Turtle - 2

In east Texas not far from Corsicana was a place called Pisgah Ridge. In our family we just called it, the Ridge. Most of the old family stories started off with, "Back when we were still on the ridge,,," and would then go off into tales of adventures that sounded like something from written by Rudyard Kipling or Mark Twain. Sadly my kids will never see the Ridge or the cool round rocks we were later told were called Geodes.
A company bought the ridge. call it a surface mine or a rock quarry, but the ridge is gone.

one story i've heard since i was a foot tall was the one where a bunch of the kids from the family had gone down to the creek below the Ridge to swim. they would dive out of trees into the creek and what not. it was cheap entertainment and a great way to keep cool durring the
summers at a time when money was tight.

At one point, one of the boys (which one varies with who is telling the story, lol ) had dived down and when he touched the bottom, discovered a large rock that hadn't been there before. being curious, several others dived down with him to bring it up to the surface. although the head and feet were all drawn up inside the shell it was still the largest snapping turtle anyone had ever seen. Proud of their new prize they carried it up to the house and placed it
in a large metal wash tub and covered it with some boards until they could decide what to do
with it.

my grandfather(more likely my grandmother) sent letters to the zoos in Dallas, Houston, and
San Antonio hoping someone would be willing to pay them for it. It was the San Antonio zoo
that returned their letter and offered them enough to justify the trip. since my grandparents
had never been able to afford a honeymoon it was agreed to let them have the money to use
towards one. they loaded up the turtle into the back up a willys jeep and headed off
to San Antonio.

once in San Antonio the people at the zoo were impressed with the size of the turtle, and felt
that the alligator enclosure would be the best place to put it. they paid my grandfather for
the turtle and parted ways. my grandparents spent several days in San Antonio and on the day
they were to leave they got a call at the hotel. you guessed it, it was the zoo asking them
to come back and get the turtle. it had killed several of the alligators and injured several
others. my grandfather explained that a lot of the money had been spent, but was told not to
worry about, just to come and get it before it did any more damage.

according to my grandfather the turtle escaped the back of the willys when they stopped for
gas on the way home. according to my grandmother they let it go at a lake they passed.


about 10-15 years ago i was given a box of old family pictures that ranged from the late 1930s
to the 1960s. while going through the stack I found a number of pictures that confirmed stories I
had always wondered about and put them away for safe keeping. this past weekend i was going through
boxes looking for some records and documents and rediscovered them.

I think the Photographer was my Grandma Juanita. she was the only one with the sense to find a camera.


enjoy.