Page 52 - barefoot-in-the-sand-remembering-the-waning-days-of-the-hopewell-community-(1998)-bruce-c-gragg

Barefoot In The Sand: Remembering the Waning Days of the Hopewell Community (1998) Bruce C. Gragg 48/123

A SNAKE APPEARS WHEN PLAYING

Usually the cane grinding time was late fall or early winter before
the cold set it, just cool. Papa would go up the road to the M.C.
Rhoden's and help them. He would return home to do evening chores
around the farm then after supper, we all would go back for a while.
It would usually be a good, moon lit, night, Vera, the two younger
Rhoden boys, and I would play outside until totally exhausted. Early
one evening before dark, a snake appeared, (a coachwhip) ! They are
long and slender. The front half is dark and back half is a mottled
brownish color. The common story told in those parts was that one
would chase and catch you, wrap themselves around, whip you to death
with their tail. After whipping you until they thought you would be
dead they would put the tip of their tail in your nose to see if you
were still breathing, if so they whipped you until they got no breath
from you. This has never been proven, but kids will believe anything.
We really had no intention of testing this myth at this particular
time. Shortly it slithered off into weeds and undergrowth. We very
shortly got back to running and playing and forgetting about the
visit by the snake. Myth or not we weren't too concerned about a
brief visit by a snake, especially one we knew was not a poison kind.
We all knew the ones to be extra careful and keep an eye open for,
the several varieties of rattlers and two moccasins.

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