Most of my readers do not know about my Mother's love of environmental Edcuation. My mother helped write the curriculum for PLT (Project Learning Tree). At this Time Dr. Everett Grigsby, and Mr. Jimmie Pigg became staples and role models in my life. Here you will find my mother recounting Dr. Grigsby in the 2002 Ementor publication on page 2. She alludes to her 8 year old daughter, in short me. What she fails to mention is that at this time I was terrified of any living creature that was not a large dog. The trip to the Black Mesa she mentions was an invertebrate collection, specifically Rattle Snakes. (During this time in our life all vacations were field studies or volunteer work.) Naturally this was not mentioned till we were in the van and well on our way. After all who wants to deal with a freaked out 8 year old? As we traveled I learned that we would be spending our nights in tents, in remote places with no pluming, and worst of all the snakes would be riding in the van with us, courtesy of Big Dave.

As we made the 8mile hike up the mesa I was a whining kid, my mother sent me ahead with Dave (yes the snake collector) and for some reason when he was around the snakes did not bother me. Put me 10 feet from him and his bag of snakes and I was very jumpy. During this trip I saw dinosaur tracks, fossil quarry's, adults chasing kangaroo rats and jack rabbits, and the 3 corners of Oklahoma. I also cam home with a pet Great Horned Lizard that I kept in Dave's box of snakes. Most importantly I began to overcome a fear, when it came time for me to meet Mr Pigg (Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, and noted Ichthyologist) I was ready. (aside from when he tore the gizzard out of a live gizzard shad)

These two men have both passed, Mr Pigg a heart attack, Dr Grigsby a Brain Toumor. But the lessons that they taught me will always stay with me.
- animals are more afraid of you than you are of them
- you can do it
- when no one is looking you can conquer fears
- never judge a person by looks, they always surprise you.

Now there is a Jimmie Pigg labratory at OU (the one reason I may ever visit Norman) devoted to his entire collection of research and specimens. All there so that others and study what he loved. He would always start each fish story with "this is my favorite fish" after all they all were.

Below you will find photos from this time in my life