[libstripper]

When I was a kid many years ago, I was really into snakes, would catch garter snakes and carry them around in my shirt and my jeans' pockets. My mother, OTOH, didn't like snakes for some unfathomable reason. One of the funniest scenes my former next door neighbor remembers from my childhood is my mom standing on the back porch of our house and going through my jeans' pockets, jeans held at arm's length, with the sickest look in the world on her face.

[SJSAMPLE]

During basic training in 1985, I told my country-boy tent-buddy that I wasn't afraid of snakes.

Later that night, while I was sleeping, he took his garter snake and gently placed it upon my neck, which he had been warming with his flashlight.

I felt something cold at my neck and, thinking it was my fart sack zipper, tugged at the offending object. When that garter snake coiled around my hand and wrist it took about .05 seconds to realize what it was. Given that the area had several breeds of rattlesnakes, I wasn't thinking about garter snakes.

I woke up the entire bivouac camp with my screaming ;)

For the next two hours, after word has spread, the entire camp (about 400 soldiers) would periodically break out into uproarious laughter.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

When I was about 8, we had a cub scout meeting at my house, all the scouts got to see my mother throw a lawn edger like a spear, and decapitate a rattlesnake, from 20 feet away. Momma never will admit it was pure luck, but since she never had to repeat it, who can say?