I went to public grade school, Mount Pleasant School in south St. Louis and it was real close to the Bluffs. The Mississippi River, south St. Louis. And I would go along the empty lots and the high weeds and look for critters and I found frogs and toads and snakes. In the early days, I would go to the library then. We had a bookmobile came to our school every day. And I’d get the books outtta the library and I’d learn all about the frogs and the toads and the snakes that I seen. And I take the books out so much the librarian would say, “Charles, you can’t take that book out anymore. You have to give other students a chance to take the book out.” And my mother told me, “Charlie, if you would spend as much time with your schoolbooks as you do with your animal books, you might amount to something.” But I did learn a great deal.
