SC - OT scorpions

[RichSCA at aol.com]

Boy, do I want to take some time and make up a REALLY good story for your 
questions, BUT... I won't  :-)  It is just that the "real" reason is so 
boring.

But here it is:

I grew up in the Arizona desert.  My Grandfather was the assessor for the 
State.  (FYI: Know those little white "plastic-looking" rocks in potting soil 
- - Perlite? - He invented it in 1938).  

Well, he knew a man that lived in Apache Junction, at the foot of the 
Superstition Mountains, that made souvenirs.  For some reason (one I could 
never understand) Snowbirds (tourists) like to purchase souvenirs that 
"remind" them of their vacation spots. :-)  So the man would take the 
scorpions (but, only the perfect ones) and would kill them and place their 
bodies in "nice" positions.  He would then mount them and they would be 
encased in a clear plastic resin.  These "things" became tie tacks, bolo 
ties, cuff links, paperweights, etc., and sold at the airport and every 
tourist stand. The same thing was done with the tarantulas.  

Now the rattlers were a different story.  Those I sold to the Arizona State 
University.  During that time they were into milking rattlers and making 
serum.     

It was a real easy way to make money as a kid.  Just turn over a large rock 
in the desert, then scoop up and sell whatever crawled out. 

Rayne 



In a message dated 4/7/00 11:32:43 AM Central Daylight Time, 
mermayde at juno.com writes:

<< 
 On Wed, 5 Apr 2000 10:34:59 EDT RichSCA at aol.com writes:
 > Hey, if you can come up with the recipes I can come up with the 
 > little  pinchers.  That was how I made money as a kid.  I used to get
 around 
 > (if memory serves me right and it is going as I get older) 5 cents a 
 > piece for each "perfect" scorpion, 25 cents for each tarantula and
 $2.00 for 
 > each rattlesnake.  And I was a "rich" little kid.  :-)   
 > (well, by little kid standards)
 > 
 > Rayne
 
 And exactly who was paying for these, and why?
 Christianna 
 By the way, I changed the subject line to OT from OOP, there were
 scorpions in period, I have listings of herbs thought to be useful for
 scorpion bites from period herbals
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