Last Friday we had a snake encounter. I smiled as my grandmother, mother, and sister came to mind. They had snake encounters, too.
Florrie and the snakes
My grandmother, Florrie THOMAS MARTIN (1894-1979) was the wife of a tenant farmer. They moved from farm to farm, sometimes only staying for one growing season at a time.
One swampy farm in the Northern Neck of Virginia had water moccasins hanging from the trees near the house. Florrie took a shotgun and shot them all, sometimes hitting two at a time there were so many of them. This story was always amazing to hear, but I already knew my grandma was a tough woman so it didn’t surprise me.
Funny you should write about this. Last month, we were in the living room when we heard a terrible racket. We walked around inside the house, trying to determine the source. It was much louder when we walked into the kitchen, and even worse when I opened the back door. I came back inside and turned off the AC. Silence. So I called our HVAC people and they sent someone out to investigate. Of course, when he turned on the AC, there was nothing. I insisted he take off the panel and look inside the compressor, because I thought a fan blade had sheared off. Within minutes, he called me over to look. What we had heard was the slicing and dicing of a snake who had crawled into the unit and had slithered up too high. The fan caught him and cut him to ribbons. All we could see were pieces. It certainly has discouraged me from working barefoot in the back patio!
Oh, my! That would discourage me from working barefoot outside, too. Thanks for sharing you story, Mary!
Hi Nancy!
Thanks for an interesting overview of your family’s last four generations of snake ‘handlers’! Your grandma, mother, sister and daughter are much braver than me!
I grew up on a small crops farm which abounded with snakes – as did the local community. Dad often needed to shoot snakes – many on our small farm; some even on the roads when snakes put our car or family in danger.
As a child, I feared snakes. They starred regularly in my nightmares. My parents drilled me as soon as they could about dangerous Australian brown snakes in our area. One day when only a little child, I saw one close to the side of our house. I raised the alarm while running inside. My parents’ training paid off!
My favourite memory of a snake on the farm occurred in the shed next to the house, where we packed produce for market. I noticed, lying across the entrance to the shed what looked like a thin rolled carpet. Appearing so innocuously, it took me a little time to realise it was a patterned blue and green snake. Soon after I learnt this carpet snake was harmless to us.
They are braver than me, too. The only snakes I’ve touched have been ones that were part of a nature program. The carpet snake sounds beautiful. I will do a search and check it out. Thanks for sharing your snake stories. I enjoyed them very much. 🙂