Around 1977 or 1978, Grandpa wanted me to run some electricity to a new air conditioner in the dining room. They always had the swamp cooler and they finally got an air conditioner. Anyway I went under the house on the south side under Grandma’s bedroom. I had an old military shovel to dig room under the house so I could wiggle through. In my other hand I had the wire. It was a real tight squeeze under that house. When I got just about under the kitchen table I found a Copperhead snake just waiting on me! Well I tell you, I drew up and couldn’t move. I started yelling for Grandpa. He told me to relax and wiggle back out. I couldn’t move. I was scared, afraid of snakes anyway, and was really afraid of this particular snake! I can see him now take off his hat and rub his head. He said that snake would not strike me. It was just resting and they won’t strike if you don’t touch them. He then told me to take the wire and wrap it around my feet using my legs. I got a good wrap around them. Then he told me to close my eyes, stretch out as far as I could, relax and blow out all the air in my lungs. (This is a lot harder to do than it sounds) About the time I got all the air out of my lungs, that 80 year old fart jerked me back about 5 feet. I then come scooting out from under the house. We sat there and started laughing. I said I really thoughtI was snake bit. He said he thought I was going to get bit too. I said, “I thought you said that snake won’t bite me!” He said he just lied. He just didn’t want to get my dead body out from under the house and he would have to do it quick before I started stinking. That was why he wanted me to tie the wire around my feet, he could pull me out without going in after me. We found a better way to run the wire.Dennis
