Oddly, yes. Okay. And it all goes back to my freshman year in high school, I guess turtles were easy to acquire and I was very fascinated by them. And my freshman year in, in, in high school, another guy in my homeroom, John Burling, was very interested in snakes… Read More
Pet shop gave me credit and I was able to get a turtle and swap for, for the skunks. But yeah, it was just kind of, I lived in the country and just thrived on it. And we’re talking about, you said you had a turtle credit for bringing the… Read More
But then I grew up and I, I bought my own little house in, in, in, in South Bend, Indiana, and established a big facility in the basement. I’ve actually built pens in the basement that I could keep all my turtles and tortoises in. And, and just kept, and… Read More
You, you very gingerly walk over and unhook the little latch that holds the door shut. Then you get a very long 10 foot clothes line pole. That was back when people hung their clothes out on clothes lines. And you had these very long aluminum poles with little fork… Read More
When you caught the skunk in the trap, how did you deal with that?… Read More
When he was ready to go. And I can even remember the neighbor down who I, I mowed their lawn. They had skunks in their backyard and they were really upset. And I set a trap to help move the animal out. I caught three baby skunks and I took… Read More
And my dad built me a big shelf and everything in the basement so I could keep all these animals. And, and it was just, and then when I was a young volunteer at the Awa Zoo, in about 15, they had a little Cayman, which is a South American… Read More
And Menagerie manner was just a classic back then for people who loves Zoo was about Gerald Durrell’s building the zoo on the Isle of Jersey in, in the Channel Islands. And he had other books too that I’d read, you know, animals in My Suitcase and all kinds of… Read More
And my mom in particular, we went to the library all the time. Once a week on Fridays. Mom would pick us up at school, head to the library, head to the library. I always headed to the zoo section. I always headed to the zoo section. And my mom… Read More
We always had dogs. I always had beagles. I was raised by beagles. Okay. ’cause my dad was a hunter and encouraged us to have animals. So besides the dog had parakeets Guinea pigs. Okay. Then when I got a little bit older and started catching the turtles across the… Read More
People didn’t like spiders and snakes, you know, it sounds like a, sounds like a song. You know, I don’t like spiders or snakes. And so, especially when I was in high school, I actually acquired some tortoises. There was a animal dealer, reptile dealer in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Larry… Read More
And my brother and I, I dunno if you’re familiar with, have a heart traps. The good old have a heart traps that live catch of animals didn’t hurt the animal, but it was a live catch. Well just became very interested in what was around. And so we got… Read More
Oh, animals were definitely a part of my life. You know, I got really lucky ’cause South Bend, Indiana lived on the outside of town on Lucas Road, and there was a swamp across the street and a big woods right behind our house. So I just walked out the… Read More
Or were animals part of your life?… Read More
And so I was born to Joe and Maryanne. Good, good Catholic names in South Bend, Indiana. Read More
I was born to Joe and Mary Ann Chappo. My dad was a, he was a draftsman. He never was able to go to college, so he wasn’t considered an engineer, but he was a draftsman with a big drawing board and he could design all kinds of equipment and… Read More
And can you tell us a little about your childhood growing up?… Read More
And who were your parents? What, what did they do?… Read More
John Chappo. Born in South Bend, Indiana, March 20th, 1957. Read More
Ooh, I guess, you know, as an approachable individual, one that was open-minded. I like to think that I was always receptive to new ideas and could work with an individual that brought a new idea forward and said, Hey, let’s look into that. Let’s make it work. And, you… Read More