Bull Snake
If you were one of those long-legged senior boys who was a snake snatcher, let us hear your side of this story. Where did you find the snake and how did you get it to the car? Or did this even happen? Read on.
From Diane: Believe it or not, I have no recollection of this incident. Assuming it really happened, I have made a lot of progress in my acceptance of snakes in my life – from handling a 5′ black snake on the shoulders of a 5 year-old daughter to caring for our son’s 9′ boa when he was at summer basketball camps, and much more. I brake for snakes, look for them in birthing spots I’ve found on our property, and protect them whenever I have a chance.
From Marilyn: Like Diane, I have no memory at all of this happening. I did have a background with snakes, especially the copperheads that were pests at the camp where I was a Counselor-in-Training during high school summers. As a Messenger staff member, I was assigned to write columns that included a wide variety of people, not just the usual suspects who so often appeared in the East High news. But was I allowed to write fiction? Did I make this up? Or did this prank really happen?
Unless long-legged boys step forward, the answer will be lost in the mists of time.
I freak over snakes, but had three boys who captured all kinds of creatures from the hillsides and canyons of Southern California. Sammy, a California King snake lived with us for five or six years, spending the last year under our refrigerator and in the kitchen woodwork. He lifted the top off his terrarium and liberated himself. After we left California, Sammy emerged in a neighbor’s apartment where her biologist husband caught him and totally liberated him back to the canyons. I am sure other mothers of boys have many snake stories. Often girls were also fascinated with these captured “pets.”