A few days ago, I was at my friend's pet store with my man. We had decided to probe her big 8' BCI to see if it was in fact female. (she is.)
Well, there were a few soccer mom types in there, shopping around with their cute widdle kiddies, and they were absolutely shocked when I lifted Penelope out of her tank like it was nothing. They were not overly scared, but you should have seen their faces!
Then, my friend's friend was there; this is a tough chick who handles horses daily (has a few tough studs that would make even me run under the bed and hide!) She was absolutely dead-set against touching this big snake, but we finally got her to tap it with one of her fingers. She was still eyeballing it with a mixture of fear and revulsion after wards, and completely baffled that I was not scared to pick it up. I guess that when she was younger, her siblings terrorized her by putting small garter snakes in her bed, so she is still scared. Hopefully this event made her a little less paranoid about them.