There have been times when I've heard wisdom come from the mouths of babes. Until recently, though, I've never heard wisdom come from the mouth of a man who just had his lips wrapped around nine rattlesnakes.
Since I run screaming like a little girl at the sight of a garter snake, I never would have found that there are lessons to be learned from wrapping one's mouth around reptiles. Apparently I've been missing out. Jackie Bibby and his crew of snake handling buddies have learned lessons that we can all learn from:
On motivation: He has performed snake stunts for TV shows and at other events where he gets paid, but this time it wasn't for money. "I'm doing it for the prestige, the glory and the attention," he said.
On knowing one's limitations: "I think I could do 12 or 13, but probably no more. My mouth is only so big."
On perspective: "There's nothing to it," said Bibby, who admits to being bitten six times in 34 years of snake handling.
On perspective (part II): The only difficult part is leaning forward. "I've got about 15 pounds of snake in my mouth, and it hurts my lower back to lean forward," he said.
On not sweating the small stuff: Bibby was to be assisted by four fellow rattlesnake handlers. But by showtime, one of the assistants, Britt Stevens of Brownwood, was en route to the hospital for antivenin. "He'll be OK. He's not going to die," said snake handler Doug Dugger of Waco. "He's just a little accident-prone."
On attracting the fairer sex: Each of [the men have] been handling rattlesnakes for decades, and they have the scars to prove it. They said they started doing it to get women.
"We used to have groupies," Ackerman said. "Yeah, women like crazy men," Dugger said.
On adapting to circumstances: Bibby had planned to break another of his records by sitting in a bathtub with more than 81 snakes. But the snakes wouldn't cooperate and Bibby had to quit after only about 40 were dumped on him.
On class-based perceptions: Vickie Morgan, Bibby's longtime girlfriend and a fellow snake handler, said they often keep several dozen snakes in their double-wide. "People say it's weird, but it's only weird because we're poor. If we were rich, we'd just be eccentric," she said.
On making good choices: Bibby said he doesn't put his mouth around many other snakes. He said water moccasins are mean and smell nasty, although cobras aren't too bad.
On goalsetting: Bibby said he hopes to break the record of Gordon Cates, a Florida man who holds the record for consecutively kissing 11 cobras in a set time."Heck, I've kissed a lot of cobras," Bibby said. "I think I can kiss 12 of them."
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This is the second time I've seen this picture. It reminds me of why I always identified with Indiana Jones: like him, "I hate snakes."
Thanks for the undesired visual stimuli. ;)
posted on 11.23.2003 5:57 PM2
I think he also holds the record for being in a bathtub with the most snakes (75).
Not exactly an ideal way to spend your free time if you ask me.
posted on 11.23.2003 10:16 PM3
God put enmity between women and snakes, and so I've always found it disturbing and often-times indicative of some sort of problem when a girl likes snakes. As it is, I think it's even bizarre for guys to like snakes. I mean, they're so symbolic of evil...not to mention the fact that they're not furry, they're not cuddly, etc, etc, so they can't make decent pets.
posted on 11.24.2003 12:43 AM