Re: [Harp-L] was SPAH in Sacto?, now snakes, harps and an Elk RIver childhood

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm pretty sure SPAH is gonna be near my hometown of Elkview West Virginia next year at my alma mater, Herbert Hoover High School. It's the only place on Elk River where you can put an event, that has an actual roof. 
Well, they oughta anyway... lol.
When I was growing up, there was nothing for teenagers to do on the Elk River except fish, play bluegrass music and smoke marijuana. Fishin' and harmonica playin' kept me out of trouble. I was a good boy, didn't do any of the bad stuff..The worst thing I did do was engage in what I later learned was an illegal wildlife trade when I was at Elkview Junior High, 12 years old around 1988. I used this ill-gained revenue to get, one by one, me a set of harps.
 I was just a kid, didn't realize I selling wild, live snakes was technically poaching and the pet store I sold them to never bothered to lift the veil of my ignorance on this. I'd rummage through tin piles, etc. catch little ringneck snakes and sell them. Ringneck snakes have no front teeth, only rear teeth. While their saliva is mildy venomous, like a bee sting, it's hard for them to get those rear teeth into your skin, although it is possible. Other "non-venomous" snakes with a full set of teeth would simply tear you up and you didn't mess with those too much, although I sold some green snakes I'd pull out of trees. Garter snakes were too mean to catch, although sometimes, you'd consider it. Black snakes were out of the question, they act like real a..holes, biting and whatnot. Some of my buddies ran into copperhead vipers on snake-catching expeditions. I don't recall any close calls with the vipers while catching snakes, although I consider
 myself lucky to have emerged unscathed from a coiled, rattling rattlesnake about two inches from my ankle in some weeds once on the riverbank..
I'd catch the ringneck snakes in the evening and take them to school the next day. If you could sell the snake at school, usually to somebody who wanted it to put in a teacher's desk, or turn loose in the girl's bathroom, you could get $5 a snake. But I wasn't the only one doing this, there were about five of us in the snake trade, so supply exceeded demand at school, but the $5 a snake was a fixed price, because of a collusive agreement among us snake sellers. Snakes unsold at the end of the school day could be taken to this pet shop in the Elk Shopping Center with a guarenteed sale of $2.50 a snake. The pet store sold them for $15, but we didn't mind that, cause we otherwise did not have access to their markets, only the school snake market.
This went on for an entire spring, summer and part of a fall, when the pet shop went out of business, we lost the safety net. The collusive agreement had to be negated, school snake-market forces took over and the price dropped to $1 a snake and we all gave up. I learned a lot about economics as a childhood snake poacher. 
Now the harp content, this isn't just obligatory, is what I did with the snake money. I got a good allowance, I think it was $10 a week, when I added the snake money to that, I was a rich boy. I also mowed some grass for $5 a yard. One lady had a particularly large yard and I demanded and got $6 to mow that one.So, I could buy stuff,
When I was selling snakes, I was buying harps.  I was pulling about $10 a week selling snakes,. 
Indeed. I remember at the time I had a G Old Standby.I got some Blues Harps (the old handmade harp, you know, the one that was good) in G, C, A, Bb, D, E and a Marine Band in F. Harps were more than $20 then, that's a lot of money for a kid that age to invest in that many harps.All German.
I traded something for that Marine Band, it may have even been a snake. The boy that had it chewed these cinnamon toothpicks all the time and the comb reeked of cinnamon. Every time I play an F harp, I think of how that harp smelled and tasted. 
Dave
______________________________
Dave Payne Sr. 
Elk River Harmonicas
www.elkriverharmonicas.com 



----- Original Message ----
From: Randy Sandoval <randyharps@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, August 2, 2008 8:55:59 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] SPAH in Sacto?

Can someone verify this for me? Is SPAH really going to be in my backyard next year?
I was really depressed about not getting to SPAH this year as funds ( Or lack thereof ) 
wont allow it. If so , you will definately see my booth there next year.
Randy
http://www.genesisharmonicas.net
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