A Hero of my Youth

Elizabeth Lawrence, the great garden writer, wrote in her "A Southern Garden" that " Spring comes in February". But not this year. Nashville does not have the brilliant blue days that come after snow. We have weeks of dreary clouds, and the cold here is a damp, enervating cold.

I remember one February day a few years back when I saw a barred owl catch a snake at Edwin Warner Park. Such warm days were not unusual, and thinking of that day brought to mind two of my favorite books of my youth. One book was by and the other about a man with the unglamourous name of Raymond L. Ditmars. He, not Elvis or JFK, was the hero of my youth. He was a herpetologist, an expert on reptiles, and that rare being- a man whose avocation was his vocation. As a boy he collected snakes, and his mother once came home to find a python wrapped around her bannister. When dockworkers found Fer-de-lances in banana shipments they called Raymond. He devoted his life to the things he loved best. How many of us are that fortunate? Do young men and women read his books anymore? And as adults, when we see young people with passionate interests and pursuits, do we encourage or do we disparage? Random thoughts on another damp Nashville winter day.