Brother Jerry
As you can see from the photo he is about 9 1/2 feet tall. He's the only guy I know who buys elevator shoes and has to have them specially set to basement just to keep his hat from wrecking the ceiling fans. He's sixty something years young, has most of his hair, all of his teeth and then some and jogs to work and back. He claims he owes it all to Rattlesnake Tequila. I don't think you can buy bottled Rattlesnake Tequila. You have to buy it by the shot or make it yourself. Are you intrigued yet? Here's a recipe I found on this website.
1 gallon (or so) of cheap white tequila
1 small rattlesnake (red diamondback preferred)
Catch the rattlesnake with a "special stick". Place the rattlesnake into a gallon jar, then fill with the cheap white tequila. As the snake drowns, it (allegedly) emits "minute amounts of compounds with certain medicinal properties." When the snake is dead, remove from jar, gut snake, then put back in jar. Put the jar in the sun for three months, then in the shade for three months. Serve as shots. "
The first thing Jerry needed was a rattlesnake. Well this IS Texas and we have plenty of people with access to them but all he was being offered was dead ones. I've often heard the phrase "The only good snake is a dead snake" but for Rattlesnake Tequila you need a live snake and only a live snake will do. Jerry finally found a snake handler some where out in the boonies that had snakes for sale. Jerry went to see him and convinced him that he wanted to raise the snake as a pet. He purchased the snake from the snake handler and brought him home with some, justified, trepidation. It seems the snake handlers hand was severely swollen from a previous snake bite and had several scars from other bites. Jerry and his buddy Tom get the snake home and begin preparations for getting the snake into the jar that will be eventually filled with Tequila. Jerry never forgets the details and had the presence of mind to put this part of it on video. Check it out, click SEE THE VIDEO under the picture of Jerry's Rattlesnake in a jar on this site. Rattlesnake in a jar.
I must admit that I never tasted Jerry's Rattlesnake Tequila and I think the brew has been disposed of by now but the story will live on. Jerry and his brother (my other step brother) Jim are good friends with Texas singer and songwriter Brian Burns Brian Burns website. Jim lives in Amarillo and sees Brian from time to time since Brian's home base is in the Dallas / Fort Worth area. One night Jim was shooting the breeze with Brian and started telling him the story about Jerry's Rattlesnake Tequila. Being the excellent song writer that Brian is he immediately saw the opportunity to turn this into a song that would fit onto his newest album that he was working on at the time, American Junkyard
Well the song has been written, the album has gone to press and the story of Jerry's Rattlesnake Tequila has been told. Of course Jerry is not the first one to make Rattlesnake Tequila and probably won't be the last but he did it and lived to tell the tale. And had the tale told by others. I know a lot of people will recoil (sorry couldn't help it) at the notion of killing a poor snake for the sake of making tequila and Jerry is not the type of person to go around killing things for the fun of it. It was just something he had to do.
Right now I think Jerry's on a train headed to Nacona Texas to be in the audience of the Brian Burns Christmas show there on December 4th. I wonder what stories he will bring back from this trip?
Here's some pictures of other jars of Rattlesnake Tequila sitting on bars around Mexico.
Adios Amigos!
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