As far as I can remember, this story here took place on a Saturday, the first day of squirrel season in the early ’70s.
It just so happened that a couple of my fellow hunters and I decided to go squirrel hunting and kill ourselves in a mess for dinner. We decided to try our luck just off Big Mountain Creek, around the old Baldwin Mill site. Since the mill had long since collapsed, many large hardwood trees had grown around the site. Also, there were some old walnut and pecan trees around there. A prime area for squirrels to hang out!
We all rode together in one of my friend’s old ’50 Chevy pickups. When we got to the old mill we went out, loaded our guns and got ready for a good afternoon of squirrel hunting. It seemed to me that the place had really grown since we last hunted there. Vines and bushes seemed to be everywhere. There happened to be a small one-man trail that wound through the brush. Of course, I was the one in the lead as we made our way down the road.
We hadn’t gone very far when we came upon the old foundations and chimney of the mill. Green ivy vines grew everywhere and it was hard to see where you put your foot. Then I heard it, the eerie sound of a rattlesnake singing! Now folks, if any of you have ever heard this sound here, you know it will make the hairs on your neck stand up. This is just a warning from the snake letting you know that you are in his territory.
I could tell from the sound that the snake was on the road right in front of me, but for the life of me I couldn’t see it. Suddenly I stopped, but the guys behind me hadn’t heard the snake and walked straight towards me. Friends, it’s not mine to tell you, I took the biggest jump of my life, don’t you know? Why didn’t the Olympic Wide Jumpers have anything on this Ol’ Boy? I bet I jumped twelve feet and was yelling rattles the whole time I was in the air. When I looked back from a distance I heard the sound of a shotgun blast and I heard the guys say “well we got that one”. Those were the most beautiful words he had heard in an entire spell. Folks, that’s the end of the squirrel hunt, but the fun was just beginning.
Why was that rattlesnake so long that you could hold it as far as a man could reach and its tail still dragged on the ground? He must have been hanging around that old mill for quite some time because he had twelve rattles and a button on the end of his tail.
We cut off his head and decided to have some fun with that old snake. We raised the hood of the truck and put the dead snake on the radiator. It was so long we had to stick both ends into the fenders to get it in there. Then we closed the hood and took off towards Ellerbe.
We stopped at the local gas station and told the manager, whom we knew, to put us a dollar in gas and check the oil.
Now folks, consider that you may already know where this story is going here and wonder why we would fool anyone like that. All I can say about it is “The devil must have made us do it” plain and simple.
The attendant filled us with a dollar’s worth of gas and then proceeded to lift the hood to check the oil; when he all of a sudden he seen that big snake coiled around that radiator. Now, I’m not telling you lies, that attendant hit the hood so hard the side mirrors fell off the truck. Why did that guy then proceed to go straight to the bathroom and didn’t speak to any of us for a month after that.
I hope you guys enjoyed this story here, but I wouldn’t recommend doing this trick to anyone in the world today. It could cause you to get shot, don’t you know!
JA Bolton is the author of “Just Passing Time”, co-author of “Just Passing Time Together” and has just released his new book “Southern Fried: Down-Home Stories”, which can be purchased on Amazon. Contact him at [email protected]
