Now I was about 13. Things like that happened. And oh, my mother had to drive from Galveston to, she must have hit 80 miles an hour, she said. And oh, and they gave me antivenom, and the bite was not bad, the bites. And that’s the only time I’ve… Read More
Was that your first zoo slash aquarium into the profession job?… Read More
This was at Galveston, Texas, during the great war. And we were living back there again. My father was in the air force in England. I would go out in the field. We caught king snakes, we caught ribbon snakes. I even got into, I shouldn’t have, but caught a… Read More
I didn’t catch it, but I had to buy it from a man in Brownsville. They called him the Snake King. And I used to get snakes from him. And that just built and built. After three or four years of that, I mean, I even had a coral snake. Read More
They had in one bag, they said a copperhead. And so that was one of my, that was my payment, these snakes. And so I was getting ready to give my lecture, and I decided, well, I’ll use this copperhead. ‘Cause they’ve caught it, the kids had caught it. And… Read More
But he had his own collection of snakes. Read More
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
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
I know you were collecting other things, but how did that real interest in collecting snakes start?… Read More
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
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
And I’m so grateful that I had that. Now, you were a collector of snakes. Read More
How did that start?… Read More
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
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
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
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
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
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
I guess I was about eight. Read More