I believe it was a May or early June night in 1978 (???) that this story takes place. I was collecting from my jeep when I came upon that white 4 x 4 van with Mr. Box driving. I knew he was going to be there and was looking forward to seeing him. He had told me he was bring a beginner (to alterna land) with him. It seems he had made a connection with a newbie from Pennsylvania and had gone to the airport and picked him up. Little did he or I know how that would turn out. The guy was the now infamous "red pygmy" or some of you might know him as Mr. Assetto. So turned out that Lee had agreed to show him the ropes. Most of you who remember Lee know that he was one of the pioneers of the alterna early days. He had already scored on dozens of "blairs" from the Langtry and had bred them in captivity. At any rate, I ran into them on the dirt Pandale road a hour or so after dark. Many of you will remember that most of us had CB radios back then and kept in touch with each other. Lee had called me prior to my seeing him and told me that they already had found a blairs. Well I rushed to see it and had my first encounter (with TMTC since) with Bob. He was so excited as it was his first. We went on our separate way and throughout the nite I kept getting calls about snakes they were finding. I had not seen a single snake all nite and they were going ballistic. By 10 or 11 pm they had found 3 blairs and who knows how many other snakes (most of which they were not catching). I vented my frustration at not seeing anything. Well, the next time I saw them they were coming down Blairs Hill and as we got close to each other I see Bob hanging out of his window and he throws a handful of snakes out in front of my jeep. Needless to say I jumped out and frantically started picking up snakes. If it had not been for their consideration I would not have seen a single snake all nite. Shows how the snake gods can play nasty. That nite was the first many nites in Langtry over the years with Bob and many others with playing practical jokes. I will have more stories with practical jokes to tell in future posts.
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