The Carnival & The Circus

        Animals and snakes fascinated Dad for many years and became a means of earning a living. One of these was the Snake Show. Dad had several snake shows, however, I remember helping him year after year with this show and I have grown to hate snakes with a passion. The Billboard magazine afforded the names and addresses distributors that handled snakes of every description, Texas horn toads, iguana lizards, and other strange desert creatures. Hot rattle snakes, boa constrictors that wraps around and squeezes their prey to death by suffocating them, and large pythons which can apply great pressure as they wrap around their victim and crushes their prey to death. I remember "Big Ben" the bone cruncher python which measured about eleven feet long. 

        You can see me holding "Big Ben".  I guess I was about sixteen or seventeen years old at the time the photo was taken.   I never felt comfortable handling snakes, they were always dying, getting out, or shedding their skin. 

        Upon arrival of a shipment of snakes they were extremely active and investigative and often climb up and get out of the pit. Usually, snakes that have been in captivity for a long time were often lazy, slow, and dormant. These snakes you could handle without the fear of being bitten. However those new arrivals were "hot" and aggressive, you have to use special care not to become a victim. 

        The show was housed upon a flat-bed trailer with step leading up to main floor on each side. The public would look over the top and down into the pit of snakes. Colorful descriptive banners of snakes and strange creatures were flown to the left and right of the trailer, and the ticket booth was situated on the ground near the center of the two sets of steps.

            A large trailer, like a moving van trailer, was converted into a fun house. The interior of the fun house was dark with a narrow passageway that you had to feel your way through a maze of turns and steps. As you proceeded through this maze a laughing record played and not knowing what to expect produced an element of surprise and fun. It was a place for lovers, young teens, and children to expect unfamiliar experience. Often someone would vomit, urinate, and excrete an the floor. It was always our job to clean up the mess and spread some cheap perfume around to cover the bad smells. I was always thankful that these things didn't happen often, however, once is too often. 

        Clever sayings and special anecdotes were painted on the front of the trailer and often my brother Clayton would wear a clown suit as he stood in the ticket booth and sold tickets. 

        Every now and then someone had to go into the fun house and chase out those who were making love, smoking cigarettes, hanging around and causing trouble for others to pass. The Fun House was a good clean family show and we never had any problems with the law or town officials.