Schmidt Meister's Grab Bag

[Batesmotel]

3 hours ago, Schmidt Meister said:

Same for Utah. People come here because it is a nice clean place to raise a family then bitch because there are more churches than bars. 

[Schmidt Meister]

8 hours ago, Batesmotel said:

Same for Utah. People come here because it is a nice clean place to raise a family then bitch because there are more churches than bars. 

I can understand their desire to visit Utah. We LOVE that place. OMG. Every time we go to CA to visit my MIL we go through UT, either on the way out or the way back. BEAUTIFUL state. We had a 2014 Jeep for a while and I used it to try to drive every back road in the Big 5. I love the isolation and the views. One of the high points in my travels was making it to the top of Angels Landing in Zion. (I could never make it again) We will be making a trip again around June and we will again try to discover some more backroads. You live in an awesome state.

[Schmidt Meister]

I found this picture of a pizza over a year ago. I'm NOT a big pizza lover but I have come to appreciate pizza from time to time if it meets my peculiar standards. I don't care for very much bread these days but can't stand a really thin crust. My pizza needs to be about 80% toppings. This pizza looks like the perfect pizza to me but I've searched repeatedly on all the search platforms I know of and it never shows up, damnit. My wife loves pizza and would make/or order it more often if I could tolerate it. That's why I've tried to enjoy it more. This looks like a deep dish with many toppings, especially mushrooms, (which my wife hates) and topped off with a abundance of tomatoes. I think we're going to try and replicate it. If you've made or seen a pizza like this and have a recipe, I'd appreciate it.

[Schmidt Meister]

[Schmidt Meister]

[Schmidt Meister]

[Schmidt Meister]

[Schmidt Meister]

It cracks me up when I see people write 'bob wire' or 'bobbed wire' or other variations when referring to barbed wire.

[21 shooter]

On 3/4/2022 at 8:38 PM, Batesmotel said:

Same for Utah. People come here because it is a nice clean place to raise a family then bitch because there are more churches than bars. 

You might tell them to consider moving on back to where they came from to be with friends and family if they are not happy there.  So much nicer than telling them to get the hell out and go back where they came from.  Those sensitivity classes really do work don’t they? 

[21 shooter]

2 hours ago, Schmidt Meister said:

Excellent question.  I really like the speed bumps that are not marked, painted or have any warnings, at least none I have seen.  Front end alignment shops must love them.

[Batesmotel]

8 hours ago, Schmidt Meister said:

We used them as Earthquake shelters. Although “Earthquake” drills included Don’t Look At The Bright Light! 
 

We knew. 

[Peng]

6 hours ago, Schmidt Meister said:

It cracks me up when I see people write 'bob wire' or 'bobbed wire' or other variations when referring to barbed wire.

 

[railfancwb]

11 hours ago, Schmidt Meister said:

Cause and effect. Ever wonder where they get the  asphalt for speed bumps?

[Schmidt Meister]

[Schmidt Meister]

