I was never afraid of snakes; I used to catch garter snakes all the time and bring them home. My mom just loved this.
I did notice though, that pythons and other boid-type snakes are much different than skinny little garters. Many family members/friends of ours, who fear the quick, erratic movements of smaller snakes, are pretty surprised when they see my male BP just sitting there on the table. They can get around to simply touching him, seeing that he really could not care less, and that's cool.