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And when the Bronx Zoo was started, and built their reptile house, who would they hire as curator of reptiles but Raymond Lee Ditmars?… Read More

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Ditmars was a prolific writer, and he was a good writer. And he made all this, he wrote about the “Snakes of the World.” That was my first book by him. I poured over that book. I could tell you… In fact, if you haven’t read it, it’s got the… Read More

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I know you were collecting other things, but how did that real interest in collecting snakes start?… Read More

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You obviously, at a young age knew a lot about them. I mean, more than the average kid. Well, I got started in snakes the way many kids at that time got started. And it started in a zoo. It started at the Bronx Zoo where their curator of reptiles,… Read More

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And I would say that my schooling, especially at SMU, I had not been a very good academic student in high school. I was too busy with my snakes, I guess. And of course the, you know, females of the opposite sex, not snakes, but people, girls. But when I… Read More

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How did that start?… Read More

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And I’m so grateful that I had that. Now, you were a collector of snakes. Read More

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I was very familiar with the people at SMU. Two of the professors came to defend me. You know, he’s studying these snakes and all that. But they didn’t budge. And so I had to look for a place to take my snakes. I went to the Dallas Aquarium, where,… Read More

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His name was Pierre A Fontaine. His background was dressing windows, setting up window displays in department stores. But at home he had tropical fish. And when they built the aquarium, he knew somebody, and he got the job. And I worked in that aquarium through high school, then through… Read More

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You know, my schooling was just typical. It was small town stuff. But with reference to, you know, this interview about zoo careers, and I’m thinking about other kids out there right now. I had a civics class. I guess it was in junior high, I think. And we were… Read More

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I knew the word. And so that was very early. Elementary school was just standard. Now, when I got to junior high school, I was knee deep in my herpetological investigations. And I had my own snake collection. And when the biology teacher learned about this, “Oh, you’ve got to… Read More

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And University Park is kind of uptown from the rest of Dallas. And the neighbor there didn’t like my snakes. He knew I had them, never came over to look at them. And so he was a lawyer. The mayor was a friend of his. This is just a little… Read More

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And my biology teacher in high school, just a wonderful man. He was a mentor. And he had had some touch at the University of Michigan with Dr. Blanchard, who was an outstanding herpetologist. And he kind of passed this stuff, this material along to us, great inspiration. And then,… Read More

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I guess I was about eight. Read More

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What kind of schooling did you have?… Read More

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And he said, “Well we really appreciate this, but you know, come back.” So the next trip to Galveston I was determined to do something. I didn’t tell any, I didn’t tell my parents about this, but I managed to get two more crabs. They were pretty good-sized. These, I… Read More

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So I got what, you know what Spanish moss is?… Read More

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I got Spanish moss and I got these brown paper bags, and I filled them full of very, very wet salt water. Put the crabs in between, so they’re surrounded by that. When we got to Dallas, probably about seven hours later, long trip, those crabs were alive. And we… Read More

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I love to fish. My grandfather was a great fisherman. And so we would go out, at Galveston, out fishing all the time. We made about three trips every summer from Dallas, I mean Sherman, to Dallas and to Galveston. It was an all day trip. And we would visit… Read More

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And in Fair Park, in Dallas, they built all these wonderful, they built a natural history museum. They built an aquarium, and they built other museums, plus all the usual stuff you have at a fair. My parents took me to that aquarium on the way to Galveston. And I… Read More