| SNAKES IN THE MOUNTAINS |
There wasn't too much that I was afraid of in my 13 years growing up in Dizney, Ky, except for SNAKES. Thank goodness snakes are warm blooded animals and only come out of their den in the middle of the summer when it is very hot. On those hot summer days, their not called lazy hazy days of summer for nothing, all anyone felt like doing was relaxing in the shade or taking a nap on the porch swing. Being vigilant about watching out for snakes was not a constant thing that was on your mind, just something in the back of your mind. Making a lot of noise all the time was natural for children to do. Snakes tend to slide away from noise or lots of motion. They are smart enough to stay out of the way of cow hooves, pigs, mules, dogs and human beings in all age groups. The first experience I had with a snake was when I was about five or six years old. I was on the other side of the creek from our house playing when my brothers who were on the road playing saw a big snake in the creek. The snake was scarey enough just to be seen. My brother's started yellow for me to run that there was a snake in the creek. To get away I would have to run across the footbridge to get to the road and then our house on the hill. When I heard snake, I froze. I could not move or speak a word. Finally dad came running with his pistol. By that time the snake was climbing up the bank on the side of the creek where I was standing frozen like Lot's wife. Daddy ran across the bridge and pushed me towards the bridge. I instantly sprinted across the bridge and up the hill to the road. Daddy, who was my hero shot the snake. All was well. There were two deadly snakes in the mountains of Dizney and they were copperheads and rattlesnakes. Rattlesnakes would give you a warning by the shake of the rattlers on the end of their tails. There were several different colors of non-poisonious snakes. Black snakes, green snake, brown snakes, blue racer and water snakes. Black snakes came in lots of sizes. Of course there were baby sizes, medium sizes and the largest ones that could be up to six foot long and large enough to swallow rabbits and squirls whole. On a beautiful summer day I left my house to visit my mamow Cloud, dad's mother, she only lived a few hundred yards above our house. This day I decided to climb up the hill and go in through the back door instead of walking farther up the road to their front door. A small concrete slab was poured at the entrance of the back door. All houses in Stretchneck holler were built on the side of the mountain. I had to climb even higher to get to the concrete slab. As I was nearing the slab I reached up to get a grip to pull myself up and I put my hand on the body of a snake, a very fat snake. I glanced over and saw a big blacksnake, my reaction was to recoil in terror. That meant that I had to let go of the snake and when I did I fell and rolled back down the hill. That was find by me because I managed to crawl to the road and run for home. When ever my brothers and/or cousins and I went out playing and we were going anywhere there might be snakes someone would have a stick. Usually there was a leader and the rest of us followed. The leader would have the stick and slap the brush or ground with the stick. This would scare the snakes away. Snakes cannot see but they know when danger is near by the sense of smell and the vibrations they can feel. On one of my visits to see my parents in the 1980s my dad and I would always find things to do together to bond and talk. This one time he said lets go up to the apple orchard and get some apples. The apple orchard was on top of the mountain in Stretch neck holler. The apple orchard was a distance past dad's parent's house where the road ended. We walked up a dirt wagon rutted road past what used to be their corn field, crossed the creek at a wide area after the corn field. The creek was not very deed and you could step from one rock to another without getting your shoes wet. Then we followed another wagon rutted dirt road that went up the side of the mountain on the other side of the creek. The road was not straight up the hill but ran along the side of the hill and a constant rise until we got up to another flat area. This flat area was where the cows and mules grazed at one time or another. At the base of the mountain as it started to rise again was another wagon rutted road that went in the oposite direction as the previous one. This wagon trail was much steeper and took us up to the next flat level area. Mountains are a series of climbs that level off and become verticle climbs again. This was where my great grandfather's brothers lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They were good nurserymen. They planted most of the fruit trees in the mountains surrounding Stretch Neck Holler. The climb to one of the big apple trees was straight up and daddy had to help me. Daddy had his usual walking stick that he took with him to the mountains. Under the apple tree that spanned about 20 feet there was only short weeds and grass with apples laying all around. Outside the circle of the tree limbs was tall weeds about four foot high. I was slowly picking up apples and moving up the hill under the tree closer to the tall grass and daddy said "Come back down this way Portia." I asked why because I was always a curious person. Dad said, "Because you don't know when there are snakes laying in the weeds. I moved back down the incline closer to the base of the tree. Daddy was on the right side of the tree with me to the left and just a little below him when a noise came from the tall weeds to the right of daddy. In a flash of reflex daddy swung out his stick and hit the largest black snake I had ever seen. The snake turned and went up the hill and into the tall weeds. Continued ..... |