Meet PH Scales
People ask me all the time how this got started... This whole loving-reptiles thing that I am now semi-famous for around my state. How could a nice, normal (?) person like me actually LIKE those things, anyway? Well, it all started years ago...
 I was born. I was the second girl (eventually there were three of us), and my Dad decided that since he had no sons, he was going to teach his girls what boys normally would have been taught. He's a progressive man in that way, and figured there was nothing we couldn't do as well as, or better than, a boy. So we learned all kinds of "boy" things. Naturally, this included snakes. And lizards, and every other creepy-crawly thing that could be found on our 75 acres of southern Virginia woodland. By the time I was 10, I could correctly identify and capture 47 zillion different kinds of lizards, salamanders, frogs, newts, and finally, snakes.
Snakes were my favorite. They were long and sleek, and were fearsome enough to gain my utmost respect. Better yet, the other kids in the school didn't like them, and that made me different. I was one of those weird kids who didn't want to be like everyone else, I wanted to be different. (This led me to bring my pet turkeys in at Thanksgiving for a demonstration. Ever haul a 50-pound Tom Turkey fifteen miles? My Mom did.)
The year of seventh grade was the year I began to make my reputation. I was really excited when I learned that the whole school was going to have a herpetologist come and give a school assembly. I knew what that meant, and was I ever excited! I came to school the morning of the assembly just absolutely full of myself. I asked my teacher if I could get some water, and wandered down to the gymnasium where he was setting up. I boldly introduced myself and explained that I would be his best choice for a "volunteer" from the audience, should he need one. He was surprised, but smiled and thanked me. I returned to class.
Later that morning, the assembly began, and I held my breath. Would he remember? He began his presentation (which I hardly remember now), and finally called for an audience participant. My hand shot up in the air like a rocket, and waited. He calmly surveyed the crowd of 250 squirming kids (many of them meal-sized for his next display), and finally settled on one. YES! He saw me, and motioned at me to come join him. I was in heaven, and the crowd snickered. "There's that weird girl, I knew she'd go up there." I proudly marched myself up on stage, not even caring what he would ask me to do. Then he pulled out the biggest snake I'd ever seen. It had to be at LEAST 10 feet long! Wow! I was impressed, but was really happy to feel the weight of the snake as he put it over our shoulders. There I was, on stage, with a real herpetologist, and a giant snake on my shoulders. I couldn't have been happier...
And "Snake Woman" was created... The other students labeled me with this, thinking it would be something else that they could tease me with and bring tears to my eyes. But I liked the name, actually, and was proud to hear them call me that. It made me special, and I kept that nickname to this day. I have used it for a CB handle, a screen name (back in the early days of computer BBSs), and a friendly name amongst herp-friendly friends. And, later, I used it to attract a husband - one that had his own "scaly" past, but that's another story for another time.
PH Scales is the Site Coordinator for Kingsnake.com.
|
