“Ever been to a rattlesnake derby? I didn’t think so. Not many people have. In the 1930s, they used to have one in Carlsbad every spring.
There was a man named “Snaky” Campbell. He caught the rattlesnakes. Hundreds of them. Don’t ask me how.
The derby racecourse was a big circle about 100 feet across. All around the edge were stakes about a foot apart. Each space between the stakes was numbered. Gamblers bought the spaces for cash, $1.00 to $5.00.
Snaky let down a big basket on a rope into the center of the circle with about 100 snakes in it. Then he emptied it out and the snakes crawled to the edge of the circle and through the spaces between the pegs. Watchers around the circle called out the number of the space when a snake went between the pegs.
Prizes went to the first, second and third place snakes, the amount depending on what the spaces were sold for.
I never won a prize—didn’t have any money to bet. But for a teenage boy in the Great Depression, it was great fun to watch.”
~Ray Sage, “New Mexico Magazine,” 2011~
(Ray Sage is my late father)
@bkbinthecity@bigdad@arthur2sheds@walkingraven@ranger1@joansmor@kwind
Thanks so much for your comments about my photo of the diamondback rattlesnake. I took this at Albuquerque's Rattlesnake Museum. I've never encountered a rattlesnake in nature, and if I were to, I would get out of there--not take a photo.
Thanks so much for your comments about my photo of the diamondback rattlesnake. I took this at Albuquerque's Rattlesnake Museum. I've never encountered a rattlesnake in nature, and if I were to, I would get out of there--not take a photo.