BIZARRE CHRISTMAS PRESENT ……. 1976

Yes I really did get a huge Tarantula for a Christmas present in the 70’s ……. I will start off with how this happened, I was on CB radio in the 70’s and had a lot of friends that I did know in person. There was a very large group of people involved in that in those days and we always had a great time meeting up at different places and at each others houses. I would sometimes stay up most of the night talking on the radio to people on the road. This was even better than on social media since you could all actually talk to each other at the same time. It was like talking on a phone but everyone could join in.

One night or should I say morning at around 1am one of my friends said you have to get over here there is a present for you !!! So i jumped into my car and drove about 8 miles from my house to my friends house. I walked in and she said go downstairs to the basement they had a party room down there with a bar and a pool table. Well in the middle of this big pool table was a big jar but it was empty !!! They said it went down one of the holes in the table !!! I had no idea what “IT” was but found out when it finally showed up……..

This is what “IT” was !!!

Since I don’t have a photo of mine this is what it looked like. It’s a Goliath Bird Eating Spider species Therphosa Blondi ……. A very large type of Tarantula from South and Central America with very large Fangs !!!

Now I do have a photo of my spiders fangs so I will post that later on in my blog …. But back to the story of what happened next !!

We managed to get the “IT” back into the jar and I accepted the Christmas present and went on my way home. On the way home I thought why not stop by my hangout bar and show off my new Pet !!! So that is what I did. The name of the bar was My Sister’s Place and of course most bars stayed open until around 4 am. I walked in and put my new Pet right on the bar and watched as the people Gasped !!

Because my CB handle [nickname] was Crazy Lady my new pet became CRAZY LEGS having 8 of her own legs. She got her own fishtank that I kept in the kitchen of all places. We had a very large kitchen in my house. She was not a friendly spider and became very aggressive when I opened her tank to feed her and clean it out. One day while I was distracted she managed to sink one of her fangs in my hand. OUCH !!! Thankfully I only got a slight fever but because I’m allergic to bee stings it could have been a lot worse. For that reason I very rarely handle any spiders or insects that can bite or sting.

This is actually the skin of Crazy Legs, spiders moult [shed] their Exoskeleton usually 4 to 12 times before maturity. YES I still have this skin from around 35 years ago. I actually have many more from her …..

OH and a few from one of my other Tarantulas “FOOTSIE” she was a Mexican Red Leg spider, here is a close up of one of her skins that I still have ……

So that is my Weird Christmas Present I know very few of you like spiders but they are wonderful creatures to observe and learn about. I had 5 pet taratulas in my life starting with Crazy Legs, Fuzzy, Footsie, Fred and Violet ….. Violet was also a present from my son on another Christmas. Fred and Violet are buried in my yard here I posted their gravestones once before on here but here is another look for those of you who haven’t seen them before …….

Well that is my Story as weird as they get 😀