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Snake fest charms the masses
By MICHELLE JONES, Times Staff Writer
SAN ANTONIO -- Alex McAfee, 9, of Inverness beat Wesley Novak, last year's winner of the San Antonio Rattlesnake Festival's gopher races. "I've never done this before," she said. "My arms started to hurt, so I speeded it up to get it over with." In the runoff race she won again. For the final heat, late Saturday afternoon, she would be racing real turtles. "But not gophers, they're endangered," said Linda Babb, who emceed the races. "They will be using look-a-likes from Africa." Originally, when the festival began 36 years ago, gopher turtles were used in the races. The children would prod them along with sticks. Today, wooden replicas are used and they are raced by pulling ropes attached to the turtles. "It is not as easy as it looks," said Babb, who is running for county judge in the upcoming election. "There is an art to it." The two-day festival is held in the park located in the heart of San Antonio. The festival originally began as a rodeo, but with so many other rodeos competing for people's time and money, the organizers opted for a rattlesnake festival. In the early days men would go out and round up rattlesnakes, bag them, and whoever brought in the largest would win a prize. "My dad told me about bagging the snakes," said 10-year-old Joel Chandler of Lakeland. "He used to come to the festival when he was a boy." Chandler was perusing the snake collection brought to the festival by Ssnakes of Brooksville. Two 4-foot-long diamondback rattlesnakes shared a container. Their rattles made so much noise they could be heard outside the tent. "They are big, cool and deadly," Joel said. One of the main draws of the festival is the Snakes Alive show put on by Dennis and Carole Moore of Tampa. They bring a variety of snakes from their large collection and show and talk about them to the crowd. They also field questions during their half-hour show. "The best thing to do if a snake bites you is to go to the hospital," said Dennis Moore. "They will treat you with antivenom. Don't put on a tournament or cut the wound. That could make it worse." He said that only 5 percent of all snake bites will end in death. He said in Florida the diamondback rattlesnakes are the worst snakes. "They chew and go deep That is what makes them so dangerous," he said. "They like dry places and sometimes share a gopher hole with the gopher turtles." Carol Moore told the audience that if you can learn to love snakes, you can love anything. "Remember, keep snakes alive," they said together as the show closed. Susan and Billy Scribner of Clearwater brought their 18-month-old son Brian to the festival. It was their first visit and they said they were having a lot of fun. "Everyone is so nice," she said. "Billy is into snakes so we decided to come and check it out." Billy Scribner breeds king snakes, a nonpoisonous type, as a hobby. He said he has hatched 300 of them and sold them to pet stores. The festival offered food, beverages, booths for candle and balloon creations as well as on stage entertainment throughout the two days. But one of the biggest draws was the arts and crafts that ranged from leather goods to potpourri and from homemade jewelry to stone oil lamps. Dawn Hamilton of Brandon had a booth that sold the stone oil lamps. Under each of the stones, which she gets from as far away as Utah and as close at North Carolina, are little containers that hold the oil reserve. Each of the stones are the creations of her imagination. Using miniatures, she created gardens, a beach scene and even one especially for the Rattlesnake Festival. A tiny rattlesnake is the focal point of a western scene. The arts and crafts were one of the reasons Sandy Young came with her two children Connor, 3, and Kara, 6. "I've come the past two years, it's fun," said the Zephyrhills resident. "My other choice was going fishing with my husband." -- Michelle Jones covers central Pasco community news. She can be reached at (800) 333-7505 ext. 4612 or (813) 909-4612. Her e-mail address is jones@sptimes.com.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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