I've always been a snake nut...always. Marlin Perkins got me hooked, watching Wild Kingdom on Sunday evenings just before Wonderful World of Disney came on (how's THAT for a time warp???), and I was enthralled by all of his "adventures."



One summer day, my uncle (three years older than I), my younger brother, and a whole bunch of cousins (we are hillbillies, after all) were playing around, when someone saw a large black snake (6ft. ). Everyone was kind of scared of it (including me), but when one of the cousins was going to kill it for no reason, I was ready to fight. Instead, they just dare me to pick it up, if I was so tough...so I did.



Short story (too late) was that it bit me pretty good, and my mother freaked out, being convinced it was a rattle-headed-copper-moccasin, and screamed until my dad actually killed it. I hate that that particular snake was killed for only doing what it should have done when a stupid kid picked it up, but that experience had me hooked for life.



Years later, I finally convinced my wife to let me have one corn in the house. One became two, which became four, which became 150 or so in just about three or four years. I have since pared down my collection to 18, focusing only on bloodreds and other episkiastic morphs, but I still think that they're the coolest animals around, followed closely by the arabian horses I also own.



But that is another story...






-----
Darin Chappell

Hillbilly Herps

PO Box 254

Rogersville, MO 65742

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