The diamondback rattlesnake doesn’t exactly enjoy the best reputation among Florida’s wildlife. Generations of Floridians and visitors have been warned of the potentially deadly consequences of its bite, and as a result this venomous reptile is seldom a welcome sight when spotted.
That being said, rattlesnakes have also been a subject of great curiosity, when viewed from a safe distance at least. Eager entrepreneurs have tried in a number of ways to tap into this cautious enthusiasm over the years, including reptile shows, theme parks, reptile-skin gifts and clothing, and even by offering reptile meat as a food item.
George Kenneth End of Arcadia, Florida was one such businessman who made a living selling rattlesnakes in any way he could. Around 1930, he was helping his two young sons skin a rattlesnake they had just killed when the idea suddenly struck him to try cooking the meat to see what it would taste like. End found the meat tender and the flavor good, and he began experimenting with it to see how it could best be prepared as a marketable product.
The result was the Floridian Products Corporation, Rattlesnake Division. End began selling every part of the snake that might capture the whimsy of a customer, from the skin to the rattles, the fangs, oil made from snake fat, and even live snakes themselves. Among the most popular products was End’s “Genuine Diamondback Rattlesnake with Supreme Sauce,” a canned portion of rattlesnake meat prepared with a sauce of meat stock, mushrooms, and heavy cream. Advertisements recommended serving the meat in pastry shells or on thin slices of toast as an appetizer for cocktails. End and his associates promoted the meat as a delicacy, and encouraged customers to “be the first in your neighborhood to give a rattlesnake dinner.”
End’s bid for greatness as Florida’s main purveyor of rattlesnake products was successful. He first set up a factory for processing the rattlesnakes in Arcadia, not far from Florida’s Gulf Coast near Port Charlotte and Sarasota. The surrounding territory was largely undeveloped and full of scrub palmetto and other heavy growth, which made it ideal hunting grounds for the snake hunters who captured rattlesnakes to bring to End for processing. Later, as business picked up, End moved his main operation to Tampa, where he established his own “Rattlesnake Cannery and Emporium” in a two-story building at the corner of Bridge Street and Gandy Boulevard. In addition to processing the snakes, he also put on shows for visitors, who gasped in amazement as he and his associates handled the live rattlers and “milked” them to obtain the venom for medical purposes. End even managed to obtain permission to operate a post office at the site, naturally called “Rattlesnake.” Tourists were only too happy to send mail from this location, since it bore the unique “Rattlesnake, Fla.” postmark.
End’s success stemmed in part from the novelty and allure of his product, but his skills as a promoter were none too shabby. In addition to his “Rattlesnake” post office and attractive stop-over for tourists, he also at times took to the road to promote his products. Anyone who partook of a rattlesnake meal was furthermore entitled to membership in one of End’s reptile-related “clubs,” and would receive a membership card with their order. No doubt many a tourist left Florida proudly credentialed as a member of the “Reptile Science League,” the “Ancient Epicurean Order of Rattling Reptile Revelers,” or the “Subtle Society of Snake Snackers.”
As the shadow of World War II emerged on the horizon at the start of the 1940s, George End was threatened with the loss of his most vital helpers in the rattlesnake industry, the young men of soldiering age who went out and actually caught the snakes. Unfazed, he reputedly claimed that Rattlesnake, Florida would “go on to bigger things and better things, in spite of hell, Hitler, and high water.”
He was almost right. On July 27, 1944, End was working with a six-foot rattler that had just arrived at his headquarters when the snake struck at his right hand between his thumb and forefinger. For all the time George End had spent working with deadly rattlesnakes, he had never in his life been snakebitten before, but once was enough. He administered anti-venom to himself, but it was ineffective. He died in a matter of hours.
The Rattlesnake, Fla. post office and the emporium at Bridge Street and Gandy Boulevard closed down eventually, and End’s rattlesnake empire began to fade into memory. Mrs. End sold the cannery equipment along with its patents and formulas to herpetologist Ross Allen, whose Reptile Institute at Silver Springs, Florida served as both a tourist attraction and a site for anti-venom research.
George End’s rattlesnake attraction was one of a multitude of Florida tourist spots whose peculiar nature and humble origins make them treasures of the history of the Sunshine State.

Genuine Diamondback Rattlesnake With Supreme Sauce - c. 1930's

George K. End - President Of The Floridian Products Corporation, Rattlesnake Division - Arcadia, FL - 1944

Advertisement For Floridian Products Corporation Rattlesnake Division - 1933

Original Headquarters - Floridian Products Corporation - Arcadia, FL

[Schmidt Meister]

[Schmidt Meister]

[ChuteTheMall]

4 hours ago, Schmidt Meister said:

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, I grew up there ( a mile south of Gandy and within a block of Westshore) from the mid-50's thru the '60's, K-12.

