Quick-Fire Quips is a questionnaire where we get to know people who stand out in the State of Alabama! In this episode, Alabama Public Radio host Baillee Majors talks with Trippy McGuire, a veteran snake handler for The Opp Rattlesnake Rodeo.
Baillee: Hey, Trippy, how are you?
Trippy: All right, Baillee, good to hear you.
Baillee: Good to have you on today. So excited to get to know you a little bit more and hear about snake handling!
Trippy: Okay. I'm ready!
Baillee: For those who are unfamiliar, tell me: what is The Opp Rattlesnake Rodeo?
Trippy: Well, it started back in 1960 as a fundraiser. A gentleman named J.P. Jones started it. It is an arts and crafts festival, basically, but it features rattlesnakes. We do have live rattlesnake demonstrations, but it is an arts and crafts festival that's got a lot of vendors.
We also bring in big-name country music entertainers for the three concerts. This year it's Danny Riley on Friday night, and it's Trace Adkins on Saturday and Neal McCoy on Sunday.
Baillee: Now that the introductions are done, we can go ahead and get you warmed up for the questionnaire. And to do that, I want you to say "Quick-Fire Quips" three times fast.
Trippy: Okay, Quick-Fire Quips three times fast.
Baillee: Oh, you're funny for that!
(Baillee and Trippy laugh)
Trippy: Ah, I'm just messing with you! Okay. Quick-Fire Quips, Quick-Fire Quips, Quick-Fire Quips.
Baillee: Perfect. Okay, so here's our first question. What comes to mind when you hear "Alabama"?
Trippy: Home? My home's in Alabama. But I also think of the mountains, the Black Belt, Wiregrass region, Coastal Plains, beaches and the Gulf. Alabama has it all!
Baillee: What is a hidden gem in Opp that you think more people should know about?
Trippy: We have Lake Frank Jackson State Park, and it is an RVer's paradise because the rental lots are in shaded areas—beautiful shaded tree areas around the lake—and it is very popular with RVers. They are there all the time. There's an island with a bridge leading to it, a footbridge, and you can go hiking around the island. It is beautiful.
Baillee: What is your favorite thing about living in Alabama?
Trippy: First of all, I guess the people. The Alabama people are great, and we've got a lot of beautiful natural scenery from the top of the state to the bottom.
Alabama's got an extremely interesting history. I'm especially interested in Indian history. You know, we had the four tribes here: uh, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Creek. We had the mound builders before them.
So there's a lot of history, but there's beautiful natural scenery. But I guess the thing I would love the most would be the people.
Baillee: What is something that you don't like about living in Alabama?
Trippy: There's really not anything that I don't like, but our water is not as pretty as the Emerald Coast.
Baillee: What's a bad stereotype or something that people get wrong about Alabama?
Trippy: Well, you know what that is: Everybody thinks we're a bunch of backwards, uneducated folks that don't have teeth, shoes, or—or brains.
I think people are surprised when they come down here, that we are regular folks and that we have just a beautiful state. They don't realize the natural beauty of Alabama until they come down here.
Baillee: Let's talk a little bit more about snakes and the Rattlesnake Rodeo... What do you do there? What's your role?
Trippy: I am in the snake pit the entire time. We have what we call the snake pit; it is actually a fenced-off area. You can come up to the fence. It's got hardware cloth around it so the snakes can't get out.
I'm tending to the snakes or doing snake demonstrations in front of the entire audience in between shows.
In between snake shows, we are just keeping the snakes out in the open where people can watch them. I say "in the open"—fenced in, of course. But people can watch them and just see snakes just kind of chilling out, basically.
Baillee: How long have you been tending to the snakes at the rodeo?
Trippy: I started picking up the big ones in 1989 and, they brought me into the rodeo as a handler. They knew I handled them, but, I was probably brought in maybe fifteen years ago. There's not that many people that will handle live rattlesnakes, as you—as you might imagine.
Baillee: Yeah, I bet!
Trippy: So several of the old original guys aged out, and I was just a natural selection, too, because they knew I already handled them. They weren't going to have to teach me how.
In fact, I was just walking around the track as a bystander, checking in on all the vendors and what was being sold. A fella came and said, " They need you right quick at the snake pit."
I went over there, and they said, "Grab a snake stick and get out there for the demonstration. We need you." So I thought, well, my ship has come in, so I've been doing it ever since!
Baillee: How did you get into that? Did you just have a curiosity with snakes, or did you grow up around that kind of thing?
Trippy: Well, basically, I grew up in Homewood, Alabama, outside of Birmingham, but there were some woods, you know, outside of my backyard. There would always be snakes come up, right? They were not the poisonous ones.
My mother had instilled a fear—a mortal fear of snakes in me as a child. But as I got older, in first grade, the fear turned to fascination and then respect and then actually appreciation. So I was used to being around snakes. The older I got, the more comfortable I felt around them. That's how it happened.
Baillee: Wow! Did your mom ever come out and see you handling a snake?
Trippy: Well, I'm sure she did.
Baillee: What was her reaction?
Trippy: Back when we were living in Homewood, I was in elementary school. When I would find a dead snake, I would put him in a jar with alcohol to preserve it and put it on my shelf in my bedroom.
I had a little suitcase I would carry them in. And when we'd go visit grandparents in Mobile, I would pack my suitcase with my jars of snakes.
