Every few years an event of greatness re-occurs, The Reptile Man, Scott Petersen, returns to the library!
Our district puts on a bunch of really cool summer reading programs for the public to enjoy every year, but I have to say that the Reptile Man is one of my, if not my absolute favorite.
Why might you ask? Well, to begin with, a lot of people are scared of reptiles, and Scott's program is one of the best when it comes to soothing people's fear regarding reptiles. He does that by being the most chill yet informative dude and by sharing his super chill animals with us all.
Take me for instance, as a kid in the Pacific Northwest, the only snakes I had a chance to be around were garter snakes and black swamp snakes. Both are harmless to people, but I had family members who were terrified of snakes. I wasn't really scared of them, I just really hated it when they quickly slithered across my sandaled feet or when I worked in the hay field and accidentally got ahold of a startled one.
Flash forward to my time spent with The Reptile Man. The last time he showed up he had an eight foot banana python that I ended up wearing because the kids kept crowding it so close and I didn't want the poor thing to get stepped on. That snake is one of the most patient and gentle animals I have ever encountered, and just spending time interacting with it changed my whole perspective.
That and having an alligator on my head.
Honestly, I am up for anything most of the time, as over the years I have realized that only through challenging your thoughts and fears do you achieve any form of growth and development, but that's another blog post.😉
Anyway, Scott returned to our library this past Friday, and he brought some friends!
He always gets the tortoise out first, he's had the guy for decades, and I think he uses the tortoise for an ice breaker. I think that because the tortoise's name is:
Spongebob Scalepants!
cue audience laughter
The Reptile Man then brings out his other pals:
A Bearded Dragon
A Gila Monster
A Solomon Island Skink
Many different snake friends
And one cranky rattlesnake who wasn't in a so friendly mood
and my very favorites:
Lucy the alligator
and Oscar the banana python.
Lucy is the most chill creature, with the exception of Oscar of course! She just snuggles everyone she comes in contact with, which I must say seems a bit peculiar for an alligator, but my favorite part about Lucy is her little going to sleep act. Apparently there is a spot by an alligator's eye that if you press it a decrease in blood pressure happens and they go night night. Scott pressed Lucy's special alligator pass out button and she threw her head back like a fainting debutante. It's pretty funny!
Another super hilarious thing is that alligators have the bladders of post-partum mothers. The first thing Lucy did when Scott took her out of her travel tote is shoot a pee towards the front row of spectators. I think I referred to it as The Splashening and the squeals of disgust from the front row were epic.
Then there is Oscar, sweet Oscar. He has put on 200 pounds in the last two years, which honestly makes me feel better that I have only gained five. He has also doubled in size. Before I could just drape Oscar around my shoulders and have the help of one assistant. Not so now, the banana python now takes about 6 kids to hold him up. He's still the sweetest, most patient of bois ever though. Just look at that happy mug:
And that bring us to how the program ends every time, Scott sets out the tortoise, attaches the bearded dragon to the nearest kid, sets Oscar out on the ground or in his tray, and Scott himself walks around flopping Lucy onto everyone's heads for alligator selfies or lets people hold her like a baby.
Most of the kids in attendance were not too scared at all and descended like a little hordes of tactile tacticians. There were a few adults however, who kept their distance or cautiously crept over to get a closer look. I know I have a massive smile on my face during the entire Reptile Man program because I love, love, love getting to experience new things, and even more than that, I adore seeing people's joy when they get to discover something new as well.
And I suppose I also love screams of disgust when an alligator pees on the audience.
The Reptile Man rocks!
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's alligator pee free iPhone.