Snakes were just another wildlife, like horseshoe crabs and gopher tortoises, both of which are now rare, endangered, and protected. But gators are more common now.

And my old stamping grounds are gone, paved or populated by houses or condos. Now it's called South Tampa but we used to call it Interbay.

[Batesmotel]

14 minutes ago, ChuteTheMall said:

And my old stamping grounds are gone, paved or populated by houses or condos.

That’s all too common. This was where I hunted pheasant. It was miles of farmland on one side and open range on the other. 

[railfancwb]

19 minutes ago, Batesmotel said:

That’s all too common. This was where I hunted pheasant. It was miles of farmland on one side and open range on the other. 

Happening too many places. The builders, reasonably from their perspective, use flat or gently rolling land which is ideal for row crops or hay or even pasture. The rocky irregular land is left. Even flood plains are filled and developed resulting in more vicious flooding downstream. 

[Schmidt Meister]

6 hours ago, ChuteTheMall said:

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, I grew up there ( a mile south of Gandy and within a block of Westshore) from the mid-50's thru the '60's, K-12.

Snakes were just another wildlife, like horseshoe crabs and gopher tortoises, both of which are now rare, endangered, and protected. But gators are more common now.

And my old stamping grounds are gone, paved or populated by houses or condos. Now it's called South Tampa but we used to call it Interbay.

The most awesome thing, to me, on this site, is when you post something that makes someone laugh. The next thing is to take someone down memory lane and see them reminisce about an earlier time in their life or to bring back long gone feelings. It is the reason I love posting here because people respond and it gives you a feeling of satisfaction. Whether the feelings are good or bad, is subjective, to remember the past is very good for humanity. Thanks for the comment.

[railfancwb]

11 hours ago, railfancwb said:

Happening too many places. The builders, reasonably from their perspective, use flat or gently rolling land which is ideal for row crops or hay or even pasture. The rocky irregular land is left. Even flood plains are filled and developed resulting in more vicious flooding downstream. 

The subdivision where I lived for almost fifty years has been afflicted by upstream filling of flood plain to the point where most of the houses next to the creek - which once only had the yards under water - have been flooded so frequently and extensively that most are boarded up and condemned. 

[21 shooter]

On 3/8/2022 at 10:08 AM, Schmidt Meister said:

