re: Snake Stories: Too Close for Comfort Edition

I was living in south La at the time and my yard was lush St Augustine. It had rained for several days and the grass had grown too tall to mulch, so I made left turns to be able to rake up the rows. I would start raking at one end, stop at the middle, and turn to go to the other end to rake into a pile. After several rows, when I made my pivot to go to the other end, I see a coiled rattlesnake right where my next step would have been. I wasn’t sure if he could reach me where I was, but I wanted him dead, and was afraid he may get under the house if I moved. So I whistled for my wife. I told her to get me a shovel. “What for”, she says (women). “Just get it”, says the man looking at his very own rattlesnake. OFF WITH HIS HEAD.

I put a stick under his fangs and propped his mouth open and dried out his head for my souvenir.