Well when we got outta the army, we came home in a car. We had a ’50 Ford. I had my wife, a three month old baby, a five-foot boa constrictor, a collared lizard, a cockatiel, a parakeet, a pet ground squirrel, a pet jackrabbit, a box of kangaroo rats. Read More
It was called Modern Aquarium & Bird Shop and I featured ’bout 200 varieties of tropical fish, canaries, parakeets. Ultimately I added parakeets, parrots and even a few monkeys once in a while. But I had a collection of snakes in the backroom. And I had so many people going… Read More
But I also was a little bit of a ham and I told you I used to give talks on my front porch. Well I also gave talks to boy scout troops, girl scout troops, PTA meetings. And I had school groups come to my pet shop and I’d give… Read More
So I told ’em that snakes really are very superstitious. They’re afraid of people. They hate people. Every time they see people, they throw rocks at ’em. They hit ’em with sticks. Snakes really go crawling down in their hole in great fear and then they go to sleep and… Read More
She’s put up with a lot over 63 years, almost 63 years. After you get out of the army, you’re married. Read More
What do you do next?… Read More
And I gave several lectures at the zoo at Fort Bliss at the army post. So that was further my lecture circuit. Made my military career a lot more fun, a lot more interesting than just going out on bivouac all the time with the guns. Now this was the… Read More
So tell me, what were you feeling?… Read More
You’ve never handled poisonous snakes before. Well I had caught copperheads before. I had caught smaller venomous snakes, copperheads. But in fact, we were in a car when the rattlesnake crossed the road and I jumped out and I pinned it down with a snake hook and then called for… Read More
He wanted to see a rattlesnake too. So it turns out that they wanted me to start training. GIs are being shipped, particularly officers being shipped over to Korea on snakebite prevention identification of venomous snakes. But I did go to the El Paso Zoo. Jerry Tordt was the operator… Read More
But he didn’t have any black. He didn’t have any green. He was really glad to get ’em. So he took the snakes, but he gave me a five-foot boa constrictor and a couple other snakes in exchange. So I came home, I didn’t have the rattlesnakes, but I had… Read More
How do I identify harmless from venomous snakes?… Read More
I have to have a pass.” He said, “What do you need a pass for?… Read More
You can’t get a pass in the middle of the week.” I said, “Well I’ve got a rattlesnake. I have to get rid of it. He said, “AW, bull.” He says, “You just wanna go to Juarez.” Fort Bliss is right on the Mexican border. And Juarez where the boys… Read More
You go home and get it.” So I went home, got the snake, brought it back, had it in the trunk of my car in a cage. He came out and looked at it. He says, “I couldn’t believe it. I can’t believe it.” He went back in, he got… Read More
I was in the army. I was drafted in the army at Fort Bliss, Texas. I was served two years. And I had eight weeks infantry training and then eight weeks artillery training, basic training. And then I was assigned to radar and electronics school which is a nine-month school. Read More
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… Read More
We were out drivin’ up into a canyon and there was a black-tail rattlesnake crossin’ the road and I knew that was quite rare and I caught it. I had several rattlesnakes: green rattlesnakes, prairie rattlesnake, diamondback rattlesnake. All indigenous to that area and I brought ’em back. At that… Read More
And about 3:00 in the morning, the storm came in, the wind blew. The trailer started rocking. Rattlesnakes started rattling. Marilyn sat up said, “You got those damn snakes under the bed. Get rid of ’em.” So I had to take ’em out, took ’em to the shower house which… Read More
That you were married. That we got married. I got drafted. I got my draft notice. We were married just about three weeks when I got shipped off to Fort Bliss, Texas. Read More