The diamondback rattlesnake doesn’t exactly enjoy the best reputation among Florida’s wildlife. Generations of Floridians and visitors have been warned of the potentially deadly consequences of its bite, and as a result this venomous reptile is seldom a welcome sight when spotted.
That being said, rattlesnakes have also been a subject of great curiosity, when viewed from a safe distance at least. Eager entrepreneurs have tried in a number of ways to tap into this cautious enthusiasm over the years, including reptile shows, theme parks, reptile-skin gifts and clothing, and even by offering reptile meat as a food item.
George Kenneth End of Arcadia, Florida was one such businessman who made a living selling rattlesnakes in any way he could. Around 1930, he was helping his two young sons skin a rattlesnake they had just killed when the idea suddenly struck him to try cooking the meat to see what it would taste like. End found the meat tender and the flavor good, and he began experimenting with it to see how it could best be prepared as a marketable product.
The result was the Floridian Products Corporation, Rattlesnake Division. End began selling every part of the snake that might capture the whimsy of a customer, from the skin to the rattles, the fangs, oil made from snake fat, and even live snakes themselves. Among the most popular products was End’s “Genuine Diamondback Rattlesnake with Supreme Sauce,” a canned portion of rattlesnake meat prepared with a sauce of meat stock, mushrooms, and heavy cream. Advertisements recommended serving the meat in pastry shells or on thin slices of toast as an appetizer for cocktails. End and his associates promoted the meat as a delicacy, and encouraged customers to “be the first in your neighborhood to give a rattlesnake dinner.”
End’s bid for greatness as Florida’s main purveyor of rattlesnake products was successful. He first set up a factory for processing the rattlesnakes in Arcadia, not far from Florida’s Gulf Coast near Port Charlotte and Sarasota. The surrounding territory was largely undeveloped and full of scrub palmetto and other heavy growth, which made it ideal hunting grounds for the snake hunters who captured rattlesnakes to bring to End for processing. Later, as business picked up, End moved his main operation to Tampa, where he established his own “Rattlesnake Cannery and Emporium” in a two-story building at the corner of Bridge Street and Gandy Boulevard. In addition to processing the snakes, he also put on shows for visitors, who gasped in amazement as he and his associates handled the live rattlers and “milked” them to obtain the venom for medical purposes. End even managed to obtain permission to operate a post office at the site, naturally called “Rattlesnake.” Tourists were only too happy to send mail from this location, since it bore the unique “Rattlesnake, Fla.” postmark.
End’s success stemmed in part from the novelty and allure of his product, but his skills as a promoter were none too shabby. In addition to his “Rattlesnake” post office and attractive stop-over for tourists, he also at times took to the road to promote his products. Anyone who partook of a rattlesnake meal was furthermore entitled to membership in one of End’s reptile-related “clubs,” and would receive a membership card with their order. No doubt many a tourist left Florida proudly credentialed as a member of the “Reptile Science League,” the “Ancient Epicurean Order of Rattling Reptile Revelers,” or the “Subtle Society of Snake Snackers.”
As the shadow of World War II emerged on the horizon at the start of the 1940s, George End was threatened with the loss of his most vital helpers in the rattlesnake industry, the young men of soldiering age who went out and actually caught the snakes. Unfazed, he reputedly claimed that Rattlesnake, Florida would “go on to bigger things and better things, in spite of hell, Hitler, and high water.”
He was almost right. On July 27, 1944, End was working with a six-foot rattler that had just arrived at his headquarters when the snake struck at his right hand between his thumb and forefinger. For all the time George End had spent working with deadly rattlesnakes, he had never in his life been snakebitten before, but once was enough. He administered anti-venom to himself, but it was ineffective. He died in a matter of hours.
The Rattlesnake, Fla. post office and the emporium at Bridge Street and Gandy Boulevard closed down eventually, and End’s rattlesnake empire began to fade into memory. Mrs. End sold the cannery equipment along with its patents and formulas to herpetologist Ross Allen, whose Reptile Institute at Silver Springs, Florida served as both a tourist attraction and a site for anti-venom research.
George End’s rattlesnake attraction was one of a multitude of Florida tourist spots whose peculiar nature and humble origins make them treasures of the history of the Sunshine State.

Genuine Diamondback Rattlesnake With Supreme Sauce - c. 1930's

George K. End - President Of The Floridian Products Corporation, Rattlesnake Division - Arcadia, FL - 1944

Advertisement For Floridian Products Corporation Rattlesnake Division - 1933

Original Headquarters - Floridian Products Corporation - Arcadia, FL

It seems the “Florida man” thing started a long time ago.  Catching a rattlesnake and bringing it back alive would have been an interesting job.  

[Schmidt Meister]

2 hours ago, 21 shooter said:

It seems the “Florida man” thing started a long time ago.  Catching a rattlesnake and bringing it back alive would have been an interesting job.  

LOL, yes sir. I've caught many and kept a few for a little while but it always ended up seeming kind of stupid to keep an animal that would NEVER make a pet or even be 'tamed' so I always let them go. They are very interesting reptiles and they, snakes, have always been an interest of mine. People today, even around here, in the country, have gotten to the point that if they see one, they think it's their mission in life to kill it. Snakes have a valuable position in the ecology and I won't kill one unless necessary.

[Schmidt Meister]

Ross Allen, the man that ended up buying out the Floridian Rattlesnake Corp, started a business here in Florida that was very popular for quite a while and he did some meat production, but not a lot, but he was a serious herpetologist and he gave classes and had interesting exhibits.