Snake stories
John Robinson writes wistfully about the days when newspapers were fun to read. Sue adds a comment about the virtues of small-town news.
The smallest paper I worked for was the most fun -- The Mountaineer in Waynesville, N.C. It came out three times a week.
I started two days after I graduated from Carolina in 1977 and stayed two years. I often thought afterward I might have been in too big a hurry to move to a bigger town.
Many of the stories I covered there were centered on the unique environment of the Great Smoky Mountains: small plane crashes, bears and, very often, snakes. ...
If you had nothing else to do on a summer day, you could hang around the office and wait for someone to call in about a snake.
It went something like this:
"I just kilt a rattler. Come take a pitcher of it."
Or a copperhead or blacksnake.
Dead snake pictures were a mainstay of local news in Haywood County.
We had to make a rule: We would only go out to take a picture of the longest snake of a particular variety killed so for that year. Hence the phone conversation:
"I just kilt a rattler. Come take a pitcher of it."
"How long is it?"
" 'I reckon 'bout four foot."
"Sorry, it's got to be longer than 4 feet 10 inches."
One day a couple of fellers came up to the office. "We've got some rattlers outside. Want to take a pitcher of 'em?"
"How big are they?"
"Haven't measured 'em."
"Why not?"
"They're still alive."
Turned out these guys had a hobby of catching rattlesnakes and copperheads. I immediately arranged to join them on their next outing. It made for one of my best feature stories.
Now, that was a fun job.
Comments (5)
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Hey Doug , wuz them thar fellers colectin them snakes fer sum churches? Thar wuz sum ,may well be stil sum whut handles snakes in them parts.
I be glad it wuz you whut went snake huntin, I tried hit wonst down in Texus. Had a round up uv them thar thaings. Rid a horse and snared em with a loop and stuk em in a poke. Later sum feller milked them thangs and then we et em, fried up lak chiken. It ware good wonst ye git past memberin that it are snake.
Posted on October 4, 2005 8:45 PM
You're right that there was a little snake-handling in Haywood County in those days. The most famous incident occurred shortly after I left. Sheriff Jack Arrington tried to break up a serpent service and ended up getting bitten by a rattler. Guess ol' Jack just wasn't a believer.
These fellers caught snakes for their skins -- made belts and hatbands from them. They didn't want to spoil the skin by shooting or whacking the snakes, so they caught them alive.
Posted on October 4, 2005 9:28 PM
I used to read the Mountaineer back in the day. In fact, I might well have read some of your work at the time.
I've attended a service at which snakes were handled. I'm not a snake fan myself, and outside of the moment I'm generally tempted to dismiss such folks as Darwin Award contestants, but in the moment, it WAS a very powerful spiritual experience. These people believed quite strongly that their faith would keep them from harm AND ACTED ACCORDINGLY. (I mean, they didn't crack the rattlers like whips or anything, but still.) All my doubts didn't exactly disappear; it's more like they walked to the back of my brain and stood in a corner and watched, quietly and respectfully.
I wouldn't attend such a service again, given my druthers, but I'm glad I did it once.
Posted on October 4, 2005 9:38 PM
Funny thing is, Bible scholars generally agree that the passage in Mark that encourages snake-handling is a later addition and not authentic.
But your faith has to be real to believe God will protect you from the serpent's bite.
Posted on October 4, 2005 9:52 PM
Glad to hear that others have had the same experience on snake handling in churches. Lex, I am glad that yours was a very spiritual experience and I have no doubt that it could be.
As a young man I played with a group that did various types of music, everything from rock and roll to gospel. We had been to another city to play a birthday gig and were returning and had stopped in a small community outside of Newport Tn. Across the street was a small church and the music was rolling, I mean it was good. With us loving gospel music we decided to take a look see and hear more.
Now, there were 5 of us in that group and one guy, Jerry, had a deathly fear of snakes. He would go ballistic at even a rubber snake. I am getting ahead here.
Anyhow Jerry and I sat on a row about 5 rows from the back and the other sat on the 2nd row from the back.
The music was terrific and the spirit was certainly alive in the place. Off to my right I saw two men coming in with two boxes. I didn't think a lot of it since some churches would put a box at the front and let folks bring their offerings forward. Looking up again, One of these gentlemen, being deep in the spirit had picked up two of the biggest copper heads that I had ever seen. He had started back through the aisle when Jerry spotted the man and the snakes. Poor Jerry , who was not given to a lot of religions spirit, suddenly began to speak in tongues , which by the way need no interpretation and made his exit from the church. Now all would have been fine I am sure except Jerry did not use the door. There was a window at the end of the row where we were sitting and he exited through the window. As a footnote, the window was closed. The rest of us quickly exited the church with shouts that we were demons etc. If and when we decided to visit other churches to enjoy the music, we made sure that there were no snakes to be handled.
Guess we just didn't have the faith . Of course Jerry would explain, that it is written, Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God.
Posted on October 5, 2005 11:51 AM