So, I never really at that age handled a live one. I touched a couple of live ones at the Alabama State Fair. But as far as me handling them, they were dead by the time I handled them.
It wasn't until I—I guess I probably—it was not until I moved to Opp in 1979 that I actually started handling the rattlesnakes.
Baillee: I gotta say, I love you saying that you would bring your jars of snakes when you'd visit your grandparents. And I think—I imagine as a child, it's like, "Hey, there are these really cool snakes. I want to show my grandparents. Aren't these neat?"
Trippy: Yeah. And I had cousins that were guys... You know, my mom asked me one time, "Did you pack your suitcase?" and I said, "Yes, ma'am." And she checked just to make sure I put underwear in there... and I had not. It was all snakes.
(Baillee and Trippy laugh)
Baillee: Oh, that's so funny! That's so funny. I feel like that's such a country boy, experience.
Trippy: Yeah, that's a little boy thing. You know, little boys, they can wear the same clothes and underwear for weeks if it's not for their moms making them change every day. So it was more important to have snakes than underwear.
Baillee: What were you thinking the first time that you held one—or that you know, a live one? What was going through your mind?
Trippy: Well, that was in first grade when I went to the Alabama State Fair with a friend whose dad was friends with the guy who's over the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
They had cages with all sorts of snakes. So we got to go back behind it. The guy actually opened up the top of the cage with the water moccasins and a rattlesnake and them out one at a time. He held the business end, the head, and let us touch those snakes.
I doubt they'd do that today. But that was a different time. That was 1960. I was a first grader, and I was thrilled because I had heard of these snakes, I'd seen them before, but gosh, I was getting to touch one!
That just was fascinating. So it was not fear. You know, he was holding the business end of it; nothing was going to happen. So was actually a thrill.
Baillee: Have you ever been bitten by a snake, or have there ever been people bitten at any kind of showing that you've done at the rodeo?
Trippy: No, no. When people ask that all the time, "What do you do if you get bit?" and I said, "We don't."
If you get bit, then it's all over. I mean, you're not going to be a snake handler anymore, right?
You don't get bit. I mean, you know what you're doing. You just... that's out of the question. But no, nobody has ever been bitten.
Baillee: Do you have any standout memories of your time at the rodeo?
Trippy: Well, this has nothing to do with rattlesnakes. But at the concert at the Rattlesnake Rodeo one night, I guess my favorite memory was, my youngest daughter. She was ten. She was there with her two best friends. The entertainer was Ronnie McDowell.
I put them up on stage. I lifted them up on stage, and they were dancing to his music, and they were all doing the same moves. They were doing this choreographed dancing up there while Ronnie McDowell was entertaining. They're on stage with him, off to the side, and the people were eating it up.
As a proud dad, that's my favorite memory. Seeing my daughter and her friends up on stage, just as cute as can be, little girls doing these cute little dances. That's my favorite memory.
Baillee: Oh gosh, that's a good one! That's so sweet. Okay, tell me something on your bucket list.
Trippy: Adventures with grandkids is always on the bucket list. Scuba diving, and weightlifting.
Baillee: Speaking of your grandkids, do they have any interests in handling snakes like you?
Trippy: My two oldest are coming to the rodeo for the first time... They're not really that fascinated with them yet. They certainly know what they are, and they know to go tell—tell Mom if they see one.
Baillee: I like how you said they're not fascinated with them yet.
Trippy: Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. My grandson especially, I think he's a big outdoorsman. I think he's going to have some fascination with snakes.
Baillee: Who was your childhood hero?
Trippy: Tarzan. Always Tarzan.
Baillee: Can I ask why?
Trippy: Well, uh, because he had big muscles, and I wanted to grow up to be like that and play Tarzan in the movies and then be a professional wrestler. He lived in the trees and swung on a vine, and I loved swinging on ropes and climbing trees.
He had all these great outdoor adventures. He could almost outrun lions. He was in great shape and had a great physique. Yeah. So I guess that's why all those things. He was a brave, noble guy.
Baillee: Is he still your hero today?
Trippy: No, that would be William Weatherford, "Red Eagle," the Creek Indian leader. When I was in fourth grade, we studied him. I thought, "Wow, this here was a real-life Tarzan." So William Weatherford has always been another one.
Baillee: What is your favorite getaway spot in Alabama?
Trippy: Probably Mobile at Mardi Gras time with my grandkids. That's always a highlight of the year. I'm originally from Mobile.
I love Baldwin County because there's so much beauty there, and there's history. So my favorite getaway spots probably would be Baldwin County and Mobile and then Auburn for football.
Baillee: Wait, are you saying you're an Auburn fan That's a little rare to hear!
Trippy: I've always loved football Auburn football. I grew up on it, and it's sort of in my blood. I guess you could say, "I don't bleed red. I bleed orange and blue."
Baillee: Here is the last question. What does Alabama need?
Trippy: Most of Alabama's rural hospitals are suffering... Most of Alabama is rural, and those rural hospitals are very important to these small towns and communities.
I would say, something we need really bad would be adequate funding for rural hospitals. Reimbursements from Medicare are not that good... That would be number one on my list: better reimbursements, better funding for rural hospitals.
Baillee: That's it for today's Quick-Fire Quips, a questionnaire where we get to know people who stand out in the state of Alabama. That was Trippy McGuire, a snake handler for The Opp Rattlesnake Rodeo. I'm your host, Baillee Majors.
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