I've got to vent ....

[Kudu 0]

I'm with Adam. I want to hear more about the party....As for the failure of the penal system...Lots of failures in this country when it involves the government. Anyway, lets hear more about these parties. Dr. Vette you are very interesting to say the least flyfisherman, sons of silence, and herpetologist.

[Kentuckysteve 0]

....and Bushido Samurai.

[DrVette 0]

Bushido samurai??? I say that i TRY to follow the philosophy of Bushido. Nothing more.

Even the Samurai seem to have failed from the stories of things they did to peasants and their feuds to change powers.

 

I don't remember when i first learned about Bushido...Nor when that led to my fascination for swords. I spent a lot of time learning about Samurai swords. I still have a small collection of swords and an extensive library on them. Some books are just how to id different schools and smiths from their markings and structure. I wish i hadn't lost so much of that to chemo brain.

I did get to meet a real Samurai. Tried to learn something called Eishen-Ryu from him. I was so bad he asked me to quit.

 

I grew up with the Sons. I made a living working for/with them.

The town they talk about in the show was Fountain Colorado. At the I-25 Fountain exit head west. Just past the truck stop there are some metal warehouse buildings. That was the "porn" studio in the show. I don't think the Sons ever filmed anything them selves any where. But they did have banks of video copying/recorders, printers, shrink wrap machine (i guess that is what you call that thing) and automated boxing there to mass produce porn tapes.

Go farther up the road till you see the huge parking lots filled with semis and cars...it is a national distribution hub for auto traders/dealers. The Son's started that for other reasons i am sure...But i was never told anything directly. I do know they lost it after having a load of tequila busted in the middle of the lot. I don't know anything else about that.

I started because i wanted to bring fireworks in from Missouri. It started with 2 semis one May. I later set-up a warehouse in MO and was able to start direct factory shipping to there. MO's laws were such that you just had to fill out a few forms, pay them their fees and taxes and then you could import almost any explosive you wanted. I bet that changed after 911 though. Colorado laws are still weird though. You can own any firework, but a lot of them you are not allowed to fire or sell.

That operation grew and grew and grew. Trucks leaving the warehouse had complete and legal paperwork for transporting into Colorado. The sons moved it to Denver and i decided to get out.

About a year later they got busted manufacturing some giant firecrackers called m1000s/pineapples. Those were big enough to be against federal laws...Those laws are why i never did find a true M80. I had no idea they were dumb enough to be doing that in town until it hit the news. I ran and hid because i thought the feds were after me also...they weren't. But that bust completely decimated the club and is why they are no longer around.

Eventually at one point i was ordering straight from China. That was how i happened across something else cool.

Turns out that after WW2 the Chinese also stripped the Japanese of all of their swords (any weapon) but they kept them, unlike the US who destroyed them. You can sometimes find great blades hidden among those stashes. I played with trying to import some and sell them. All those years reading about swords meant i could do a fair job of picking out a good sword from Polaroid pics of groups. I found one really great Bizen School blade that i tried to get certified. I had to spend a couple of grand paying the taxes, shipping and certification fees. I will never do that again. All i ever saw of that blade again was a letter from the Japanese Embassy saying it was an historical treasure and they were keeping it.

 

Herpetology has also been a long pass time for me. Yeah i have learned a lot but i am not a true expert just well studied on a few species. I did hold a state lic. for collecting and keeping venomous snakes. I use to get calls from the dog-pound to get rattelers, but they quit doing contracts out a long time ago. I kept the lic. because i would occasionally get hired by a lab out-side Walsenburge to bring them Russel's vipers from the Springs Airport. I let it lapse while going through chemo...Quite a shock to open the door one day to DOW, sheriffs and state police serving a warrant for keeping dangerous animals. I had none, just George.

But i bet i know more about entomology, for the same reason most on here know a lot about it as well...I am sure there are many better entomologists on this site than i ever could be. It is just a side to our fly-fishing and tying. Every-one tries to copy a bug here.

 

Parties...I grew-up with bikers. I have seen some real chaos at some parties. But i was usually only there to play drums. I still play with drums a bit. I even pulled a music minor in college because i didn't want to quit.

