Nancy and I took a trip across the mountains to the West Virginia State Fair last Sunday where we ate everything in sight – starting with Country Ham Sandwiches, followed by Pepperoni Pizza and piping hot Ben Ellen doughnuts, plus Corn Dogs and Hot Fudge Sundaes. Groan!
But we saw pigs and lambs and Angus steers. We viewed all the vegetables and pies with blue ribbons, we visited the Butterfly Tent and had a great time. On the way out, we also passed by a novelty tent that brought back fond memories.
Years ago, when our son Jimmie was about five, Mama Ida gave us $5 to buy Jimmie anything he wanted. At the novelty tent, he saw knives, swords, pistols, and action figures, but what he wanted was a rubber snake. It was coiled and ready to strike and was easily the most realistic snake I had ever seen that wasn’t actually alive.
“Are you sure?” we asked.
He was sure, it was $5, and we bought it.
Jimmie brought his pet snake home and put in in a cardboard box with a grass bed liner and it slept at the foot of his bed.
Back then, we had a Mother’s Day Out Playgroup at First Presbyterian Church. Moms would take turns watching the 4- and 5-year-olds one morning a week and Jimmie decided to take his pet snake for a Show and Tell for the play group.
It happened that the mom-on-call that day was our close friend Jane Moore. Jane was a great cook and always fun to be around, but she was afraid of snakes. Not just a little bit afraid, but to the degree that she lived in mortal fear of even seeing one in a magazine.
So, in comes Jimmie with his cardboard box and says, “Look, Mrs. Moore, what I have.”
Jane peeked in the box, saw the snake coiled and ready to strike and let out a screech worthy of the finest Mezzo Soprano at Carnegie Hall.
Jane slammed the box closed and put a two-foot-high stack of hymnals on top, then called Nancy and said to come get the snake. Nancy said it was just a rubber snake, but Jane said, “No, this is a real snake!” and she wanted it out of the play group and to step on it. So, Nancy went down to the church and took the snake home, much to the chagrin of Jimmie and all the other boys in the play group.
We laugh about that to this day, but I have to admit, it was a fair(ly) nice snake.
