Two stories . . and no pictures. Thank me later! 🙂
First story: I grew up in southwest Louisiana and snakes were pretty much everywhere. When I was 5, we bought a wooded lot with lots of woods and a few other houses around. That’s where my parents cleared the land and built a house. My uncle and aunt bought the lot next door and they lived there. On the other lot past my uncle’s place was a big pond and it was full of snakes — water moccasins I suppose. About four lots (empty wooded lots) behind our house was what we called “the gully”. It was about a 6- 8′ deep drainage ditch. It had a huge culvert where the road went over and we could walk standing upright through that culvert. I suppose it might not have been 6-8′ deep because I was a kid but it seemed that big. Anyway . . on up through middle school, I could stand up in that culvert so maybe it was that deep. Anyway, when it rained, there would be water in that ditch so that was another place for snakes to congregate.
I was always so afraid of snakes and when I saw one, I would run in the house screaming for my dad to come kill it. One day, I was probably in first or second grade, or maybe it was 8th or 9th grade . . and I decided to be brave. I was going to walk calmly into the house and tell my parents there was a snake outside and they would see that I was being brave but you know what happened? They didn’t believe me because I wasn’t yelling and screaming and shaking! I learned that day that it doesn’t pay to be brave! 🙂
Second story: I was an adult still living in southwest Louisiana. We had a freezer in our garage and something started stinking in the garage. I thought . . maybe it’s time to clean out the freezer, though nothing smelled bad in there and I couldn’t figure out how a working freezer would smell from the outside but I cleaned it out. I found nothing and continued to smell the stink. I searched, thinking maybe I had taken food out of the freezer, put it down somewhere in the garage and forgot about it, but found nothing.
My kitchen door leading to the garage opened to the inside. One evening, I opened that door and there was a water moccasin climbing up the door. When I opened the door, he fell off the door, into my kitchen! I grabbed a broom or a mop . . something handy, and swept him back out in the garage and from there, he went to wherever snakes go when their time on earth is done . . probably to central Texas to live out their life as a rat snake and torture the woman who ended their life as a water moccasin!
That was the end of the stink in my garage. Can you believe I was right there cleaning out that freezer, probably barefooted, and he was either under the freezer or up in the coils somewhere?
So, you see .. even though I’m still scared of snakes, they’ve been around all my life.
Terri says
I grew up in Michigan and although I’m sure there are snakes around, the only snakes I ever saw were little gardner snakes. We moved to South Carolina when I was 17. We lived on a heavily wooded lot, and one of the first things I was told was to be careful walking under pine trees because pine snakes could drop down on you and they are poisonous. I don’t think I went out in the backyard the whole 3 years we lived there!! After walking down the hall one night in the dark and kicking something that turned out to be a spider as big as my palm, I figured out that you don’t ever look too closely at anything down there because there is always something crawling on it!! I don’t do bugs … or snakes. I had never seen a cockroach in my life, but down there they call them palmetto bugs and they’re as big as mice! I would never survive in Louisiana. At least during our cold winters, there are no bugs to contend with!!
Sherrill says
So, wait..he was stinking BEFORE he was dead?!! I didn’t realize they had a stench while alive. YUCK!
Helen says
OHMYGOD, Judy! I am reading your post and have goosebumps all over my body. I’m am deathly afraid of snakes…I’ve tried to be brave, I even killed one, but I am just as scared today as I was so long ago.
You ARE a brave woman. I would be in constant terror if I lived where you do.
Glen in Louisiana says
I had to kill a copperhead last week in the yard. The bassets were barking their fool heads off at him. Of course there are never any men around when thou need one…..my knees shook like yours too. I hyperventilate as well. If you had a camera you would probably win the funniest videos ……..
Diana in RR, TX says
Here’s another Taiwan story and the 502 use for duck tape.another 3mer was preparing their home for one our many typhoons. Nothing was tight so he put duck tape on the outside of yhe door to keep the water from coming in.several weeks later their cat was acting very strange around the door. He took the duck tape off and found a snake carcass. The snake had been inside the house and had been trying to get out!
When we moved there Galen told his boss if ee found any inside the house we would be at the Howard Plaza. Hotel near the.office! We never had to make good on that promise.
Stephani in N. TX says
I am so glad you provide a little variety Judy, to the run of the mill quilt blogs. But, good job, one less snake, egh!!
SaraF says
We had snakes invade our pump house for our well at our previous home. Did not realize it until one got tangled in the belt on the pump motor and caused it to break. Then we discovered the whole colony living in there in the dark. I shudder still when thinking about it.
Sally says
Love your stories, even the ones about snakes.
CJ says
We have a fair amount of snakes in Arkansas, but I do my best to remain oblivious to them because if I’d had your experience yesterday, I’d have stroked out, immediately followed by heart failure. I never look down when I’m walking, no telling how many near misses I’ve had!
Jackie says
OMG, my feet are in the air and I can’t believe what you guys have and are experiencing regarding snakes. I thankfully live in an area (southern Ontario Canada) where there are few snakes or at least none that I’ve seen. When my kids where younger I had brought them to the Science Center and there was a snake exhibit, being deathly afraid of snakes I let them go through on their own and waited outside the area at the other end. Two kids came out and we waited for the middle son, after a few minutes with me getting more stressed just waiting close to the area I asked my oldest to see what her brother was doing. She said he’s right behind you, I turned around and there was one of the exhibitors standing behind me with a snake in her hands. I screamed like a fool, turned around and ran over my younger son trying to get away screaming all the time. My youngest was running after me screaming thinking I was leaving them behind. I did come to me senses and stopped but it was the last time I brought them there.