The Gainesville Tales

By William Thacker

The misadventures of an Exotic Animal Cowboy come to life in a collection of stories about his early days with animals. The tales unfold in the shadow of the University of Florida during the golden days of peace and love. Join Will Thacker and his friends as they navigate their way through the turbulent sixties and seventies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: William Thacker
• Release date: Oct 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223921783

William Thacker

Ever since four-year-old William Thacker got to hold a black rat snake, he has been fascinated by animals. As a child, he kept a menagerie in his family’s back yard in Florida, then moved his collection to Clermont’s Citrus Tower where, at the age of fifteen, he was giving guided tours and “milking” rattlesnakes for the public at The Wildlife Arena. Throughout his life, William has involved himself in traveling, collecting, and teaching about wildlife. He has been a youth camp nature director, a teacher, and a television host. He has operated an import company, an exotic animal shop, and has worked as a zoo educator. In 2019 William returned to Florida and began writing Thacker Tales. He now resides in the Black Hammock Wilderness Area where he continues to pen the stories of his incredible life with animals.

Book preview

The Gainesville Tales

The Misadventures of An Exotic Animal Cowboy

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William Thacker

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A collection of stories from

The Life Journals of William Thacker

The author owes a huge debt of gratitude to Joanne Lawlor, Valerie Proctor, and Steve Duncan for their help and inspiration in the preparation and publication of this book:

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This book is a work of creative nonfiction. Some of the names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, actual business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Copyright © 2023 by William Thacker

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording without prior written permission from the author.

Table of Contents

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Dateline Sorrow

The Gainesville Dragon

The Dancing Bear

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Bonus Section

Charlie Brown

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About the Author

Dateline Sorrow

Mid-November 1969

Sunday

Once again, I was prowling the back alleys of the Miami exotic pet trade. One never knew what was to be found there.

I entered the gloomy confines of what appeared to be a shady operation on multiple levels. The smell of dirty cages and rotting bananas mixed with the screams of parrots and primates straining against the wire of their tiny cells.  Welcome to Dante’s Inferno, I thought.

This sleazy enterprise was the epitome of all the wrongdoings connected with the exotic pet trade. And here I was, slogging around in it, up to my armpits in collateral misery and grief. I was on a mission to rescue the most likely candidates for survival from a short list of slum shops just like this one. I had already spotted the refugee that would leave this place with me today. I was buying up the select few animals that would populate my new pet store, The Underground Zoo, in Gainesville, Florida.

The proprietor was backlit by a dirty window in what passed for his office. He stood in the vertical rectangle of light that