COUSIN PETER'S ORINOCO CROCKADILE AND
YELLOW CAMINE
YELLOW CAMINE
Cousin Peter was a man of discerning taste, He was an expert in early blues and jazz, palm trees, octopi intelligence and crocodiles. When he was passionate about a subject he studied and became an expert. He died in 2022 with enormous amounts of knowledge perfectly intact in his 93 year old brain. This is a story about him and his crocodile.
When Peter was a child he and his brother spent the summers at his grandfathers house on the Jersey shore. While other kids set up lemonade stands in Allenhurst. Peter with his older brothers help had a stand that sold reptiles. Apparently back then it was easy to buy and sell exotic reptiles. By summers end Peter had to rid himself of all animals because he had to go back to school and resume living with his mother who had a townhouse on Pine St in downtown Philadelphia. In late August, his grandfather made him part with an alligator he was particularly fond of. Note it was an alligator the precursor to a croc his hearts desire. He was forced to abandon the animal on a golf course in Allenhurst, NJ. This stranding made a lasting impact on Peter, and he told this story with pathos for the rest of his life. It was not a kids sad fairy tale it was real life. He was a case of case of arrested development arrested developmentThis traumatic experience acted as a strong to achieving his purpose in life. subjected to trauma as kids Peters life's purpose This abnormal condition resulted in Peter being stuck in a child's emotional or mental level of development when it came to crocodiles, As an adult he acted like a child emotionally or mentally when it came to crocks.
Life change
Our grandmother died in 1968, Our family assembled for her funeral, My sister myself and Cousin Peter met each of us were desperate for a Paradym shift. After funeral we came to Key west where we bought a property big enough for each of us to pursue our dreams. sister want a restaurant, cousin wanted a garden, I wanted an art gallery
Cousin Peter had been living and working in NYC his entire adult life, He worked as a wordsmith proof reading and editing other people's writing. His office was in the in the Wall Street Area. On his lunch break he planted and tended tomatoe seeds in the cracks of the sidewalk. I remember the triumph he felt when he produced a single tomato. It required hydration, fertilizer and shielding from being stepped on by the trodding masses of people who walked by daily.
Peter had a budding green thumb, He immediate liked palm trees.
So, when he left the repressive world of nonstop concrete and his boring job as a proofreader and moved to the freeing world of Key West's tropical foliage and live and let live attitude,
His latent child's passion for crocks broke through He was elated to see the same company he had bought from as a kid was still in business and it had retained its good reputation. In 1969 unbeknownst to me he indulge himself by buying not one juvenile crocodile but five different species of small crocodiles.ordered 5 crocodile species. Delivery was not fast as expected. He began to doubt the company credibility.
Finally after many weeks of phone calls and wghat seemed like false promised , three small rectangular wooden crates arrived with stickers that said live animals. One contained a yellow Camin, another a snake and the third contained an Urinoco Crocodile. He was happy with the crock disappointed with the Camin and had no interest in the snake. He sent the snale back but kept the camin. The company explained they were going out of business because the law regarding the sale of reptiles had changed at the time of his ordered and they could no longer legally trade in these exotics.
Lucky Peter had a friend named John who worked at the Savanah Science Museum specializing in Herpetology John made very nice outdoor enclosures for the reptiles. Thank my lucky stars John became the adult in the picture. John creatd two habitats for the young reptiles. The Camin got a pen made with wood and wire fencing. the area had dry land with shade, full sun and a ground level four feet deep water pool made by cleaning the rocks out o a pre existing rectangular sunken cement formation that held water with a little patching. John ,ade a
When regaling verbally about his crock he would talk facts about the species. His daily observation of the animal swas aprefered conversatiopm and a kid imagine about what it could do. imaging what the animal could doeach days discoveries would throw in as if to hold back a blend of chuckle chortle and snorts. Like a little bad boy who is telling the thuth but hiding his true feeling Cousin Peter chorteled with delight at all the nehaviors of his croc. warnened visiters mot to dangke the babys leg over the wall demise of the neighboor hood cats and the long legged white herons who ventured into the water
: to laugh or chuckle especially when amused or pleased
She chortled with delight.
Life change
Our grandmother died in 1968, Our family assembled for her funeral, My sister myself and Cousin Peter met each of us were desperate for a Paradym shift. After funeral we came to Key west where we bought a property big enough for each of us to pursue our dreams. sister want a restaurant, cousin wanted a garden, I wanted an art gallery
Cousin Peter had been living and working in NYC his entire adult life, He worked as a wordsmith proof reading and editing other people's writing. His office was in the in the Wall Street Area. On his lunch break he planted and tended tomatoe seeds in the cracks of the sidewalk. I remember the triumph he felt when he produced a single tomato. It required hydration, fertilizer and shielding from being stepped on by the trodding masses of people who walked by daily.
Peter had a budding green thumb, He immediate liked palm trees.
So, when he left the repressive world of nonstop concrete and his boring job as a proofreader and moved to the freeing world of Key West's tropical foliage and live and let live attitude,
His latent child's passion for crocks broke through He was elated to see the same company he had bought from as a kid was still in business and it had retained its good reputation. In 1969 unbeknownst to me he indulge himself by buying not one juvenile crocodile but five different species of small crocodiles.ordered 5 crocodile species. Delivery was not fast as expected. He began to doubt the company credibility.
Finally after many weeks of phone calls and wghat seemed like false promised , three small rectangular wooden crates arrived with stickers that said live animals. One contained a yellow Camin, another a snake and the third contained an Urinoco Crocodile. He was happy with the crock disappointed with the Camin and had no interest in the snake. He sent the snale back but kept the camin. The company explained they were going out of business because the law regarding the sale of reptiles had changed at the time of his ordered and they could no longer legally trade in these exotics.
Lucky Peter had a friend named John who worked at the Savanah Science Museum specializing in Herpetology John made very nice outdoor enclosures for the reptiles. Thank my lucky stars John became the adult in the picture. John creatd two habitats for the young reptiles. The Camin got a pen made with wood and wire fencing. the area had dry land with shade, full sun and a ground level four feet deep water pool made by cleaning the rocks out o a pre existing rectangular sunken cement formation that held water with a little patching. John ,ade a
When regaling verbally about his crock he would talk facts about the species. His daily observation of the animal swas aprefered conversatiopm and a kid imagine about what it could do. imaging what the animal could doeach days discoveries would throw in as if to hold back a blend of chuckle chortle and snorts. Like a little bad boy who is telling the thuth but hiding his true feeling Cousin Peter chorteled with delight at all the nehaviors of his croc. warnened visiters mot to dangke the babys leg over the wall demise of the neighboor hood cats and the long legged white herons who ventured into the water
: to laugh or chuckle especially when amused or pleased
She chortled with delight.
- laugh in a breathy, gleeful way; chuckle:
"he chortled at his own pun" - to smile in an unpleasant way because you are pleased with yourself, glad about someone else's trouble, etc.She tried not to smirk when they announced the winner.
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