THINGS THAT CREEP
Well, I was going to tell you about having the use of the family car when I was only 14 but I realized that there's more about Beeville nature that I must tell you. So the car antics will come later.
As you already know, we didn't have much modern technology in our little home in the 40s. We had the aforementioned fireplace and a wood stove in the kitchen but we didn't have a water heater so when necessary Mama would boil water on the wood stove. When I took a bath she would bring two big pots of boiling water in and pour them into the tub and then add cold tap water from the cistern, hoping for the right temperature. I learned to bathe rather quickly before it cooled off. One time when I was waiting for Mama to arrive with the hot water a scorpion crawled up through the drain and I swatted it with my slipper. Had to clean that up before getting into the tub. When you live where there are "varmints" around you learn which ones to kill and which ones to leave. Seems like mostly the ones I ran into had to be killed. Black widow spiders were frequently spotted in the barn and the garage and they definitely had to be "taken out". If you don't know how to tell if a black spider is a black widow you have to look at their belly and if there is a red hourglass there, it's poisonous. Of course I never took the time to look underneath a black spider so I just swatted them with whatever weapon was available.
Snakes, possums and skunks were the other animals that tried to share the family home, but we all knew how to get rid of them. I know I told you about the rattlesnake on the back steps, but I will say it again. When I yelled to my Gramby that it was there she grabbed her handy hoe and chopped his head off. When the stupid pigs Daddy was feed experimenting with in the back lot found a possum in their feed trough, Mama rammed a pitchfork down the hissing animal's throat. Don't cringe, it was probably rabid. A skunk decided he might like to sleep on the back porch but he met his demise the same way. My advice to you, if you ever find a skunk near your home, lure him away... oh man, it took a week or so to get rid of the smell!
Side note:possum and armadillo taste like roast pork but rattlesnake tastes like chicken. Yes, we did eat some of those varmints sometimes, but not on a regular basis. Of course, I hope you know that your ancestors had a fairly regular diet of those animals. No supermarket for them!
Now snakes are an entirely different thing. In those days you would almost always see a snake meandering across the road or curled up in a cool spot during our hot Texas summers. Mostly we had rattlesnakes, clever sneaky things they are. However, they do hiss right before they strike so that's a warning other snakes don't give. There is a kingsnake which closely resembles a rattler and it eats rats and mice. My problem was that I didn't want to take time to determine which one I was looking at as it crawled across the dry ground of our back lot. I do know that humans can run faster than a snake so that's what I did.
Again, I feel as if I have told you this, but my family knows that I don't like bats. I am aware of their service to mankind re eating mosquitoes but when you've had one tangled up in your hair, you tend to lose any kind feelings about them. I was in the barn when one lone, lost bat came flying through the air trying to catch up with his buddies. Well, he flew too low and wound up on my head, trying to escape my waist length hair. Daddy managed to get it out out but not before I was traumatized by it.
I persuaded Mama to get my long hair cut very short after that.
It's late and I'm tired of remembering. I'll probably dream about snakes. Hope this hasn't been boring for you.
Hasta luego
As you already know, we didn't have much modern technology in our little home in the 40s. We had the aforementioned fireplace and a wood stove in the kitchen but we didn't have a water heater so when necessary Mama would boil water on the wood stove. When I took a bath she would bring two big pots of boiling water in and pour them into the tub and then add cold tap water from the cistern, hoping for the right temperature. I learned to bathe rather quickly before it cooled off. One time when I was waiting for Mama to arrive with the hot water a scorpion crawled up through the drain and I swatted it with my slipper. Had to clean that up before getting into the tub. When you live where there are "varmints" around you learn which ones to kill and which ones to leave. Seems like mostly the ones I ran into had to be killed. Black widow spiders were frequently spotted in the barn and the garage and they definitely had to be "taken out". If you don't know how to tell if a black spider is a black widow you have to look at their belly and if there is a red hourglass there, it's poisonous. Of course I never took the time to look underneath a black spider so I just swatted them with whatever weapon was available.
Snakes, possums and skunks were the other animals that tried to share the family home, but we all knew how to get rid of them. I know I told you about the rattlesnake on the back steps, but I will say it again. When I yelled to my Gramby that it was there she grabbed her handy hoe and chopped his head off. When the stupid pigs Daddy was feed experimenting with in the back lot found a possum in their feed trough, Mama rammed a pitchfork down the hissing animal's throat. Don't cringe, it was probably rabid. A skunk decided he might like to sleep on the back porch but he met his demise the same way. My advice to you, if you ever find a skunk near your home, lure him away... oh man, it took a week or so to get rid of the smell!
Side note:possum and armadillo taste like roast pork but rattlesnake tastes like chicken. Yes, we did eat some of those varmints sometimes, but not on a regular basis. Of course, I hope you know that your ancestors had a fairly regular diet of those animals. No supermarket for them!
Now snakes are an entirely different thing. In those days you would almost always see a snake meandering across the road or curled up in a cool spot during our hot Texas summers. Mostly we had rattlesnakes, clever sneaky things they are. However, they do hiss right before they strike so that's a warning other snakes don't give. There is a kingsnake which closely resembles a rattler and it eats rats and mice. My problem was that I didn't want to take time to determine which one I was looking at as it crawled across the dry ground of our back lot. I do know that humans can run faster than a snake so that's what I did.
Again, I feel as if I have told you this, but my family knows that I don't like bats. I am aware of their service to mankind re eating mosquitoes but when you've had one tangled up in your hair, you tend to lose any kind feelings about them. I was in the barn when one lone, lost bat came flying through the air trying to catch up with his buddies. Well, he flew too low and wound up on my head, trying to escape my waist length hair. Daddy managed to get it out out but not before I was traumatized by it.
I persuaded Mama to get my long hair cut very short after that.
It's late and I'm tired of remembering. I'll probably dream about snakes. Hope this hasn't been boring for you.
Hasta luego
Yes, some of us have heard them before but they are all worth the re-telling and those who haven't I'm sure are glad of the sharing! What different lives we have led!!
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