My Dad owned a large country store on my Grandaddy's farm. He ran it for 23 years. There was a heater in the middle fo the store with a couple rocking chairs by it and a telephone on a square column behind the heater. Dad got to cutting out newspaper clippings of reports of professional snake handlers who had been bitten, and taping them on the column above the phone............for me to see every time I made a phone call on it. The reason was that I'd gotten into the habit of catching every rattler I could and bringing them home. He was trying to convince me to quit, but I got a big rush out of handling a big rattler, and caught them at every chance. He had hopes the newspaper clippings would dissuade me. But, they didn't. One day I made the mistake of bringing a big one into his store and walking up behind a gentleman of color, who was paying for some stuff at the cash register. When the old snake sang his rattles the man looked around, then broke and ran out the back door of the store. After the tongue lashing I got I never did that again!
I eventually got the message that I was pushing my luck, and stopped bringing them home. A big rattler is still a thrill to handle.
SRH
