SNAKE NOTES
by Craig Trumbower
I
f you grew up in Florida in the
1950s and 1960s, then you grew up
at a time when your parents intro-
duced you to the dangers of the state’s
native animals with the frequent, uni-
versally standard, lecture on child safe-
ty. No one really knows where this lec-
10
Cenizo
ture originated, but I have my suspi-
cions that June Cleaver and Donna
Reed had something to do with it. For
those of you that did not grow up in
those magical television days of “Leave
It to Beaver” and “The Donna Reed
Show,” June Cleaver and Donna Reed
First Quarter 2014
represented the quintessential “mom”
of the time. Middle-class American
moms would tune in weekly to these
family shows for an almost biblical
direction on how to raise your kids and
keep them safe.
Mom’s lecture on safety usually
included, “Watch out for (the dreaded
three) alligators, “bugs” (mosquitoes)
and “deadly snakes” (all snakes were
deadly). By the way, nowhere in that
lecture was a warning about “stranger
danger.” In fact, as a child of the 1950s,
you were taught to obey all adults!