I quit trying to do the tour bits because my Grandmother begged me to come home and help with my brothers. That was when the older one was already going wild. So i promised her i would quit and go back to college. Again Bushido code meant i was obligated and did. So it is NOT about trying to be a Samurai or anything. To me it trying to find a way live with honor while respecting others...In this day and age it is almost an unattainable expectation. Considering what i grew-up around.

I think it is something to say that the only thing that still sits on my shoulders is that i had to break into some-ones cabin for shelter... What i have seen others do... Well that is their problem to live with.

[Adam Saarinen 0]

A very small video camera would be interesting to have while at that party! Or maybe not? Horrible to think oneday you need help & the policeman is a cocane junkie, then you get a lawyer who is a cocane junkie, then stand infront of a judge that is a cocane junkie & then drop your soap in the shower block, Oops!:'(

[vicrider 0]

Dr. Vette, are you sure all that Chemo to the brain didn't confuse some of your life with the Sons of Anarchy TV show. Since my brother was past President of a chapter of a club that was an associate with Sons of Silence ( and I knew and rode with several in MN ), I need to ask him about this "fireworks" pipeline into CO. There were a lot of pipelines for many illegal items and contraband established through the big name 3 patch clubs but fireworks is a new one on me and thought I knew the inner workings fairly well, at least well enough to have avoided them through a couple hundred thousand miles of road riding and rally parties through the south and midwest.

 

As for your herp years, my son in law and daughter own one of the biggest reptile stores and internet outlets in the north central region (MN) and travel to shows all over the south. Licenses for exotics are getting harder to obtain every year and poisonous snakes cannot be sold or traded commercially. The big rattlesnake roundups in OK sure make for a good deep fried and BB'Qed snake meat though.

 

The more I read your multiple posts here the more confused I become on trying to follow so many things none of the rest of us have been privy to and establishing a timeline through all those happenings is about impossible.

[Adam Saarinen 0]

I'd like to hear more about the big metal warehouses now, i wonder if Christy Canyon ever worked there?

[Kudu 0]

No christy canyon but I think Vanessa del rio and Jenna Jamison were there! Dr V what kind of snake is George?

[Adam Saarinen 0]

Well one things for sure, Vanilla & Susan Silver were never there!:-)

[DrVette 0]

George is a Madagascar Ground Boa hybrid commonly called a Dumerril's Boa. She is a very rare high pink variety. And the most mellow snake i ever met...that is why i keep her.

 

The reason the lab would hire me is because i never would tell them who i got the Russel's vipers through. (i kinda robbed them on my prices, but they offered it) The lab techs down there just couldn't keep them alive...I was never allowed to look close enough to figure out why. I could have saved them a lot,but they wanted secrecy.

So i just worked with a breeder to keep a supply open. The place i would get them from was called Exotic Jungle...I hear he actually recovered and is open again. I haven't checked to see if he still sends Venomoids out or not. I am too slow these days to even think about facing one.(case in point is the rat escape a couple of weeks ago while feeding George...because i screwed-up BAD). I know i had to answer a lot of questions to a lot of idiots flashing badges with so many letters i can't remember all of them.

The first time i ever had a problem was sitting in what is actually a small jail in the basement of the Springs Air-Port, they made me go there to inspect the animals. I had to show up around 6am before terminals opened but after cargo planes dropped. I should have known there was a problem when they brought in 5 buckets. It was only 6 snakes that were about 2 feet long...normally 2 or 3 5gallon buckets. The first bucket i opened...I grabbed the bag and got a light hit, but it felt big. That woke me up. They can bite through the bag and kill you...I just got lucky, very lucky because i was sleep walking. But when a monicalled cobra rose up out of that bag...2 TSA guys went crazy, i kinda freaked but they are a mellow snake and this one was cold. I got lucky and got him back into his bag...Then almost peed my-self. That was only the 3rd time i ever met a cobra. I got real lucky that it was a monical.

Never heard where my Russel's ended up getting to. All the letter guys were going crazy because he sent a croc to a grade school...Thank god they didn't get my Russel's.

Want to really add to the blurred line of shows and reality... The guy who runs Exotic Jungle also supplied the Black Mamba for the movie Kill Bill...That is truth.

