Alligator to Gator : Lawn Garden Statue Ornament Yard Decoration

Hi my name is Ken . I'm no expert on alligators but I
grew up here in south Florida and have lived here most of
my life. I would like to share some of my mixed alligator
experiences with you and give some insites as to what a
typical Floridian may encounter in the way of alligators.

The first time I recall seeing a gator was at one of the
many colorful souvenir stands that dotted the road sides
here in Florida in the early 50s.The stands my family
visited at that time, all seemed to have the same things for
sale. Displayed among the sea shells and carved painted
coconut heads were stuffed baby alligators about one to
two feet in length with staring glass eyes.Some of the
baby gators were decorated with little straw hats and I
recall a few of them were wearing doll size sun
glasses.When I think back about it there were so many
alligators piled up at these Florida souvenir stands it's a
wonder that there were any alligators left to grow up here
in Florida.The bigger alligators at this point in time,
seemed to be meeting a similar fate.Alligator products
such as womans handbags, shoes, wallets and belts were
very common and were for sale in many Florida stores to
the locals and tourists.

My first time I saw a live alligator was at the age of
six when my dad took the family to the Seminole Indian
village, a big tourist attraction here in Florida. The
village had lots indian made mechandise for sale and the
usual gator souvenirs. For the more dareing tourists they
also had live baby alligators you could buy and take home
with you as a pet.These little gators had very sharp teeth
and lots of them. I think dad was wise in not letting me
take one home.Im sure many of the tourists that took them
home got some fingers bitten by their gator and decided to
flush it down the toilet. I think this is how the urban
legend of the " alligator in the sewer " arose , but this is
only speculation on my part.

The main attraction at the Seminole Indian village
was the alligator wresting show. The gators were kept in
an enclosed area with a pond to one side. Lying there in
the murky waters were about half a dozen sleeply
alligators doing absolutely nothing. They looked almost
like stepping stones sitting there in the water.A Seminole
indian man from the tribe fearlessly entered the enclosed
show area and proceeded to pull one of the gators by his
tail out of the pond, on to the sand embankment.The
alligator was about eight feet long and didn't seem to be
to happy about its sudden awakening, as it hissed and
snapped its jaws. The indian man next proceeded to
poke the gator with a wooden pole to get him to flip his
tail, hiss and open his mouth showing off his teeth. This
was definitly more exiting than the almost lifeless gators
remaining in the pond. After awhile the alligator seemed
to tire from the activity and the indian approached it from
behind and sat on its back just below its head. While
putting one hand under the alligators throat and the other
hand on his snout the indian pulled the gators mouth wide
open and posed for the amazed crowd. I could hear
cameras clicking away in the background.Wow!, I thought
what is he going to do next ? The indian closed the
alligators mouth and placed its head under his chin and
pressed it against his chest. He then held his arms out to
his side and struck another confident pose. The crowd
began to applaud and the clicking of cameras taking
alligator pictures was heard one more time. While
holding the alligators mouth shut the indian next
proceeded to flip the gator over on to its back Next came
one of the most amazing things I had yet to see in my
young six year old life. The indian picked up a handful
off wet sand from the pond bank and proceeded to rub it
all over the stomach and underside of the alligator. The
alligator didnt seem to mind and just laid there on the wet
sand motionless as if it was sound asleep.That was the
end of this most unual but entertaining alligator wresting
show.As the crowd was leaving, I tooked back to see the
indian flip the alligator back over on to its stomach. I
stared intensely as the alligator slowly crawled back into
the pond to join its almost lifeless companions.

The next encounter I had with alligators was of a
totally different variety. Our family moved to Gainesville
Florida in 1954 where my dad was to attend college at the
University of Florida. I'll never forget the homecomming
festivities I saw the first year we lived there next to the
college campus. It seemed like the whole town of
Gainesville had gone alligator crazy. The fraternity
houses by the college were decorated with University of
Florida gator mascots dressed up in football uniforms
ingaging in all kinds of cartoon like violence upon the
mascot of the opponents football teem. One year I can
remember well is the year the gators played a team whose
mascot was the tiger. Many of the floats in the home-
comming parade had animated green gator figures doing
all kinds of unpleasant things to the opposing teams tiger
mascot. Other gator football activities included a large
bonfire. The night before the homecomming football game
there was a giant pep rally called the Gator Growl that
was held at the University of Florida football stadium.
The event had all kinds of live entertainment and ended
with a large fireworks display. Needless to say all these
activities for a young boy of seven gave rise to many
questions. One thing that puzzled me most at the time was
: why were all the alligator mascots at the University of
Florida GREEN? The real alligators I had seen in my
life up until that point were a dark leathery looking black
if they were any color at all. Dads reply must have been
that he didnt know, because it wasn't till later in life I
could come up with any answers.

After leaving the Gaineville area our family moved to
suburban West Palm Beach in Palm Beach County
Florida. In the mid 50's Florida wasn't as developed as it
is today. Back then much of the land was accessible only
from shell rock roads. Much the land was low and tended
to flood when there was a heavy rain. The home that my
family rented was raised several feet above the ground on
pilings . We had a drainage ditchs on each side of our
property that filled up with water ever time there was a
good storm.Our neighborhood had a series of drainage
canals that tied into progressively larger canals. The sides
of the canals were covered with dense brush, cat tails and
marsh grasses. Some of the canals branched into small
shallow streams which supported a wide variety of wild
life.These streams were home to baby alligators which
lived off of the bugs, frogs, tadpoles and small fish that
filled these waters . This abundant wildlife was easy prey
for these young gators. As a boy of eight or nine years
years of age I used to play almost daily in these streams
collecting minows and tadpoles in discarded glass jars. It
wasn't uncommon to have a brief encounter with a baby
alligator hunting its daily meal.The young alligator
although it is a predator itself, was prey to animals such as
the racoon as well as water birds which also fed in these
streams.The young alligator is also prey to its own kind.
Alligators are cannibalistic. Needless to say my encounter
with a small alligator was brief, it didn't hang around long
when something bigger than it was present.It would
quickly take refuge in the reeds and cat tails along the
shore.My friends and I would occasionally spot, or at
least thought we had spotted some of the bigger alligators
floating in the center of the larger canals. The looked like
logs floating in the water. It was hard to tell just how big
they were from the shore and none of us young boys were
brave enough , or better yet stupid enough to get close
enough to tell. Confronting a large alligator at that age
would have been our worst nightmare.