Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 60

Let’s back up. We’ll get to that. Lemme back up and ask you about your animal business, the exotic animal business. You started with fishes. You said- Tropical fish at 200. Read More

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 61

or you just knew they would sell?… Read More

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 56

They thought it was pretty funny. So I gave a talk about they can’t see very well. They see movement. They don’t see much more. They don’t hear very good. They don’t have any ears and they use their tongue for sense of smell, so it’s constantly going out. When… Read More

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 57

At the end of my lecture I said, “Now if you’d like to touch a snake, you don’t have to. I have a very tame boa constrictor. He’s been touched by thousands of students and you’ll have a chance to touch this.” And so I stood by the door and… Read More

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 58

And so the woman that invited me I told her, I said, “I hope that one gray-haired lady. She took notes all through my whole talk, but then she left early.” I said, “I hope I didn’t offend her.” She says, “You know who that was?” I said, “No.” She… Read More

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 52

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

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 53

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

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 54

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

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 55

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

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 50

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

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 51

What do you do next?… Read More

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 47

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

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 48

So tell me, what were you feeling?… Read More

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 49

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

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 44

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

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 45

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

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 46

How do I identify harmless from venomous snakes?… Read More

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 41

I have to have a pass.” He said, “What do you need a pass for?… Read More

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 42

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

Interview 5420 – Caption Index: 43

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