Wonderful memories of growing up in the Olde South at the tail end of America’s Golden Era! You were blessed! I would have been more wary of cottonmoiths around the waters’ edge!
I grew up in the 40’s-50’s and know those times too albeit in the north but of southern heritage.
Stay well!☺️
You too!
When my daughter was a young teen, we took the bass boat to Lake Okeechobee to fish. On the drive there I told her over and over, “don’t trail your fingers in the water like you do back home”. Well, I turned my head to see her fingers in the water. She saw the Cottonmouth just before it grabbed her and jerked her hand out of the water. It scared her (and her dad) enough that she sat in the bottom of the boat the rest of the time with her arms crossed. LOL