TUSCALOOSA NEWS (Alabama) 05 July 07 "New Snappy"
Bee Branch: Last year I wrote a column about the rather large snapping turtle that took up residence in Bee Branch for several weeks and how there is just something about this meat-eating, almost primeval predator that sets them apart from the other more benign water creatures we usually observe off the deck.
Well, "Old Snappy" has not been back this year -- I would have recognized him instantly by the distinctive cotton-white maw he displayed when he stuck his head out of the water, mouth agape, to survey the scene around him -- but we have had for the last couple of weeks a somewhat smaller, if no less menacing looking and acting snapping turtle I've dubbed "New Snappy," claim a portion of Bee Branch as his own.
I've got some pretty good video of him you can see here: (Link not available)
In it you will notice how when he/she goes after the dried dog food I threw out, New Snappy is not only uncontested for it, but that catfish, bream and even another turtle turn tail and run (or, rather, swim) away when they realized just what they are up against. The reaction of the turtle near the end of the clip is especially amusing, as he/she quickly pulls in his/her head and makes a quick U-turn out of the frame.
Snapping turtles and I go back always. When my two brothers and I were kids in the fifties and sixties out grandfather, "Pop" Yarbrough, who still holds the Alabama record for longevity as a county farm agent at something like 47 years, had a farm near Hamilton, Alabama.
It had a fishpond on it which every other year or so would get infested by snapping turtle, which will clean out a small pond of bass and bream in now time if you let them. So in what became a ritual at family gatherings during the summer, my father and three uncles would arm themselves with shotguns loaded with double-ought buckshot and blast away the snappers as they poked their heads up. It was quite an effective, if gruesome, way to rid the pond of pests.
The turtle-shooting ritual, in turn, led my brothers, cousins and I, all but two of which were boys, to invent a game we called "Giant Turtle," in which we would convert one room of the farm house into a waterless pond by turning over all the furniture, putting blankets over them as using the constructions as our individual lairs.
Then we would crawl out into the middle of the room on knees and elbows, where we would commence to fight each other. Sure, it was just an excuse for the older cousins (and I was the oldest of them all) to beat up on the younger ones. But, hey, them wuz the "Giant Turtle" rules...
But my favorite encounter with snapping turtle was one time during the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival when I used to stay at 805 Napoleon, which we dubbed "Casa Kirby," for our friend Frank Kirby, who lived there, and which had the unbeatable advantage of being just five blocks down the street from the legendary Tipitina's music club.
One day during the week of the 10-day-long festival trumpet player Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers were booked for the night. Ruffins, who was a founder of the new wave Rebirth Brass Band, but left to follow his muse Louis Armstrong into a more traditional direction, named his band for his expertise as a master soul food chef as well as the trumpet.
Well, not only was Kermit going to play Tip's that night, he was also going to barbecue chicken wings in his own portable rolling smoker that he pulled around with his truck, free for early arrivers, starting about 5 p.m.
It was, of course, a no-brainer to saunter down the street about suppertime to get me some of those wings and check the scene out.
When I got there, there was already a long line, so I chatted up Kermit a little while to wait for the line to shorten. But as we sharing the finer points of cooking wings and the appropriate sauces to use, I happened notice that in Ruffins' truck bed there were two live snappers crawling around on sheet metal. They were a little bit smaller than New Snappy, which is to say just about the right size for the turtle soup I knew would be their fate shortly after Kermit got them home after the gig.
Being the redneck that I am, I couldn't resist picking up a stick and poking at the vicious little beasts to test their aggressiveness.
Full grown alligator snappers, which are fairly rare these days and are, if I am not mistaken, on the endangered species list, are the largest of America's fresh water turtles and when fully grown can literally bite off a hand. And while these were just two small (and soon to be succulent) common snappers, they were just as mean and nasty as their formidable cousins
Soon I started to get a lot of grief from some of the Yankees present, who, getting their plate of wings from the amiable Ruffins, would come over to me and opine that I shouldn't be "tormenting" the cute little turtles like that.
I invited most of them to go ahead and pet the little darlings if they liked, but luckily (for them) no one took me up on it, especially when they saw the reactions I was getting as I poked at the turtles with my stick.
Where did Kermit Ruffins get live snapping turtles to put in the back of his truck to take home and convert to soup, you may ask?
Well, that's one of the delights of New Orleans: there are certain markets there you can actually drop in and pick up a live turtle or two along with your shrimp, crawdads and even chicken wings.
I've got another story about the time when I was working in the Tennessee Valley and watched a woman slaughter a very large snapper and cook it and the 23 eggs it had been carrying, in a frying pan, while informing me that "turtles have seven kinds of meat in them -- chicken, squirrel, beef, pork, raccoon, possum and-" well, I forget the other kind.
But I think I'll save that story for another day.
Meanwhile, watch the video and read my story about Old Snappy if you are so inclined; you can find it here:
"New Snappy"

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]