I was training after I finished school, training academy. But I spent almost every other week out in the desert on bivouac where we would be firing our antiaircraft guns. And then the officers would go home for the weekend and we’d have to stay out there and I’d go out snake huntin’, go up in the valleys and in the canyons looking for rattlesnakes and bullsnakes and horned lizards. And then when I get back in town, I’d go to the library and study all about the local reptiles and amphibians. In fact, it was a course on desert ecology because I learned all about what makes a desert and what kinda plants live in the desert. And so it was just furthering my education. I also caught my first rattlesnake. Marilyn even helped me out.
