Why would a person like turtles more than snakes, or frogs more than lizards. I’m not too sure, but here is a mixture of history and ponderings to explain how I got to be called ‘Turtle Max’.

The Beginning

I’m an old guy now, but when I was a boy I would go with my family on outings to the rivers and lakes near my home in Texas. Most of the family would go fishing, but I liked it better to explore and find critters, rocks, plants, and whatever else presented itself to me. For animals and insects, I would look, but usually leave them alone to go about their business. I didn’t have anyone to teach me, so turtles got classified into two types – snappers and soft-shells. I liked watching them, but that was about it at the time.

Avoiding Snakes

I’ve been told that Texas has all the kinds of poisonous snakes there are to be found in the US. My mom didn’t want me to die on her, so to play it safe on our outings, she told me to avoid all snakes. She may not have known about the differences herself, but for a youngster out exploring, it was too risky to try to tell good from bad in the snake department, so I did as I was told and avoided them all. I was a good boy. But I think mom’s cautions carried over to other creatures as well. So maybe that’s why I would mostly watch, and not catch.

Frogs were an exception. There were so many near our house, it was hard to avoid them, so handling frogs seemed ok. The frogs would gather around our porch light on summer evenings to eat the June bugs that were attracted to the light. That was fun to watch.

Max delivering the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 1964.

Snake Women

I married a woman who has no issues with snakes. Hold them, keep them as pets, feed them mice, whatever. Lots of fun. Her comfort around snakes must be due, at least in part, to her mother, who had the same inclinations. And all that snake-y passion got passed on to our daughter. At right, you see the three generations of snake women. I would not be surprised if the snake-genes are passed on to future grand-daughters.

Frog Wrangling Begins

My wife and I once had real, regular jobs. The kind of jobs where the paychecks come the same day of each month. Then one day in 1998, she thought it would be fun to open an Internet store. What could be more harmless than selling a few frogs online, right? Long story short, selling online became our jobs. And as our warehouse manager, it’s my responsibility to see that those millions of frogs we ship make it to their new homes.

And Now ... Turtle Max!

I sometimes go by my middle name, which is Mack. By the time we decided it was time to add turtles and reptiles to our online stores, the best website turtle names were taken. We considered calling the new store Mack’s Turtles, but figured that would not make a good website name. But changing the order of the names made it sound cool to us. But TurtleMack’s was also not a good site name, so we picked TurtleMax.

I do not have special knowledge of real live turtles, lizards, snakes, or other creatures. But I can pack an impressive number of turtles in a box to send to you. You want snakes? Got ‘em. Lizards? Got ya covered. Gators? No problemo.

Mother-in-law Jean, in 1942

Wife Melissa, in 1969

Daughter Caren, 1988