Now we will take a leap to 1983. I had moved myself and my son back to Florida. Now you know, in Fla. that if it is colorful you must make sure it is not poisonous. That does not mean that everything colorful is poisonous, just that most poisonous things are. Now I had my share of snakes while growing up in Fl. I once stepped on a poisonous coral snake, but luckly got away before it bit me.
Once for a summer job in 1972, I drove a van for a private school. When I went to collect my kids for the ride home, I found them pulling on a green snake that had gotten all tied up in a playpen. I got the snake loose, but knew that if I tried to let it loose there, the kids would get it again. So I let it coil around my arm and took it on the van with me. I decided to stop at my house and give it to my husband to let loose. My house was only a quater mile away, but by the time I got there the snake was wrapped not only around my arm but the steering wheel too. My husband took the snake and set it free.
One day I was going home from work and stopped to pick up my son at the Boy's Club. I looked around but didn't see him. Then I heard a group of boys laughing and carrying on out back so I went to check. I found 9 boys gathered around a snake with fangs, that was red-orange-yellow-black and I had never seen a snake like this before. Worried that it might be poisonous, I had my son get me a long stick. I pinned the snakes head down and picked it up from just behind the head as I had seen snake handlers do.
This snake was skinny but about 4 ft long. When I picked it up it coiled its body all around my arm. I went into the office and asked the guys that run the place if the snake was poisonous. They said they didn't know and why did I pick up a snake that might be poisonous. I explained about the boys gathered around it and told them I was afraid one of them would get bit.
Since no one knew if it was poisonous, I took it in the car with us and drove to a nearby pet store. They looked it over and told me it was a ratsnake and although not poisonous could really bite hard. They couldn't believe that I did what I did without knowing for sure if it was poisonous or not.
Jerry was 9 yrs old and wanted to keep it. I explained that it could bite him, and the pet store traded us a painted turtle and its home for the ratsnake.
Jerry loved the fact that I was not like other mothers that freaked out over reptiles and other creatures. A few months later I got him an iguanna for a pet. We let it run loose in the house and his friends told me I was the "coolest" mom they ever knew.
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