Great story!
It's incredibly sad how misinformed people are about snakes. And then when people like all of us here at BP.net try to educate them, they "know more" than we do. After all, their brother's uncle's cousin's sister twice and half removed has a neighbor that knows someone in Slovakia that died from a snake, and of course, all snakes are the same, and terribly deadly creatures.
It's great that kid you met at the park is into snakes. Maybe one day when he's older his parents will listen to him when he tells them the truth about snakes.