Snake tale

As a small boy in Michigan I used to catch and keep hog-nosed snakes, a small, absolutely harmless local snake that was plentiful in the area. I kept them in aquariums in the basement. (I hope God forgives small boys who restrict the freedom of His wild creatures).
In any case, I usually had one or two of these critters at all times year round. I kept them in an empty aquarium in the basement.
Now it so happens that I was fascinated with Taxidermy and had taken a Mail Or-der ‘correspondence course’ that was offered in those days.
Let’s move ahead to my high school years now…Biology class, Bob Dorsch presiding. He’d heard of my Taxidermy interest and the school some years back had purchased a six foot Texas Diamondback rattlesnake in a can, pickled in formaldehyde.
Would I want to try to mount this creature? With all the non-thinking overconfi-dence of youth I said yes, of course, and took the thing home and proceeded to try to mount this animal.
Mounting reptiles according to the procedure in the book involves wire, excelsior (fine wood fiber used in packing in those days) to fill out the body form and clay. I struggled with this thing and got it into a coil and put it in the basement to set up and dry.

The laundry facilities were in the basement also and, like most basements, it was lit in a utilitarian fashion, that is to say, dimly….
My mother was deathly afraid of snakes. Every time she went downstairs she dreaded the thought that one of my slithering prisoners might have escaped.

Somehow I’d neglected to mention that there was a coiled six foot diamondback rattlesnake in the basement in a dimly lit corner….
…one day my mother went downstairs to do the laundry…
...she happens to glance over in the corner...


…let us now draw a merciful curtain over the rest of this sad tale….