CALLER-TIMES (Corpus-Christi, Texas) 18 March 06 Pay to play rattlesnake-racer (Mike Baird)
San Patricio: Prompting movement from a rattlesnake with a 6-foot plastic pole is venomous business. But dozens of people will pay to do it beginning today.
The 34th World Championship Rattlesnake Races begin at 2 p.m. in historic San Patricio, four miles north of Bluntzer on Farm-to-Market Road 666. Twenty dollars rents a serpent competitor, a loaner pair of protective plastic leggings, the pole and a snake-handling expert to guard you against other competitors that may wander out of their lane.
"It's a thrill," said David Bailey of Waxahachie, who has raced a rattler the past two years. "It gets your blood flowing."
His wife, Dianna, said, "David ain't in his right mind. I don't even look at them, but I do make sure his life insurance is paid up before we come."
The contest, sponsored by the San Patricio Restoration Society, has provided funds to help build a replica of the original courthouse in historic San Patricio. It was founded in 1830, before Texas became a republic. Proceeds also have built and supported a downtown historical museum.
This year, funds will be used to begin restoring the McCowan House, a family home from the late 1800s that will be open for tours, said James Dulaney, the society's president.
The two days of family fun has raised as much as $40,000 in past years, Dulaney said. "But the last two years, we were rained out and it put a real crunch on our funds."
Activity starts at 10 a.m. today with free kid's games - wheelbarrow, sack, three-legged and potato races, and an egg toss - for prizes. There are helicopter rides, adult games, about 20 vendors, and Norris Welch is there for the eighth year with his Capuchin ringtail monkeys that will tip their hat for a quarter.
There are snake exhibitions all day long, and $2 buys a taste of fried snake meat.
None of the competitors has ever been bitten, Dulaney said, "At least by the snakes."
Pay to play rattlesnake-racer