 

The Son's of Silence fell apart because they were making those (semi-pipe bomb) fire-crackers in the middle of old Downtown Colorado Springs. I think on Nevada Ave...or close to. That is EASILY verified. They were stupid. I had to arrange anti-static containers to ship that powder. The fuses were expensive because the were very safe to work with. But that powder even scared me. It was bad stuff. But the crackers were fun as heck. I have never heard why they chose that place...If i had known i would have had a cow. I made enough money for them that i had some say. I think it was some condos or apartments they were doing it out of,my memory is bad on that...i was so scared i was going to get arrested and freaked more than a little when it happened. My name was all over the MO side. Statute of limitations is up. No more worry.

The show kept showing a porn studio...I don't think they EVER filmed anything themselves...I could be wrong???

They were pirate copying MASSIVE amounts of VHS tapes though. I still can't beleive the numbers they sold. Most of the world must be pervs i guess. But that was also the claimed base on the Colo. side of my fire-works operation. Where my paper work went through.

I never have checked but that place in MO might still be running. I was forced to open a store front on it to keep the tax lines in check. Had to hire locals to run it. I basically signed everything over to the club when i left. I have no idea if they kept it going after the bust.

The garage they show is Sons of Anarchy is still open...i don't know who owns it now so will not talk much about it.

Yeah, Watching the first 2 seasons of that show made me a little scared. It was too close to the truth i knew. I honestly expected a writer or producer to get killed over what they made. By the 3rd season they derailed into completely made up stuff though. (I hope)

So yes there are times i also question that line...but i saw a lot of the truth. I never knew all. I never asked what they were doing with the ever increasing volumes of fire-works and powders. I was certain they were being sent to other states... but... it wasn't on me. I had set up a basically legal pipeline...the Kansas State patrol would stop about 6-8% of the trucks. They always passed. That is why i had a lot of say as to what would be allowed there. I found the conflict of laws and exploited it. That makes me an Out-Law not a criminal.

[DrVette 0]

 

 

As for your herp years, my son in law and daughter own one of the biggest reptile stores and internet outlets in the north central region (MN) and travel to shows all over the south. Licenses for exotics are getting harder to obtain every year and poisonous snakes cannot be sold or traded commercially. The big rattlesnake roundups in OK sure make for a good deep fried and BB'Qed snake meat though.

Yeah, i vaguely remember the year they started demanding getting that lic. My best guess was the early 90s??? I had been on a known list of snake collectors/wranglers since i first got a car...I was trying to get gas money(1983?)...They had ZERO regulations back then. You just had to fill out a form saying you knew how handle XXX animal. They would post that on the switchboard. If you resolved a problem they called you about you would get 3 checks. 1 from city, 1 from county and 1 from the landowner's insurance. It was kind of a racquet to be honest.

The city killed that LONG ago...i don't remember when.

But here in Colo. (as of 2011) you could still have a lic. to keep, collect, and transport hot snakes. You were not allowed to sell, UNLESS it was for scientific study. The feds even keep that loop-hole. so you might find there are ways to get things you never should have... totally legally...via loop-holes.

[Steeldrifter 0]

Okay I stopped reading after page 2...seems things have taken a turn here. Does this need to be shut dwn guys or is everything okay? Please don't make me read all this okay, just tell me.

[mikechell 0]

No, Steve. There's no argument going on. Just a lot of bragging and stories.

[Steeldrifter 0]

Okay carry on, just seemed like maybe it was startin to go off on a bad road from a post or two I read. If it does then just PM me.

[Kudu 0]

Dr V

Would love to see pic of George. Sounds cool!

[Adam Saarinen 0]

Sorry for the bad picture, had to take a picture with my phone of the picture on the screen i took with my digital camera of the original polaroide photo! It's the scooter my father built in the early 1970's before i was born, he put a Volkswagen car engine in a Sunbeam motorcycle! He was a welder by trade then doing truck chassis conversions, one of his friends told me not that many years ago he still remembers going to visit him at work oneday & he filled the whole workshop with smoke from a massive burnout! Keep in mind this was early 70's when people like Indian Larry & OCC Paul senior were still riding pushbikes! R.I.P Indian Larry