Rattlesnakes

Rattlesnakes were a definite fact of life in and around Ekalaka. At that time we killed every rattlesnake we encountered immediately. I am not so sure that I would do that now, in fact, if they were not in a position to harm me or mine I would go about my business and let them live their little rattlesnakey lives.

A lot of my encounters with snakes were with my Grandpa Coons. He was fearless with them. He would be riding along, encounter a rattlesnake and he would leisurely get off his horse, Snooks. He would then nudge the snake out of the sagebrush or wherever it was with the tip of his boot and then kill it with the reins which he had taken off his bridle. Of course, he and I always took the rattle, if for nothing else, to show off when we got home. One of the things that everyone was told was to never pull a snake out of a hole by his tail because he would be doubled back and bite you. Not Grandpa, he routinely pulled them out by their tails. I guess he was just fast enough to get by with it. Once I remember killing a rattler with Grandpa and then he cut him open to expose the bumps in him. This time a big frog hopped away afterward.

Grandpa didn't kill other snakes. A number of times I saw him coming home across the field, walking and leading his horse with a great big bull snake wrapped around his arm. He would then turn it loose in the garden to keep down vermin including rattlesnakes. I never have picked up a live snake and I never will. I am not inordinately scared of snakes if I know where they are and am able to keep away from them.

We had rattlesnakes in all of our country places before Ekalaka and in our first house in Ekalaka but nothing like the second house in Ekalaka, the house where your sheriff lives now. We called it the Odis Harkins place because Dad bought it from him. In fact, I remember one time maybe more when a snake came out of the wall unexpectedly. I don't remember which house this was probably the first house in Ekalaka. Fortunately, it wasn't a rattler.

When we moved to the Odis Harkins place, our rattlesnake experiences really came into play. There must have been a nest of them somewhere close because we were infested with them. I don't know how many times I came down off the front steps and almost stepped over a rattlesnake.

The most memorable rattler experience and a big part of the Lavell folklore was one involving my Mother. She was county Supt. of schools; she came home dressed very nicely and immediately had to go to the outhouse. She came out just as fast as she went in with her pants down around her legs and her dress pulled up. I was hoeing in the garden and she called for a hoe, she dived back in there and came out with about a 4 foot dead rattlesnake. My Mother was very ladylike, that was the only time I ever saw her lose it.

Outhouses were a place to really watch out for rattlesnakes. I guess that they would come in out of the sun and you really had to watch out for them. My father-in-law once got bitten in a very bad place by a black widow while doing his business in the outhouse. He didn't die but he sure felt like it.

The story is that you can whip a rattler by the tail and snap their head off. I have my doubts about that. David Lamphere told me he did that; later only that he heard about it. You be the judge. I wonder if you still have rattlers there, particularly the Sheriff's house.