 66. There was no sign of Bonzo, though.
My grandson tells me, "This is the saddest song you've ever written." However, we still think positive thoughts about the fate of Bonzo and his Goldfish box.
The monkey in this video is a stand-in for the original Bonzo, who we've dubbed, "Bonzo 2.0". I did find a snippet of Bonzo footage from the aforementioned trip, which I've included in this video, as well as a clip of the minivan at the Wigwam Village.
Medium: Music video
Year: 2025
Details: 1:40 minutes
