My dad never allowed me to keep any snakes at home. But after he died, I did sneak ’em in and I hid ’em in the basement, kept ’em in the basement. My mother sooner or later became aware of it. In fact, one got loose one time and she… Read More
How did you become?… Read More
What sparked your interest specifically in snakes or reptiles?… Read More
What did your parents do for a living?… Read More
My father was a master tailor and he was managing a tailor shop in downtown and my mother was strictly a homemaker. And my dad died when I was about 13 years old and then my mother went to work at a clothing store as a seamstress. She was a… Read More
Well now when you said you were bringing snakes home, they let you kept the snakes at home?… Read More
And another teacher came by, saw me in the principal’s office. He also knew that I was a nature boy. And he came in and said, “Charlie, what in the world are you doing in the principal’s office?” And the principal said, “He’s about to be kicked outta school. We’re… Read More
Please put him on probation. Don’t kick him out. He’s a good student.” So there was a teacher, believed in me, had faith in me. And as we walked down the hall, he said, “Charlie, keep your nose clean. You don’t have to report me. Just stay outta trouble and… Read More
She was also my graduation partner from high school. We both ended up going to Harris Teachers College which was a teachers college in St. Louis. The only state school that we could afford to and we went two years there and got our two-year degree. And so I’m the… Read More
I would bring a lotta snakes back and bring ’em on my front porch and have all the kids in the neighborhood, I’d give ’em demonstrations. Because most of the kids hated snakes, were afraid of ’em and I was always tryin’ to improve the snakes’ reputation, so I’d be… Read More
I thought he’d help me identify it. He was deathly afraid of snakes. Kicked me outta class. Told me to go out, get rid of the snake. I had it in the sack of coffee can. I didn’t know what to do with it. But there was this young lady… Read More
That was Marilyn, my wife. I put the snake in her locker and I knew her locker was never locked and some of her girlfriends shared her locker. And so I waited around and sure enough when she came with her girlfriends to go to the locker, she opened up… Read More
I’m Charlie Hoessle. Born in south St. Louis on March 20th, 1931. Read More
What kinda childhood did you have growing up?… Read More
Well my parents were German immigrants and I was the firstborn. Actually, my sister first and then I was second. And my parents loved the Ozarks and they went off in the Ozarks. And they loved the beautiful rocks they would bring back for a rock garden and to put… Read More
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… Read More
Do you have anything that we’ve kind of missed or something that you’d like to expand upon that we’ve talked about?… Read More
Anything that-?… Read More
My zoo experience for me has been a very rich and rewarding life. I have no regrets. I have, I have no visions of grandeur. I think I’ve took it, and many times it was, it was a difficult road, but we took it up a notch or two, and… Read More
You’ve mentioned a little about making it better for everybody. In our zoo, in order to enhance attendance through exhibitry, we found that by being very creative, working outside the box often paid in big dividends. Jungle Trails was a classic example of a good exhibit, an immersion exhibit that… Read More