Snake Stories

I wrote the below in response to a book festival recently attended. I thought I would share in my own blog posts. Maybe, you have a snake story or many in your past that may prompt you to share. Enjoy and keep being creative in all that you do.

An easy google search for the word Teche indicates its probable source was from the Chitimacha Indian word meaning snake. They probably saw Bayou Teche as if it were a large snake with twists and turns. If you continue with another google search, you will find the meaning of Tales as an embellished story. The following is a series of snake stories using the Teche Tales theme.

Recently, I heard that Python snakes are starting to be marketed as a food supply. Some say it tastes like chicken and others say it has a unique taste high in protein. I say never mind; I will pass. However, I have eaten exotic things in the past, like camel meat, while working in the Middle East. The thought of eating snake is not too appealing but who would have thought to eat mud bugs boiled in water with some Cajun seasoning? The taste buds are as diverse as our cultures so maybe in the near future, an investment in a Python farm will be a great return.

I do not want to spend too much time writing about eating snakes, etc. I do want to share some of my stories regarding my experiences with snakes. I had a cousin one time who tried to sword fight a snake with a pocketknife. That did not go well for him as the snake won and he spent time at the hospital being treated. He was a young boy and quickly got a lesson in things not to do in the future. I myself was blessed with a near miss of a water moccasin along a pond where I was raising catfish to sell on the side of the road. Before I tell this near miss story, did you know some snakes use intimidation when confronted? Hog-noised snakes raise up, flatten their necks like a cobra and if their bluff does not work, they roll over and play dead. As a young guy, I tried it out on one and sure enough, it rolled over, started biting itself and appeared to be dead. It did not fool me, so I waited it out for over half an hour. I walked away then it crawled away. Not all snakes are so harmless. Here is my near miss story.

As a teenager in North Louisiana looking for ways to make some pocket money, I did many things like cutting trees for pulp wood to working in a steel mill when old enough to raising catfish to sell. I was about 15 years old when I started helping my dad with the catfish farm. He provided the ponds on our property and bought the finger length channel catfish. One pond was shallow and intended for the initial growth of the catfish from finger length to about six inches long. I taught myself how to weld and made a steel frame about 4’ wide by 4’ long by 4’ deep. Styrofoam panels were used to allow the steel frame to float and thin wire screen kept the fish securely inside the frame. It worked! We would put the young catfish inside the secure frame and watched them grow. We would feed them plenty catfish food in the form of pellets, and we were in business. It was amazing to see how these fish swam all in one direction literally pushing the frame all over the pond. After they got to about 6” long, we would dip them out of the frame and put them into a larger pond to grow to about 2 to 4 pounds before harvesting. We learned from this experience that the cost of fish food continued to go up in price, making the profit margin too low for our little operation to survive. I personally learned not to cheapen my product at my expense. I learned the hard way that I could sell lots of dressed catfish on the side of the road but not too many wanted live catfish that they had to clean themselves. My price for live catfish was too high and already prepared catfish meat was too low. When I look back at those times, I learned a lot about marketing and the challenges of owning your own business. What does this story have to do with snakes? Well, early in my efforts to perfect the floating steel frame, I would walk alongside the pond. One day, I stepped just over a mama moccasin snake as she struck. One second earlier, I would have been hit with her full force and maybe my career or even life may have ended. I was alone and would have taken awhile to get help. I know it was a mama protecting her children as I jumped out of the way, the baby snakes were swimming all around the spot I had just stepped across. A guardian angel was with me that day. I am retired from Engineering and Project management after 35 years traveling all over the world. I am also a local pastor. What could have been my future? Give thanks in all things and be grateful for God’s prevenient grace. By the way, that steel frame is now used as a foundation for a deer stand not too far from the original pond in North Louisiana. As I segway into my next story, perhaps you have similar stories of near misses in your life. Looking forward to reading your story.

When I graduated from La. Tech in Ruston in 1977 with a BSME degree, my career took me all over the world. I met and fell in love with a girl from England working in Scotland. We celebrated our 45^th anniversary on St. Patrick’s Day, 2024. From Scotland, we moved to the Middle East and here is where this snake story begins. We did not have fancy smart phones so had to rely on land lines or mail to stay in contact with friends and relatives. One day, while working in Dubai, UAE, I got a letter from back home in Louisiana. The letter was a lot of family catching up from my mother, but the last paragraph got my immediate attention. She said nonchalantly that she had been bitten by a copper head snake while cutting the grass. It struck and one fang caught her index finger. She concluded the letter by saying she is okay now. You can imagine my reaction. I scheduled an overseas phone call right away to get the full story. Here it is.

As she told me the story, I could not help but think how it could have been if she had no help to get her to the hospital. After the snake struck her index finger, my older sister, who was home at the time, was urging her to go to the hospital. There was a delay as she was making sure she was properly dressed and presentable for a hospital visit. Typical for my mom but could have been tragic if she had delayed much longer and even more so if she had been on her own. By the time they were heading to the hospital, my sister was driving, and my mom was milking her finger to try to keep the poison away from the rest of her body. The finger started turning colors from red to nearly black. The doctor gave her two choices. One was to graft her finger to her stomach, which would have been very awkward, or to graft her index finger to her middle finger. She chose the latter and for several months the fingers became one. Her index finger was saved but was permanently scarred as if she had stuck her finger in the spokes of bicycle chain. It looked twisted but survived. What could have been the results had circumstances been different? We can either believe in things are just randomly occurring or we can believe in God’s intervention. I prefer to believe that He is ultimately in control. Does that mean, we will always prevail life’s mishaps? No, but His presence is in all that we do. I can go on and on with many more stories but conclude with this last one from the Bible.

I sometimes wonder why biblical stories, especially in the Old Testament, have such a direct approach in getting people to understand their ways are not correct. Take, Numbers 21 starting at verse 5 which states, “The people spoke against God and Moses: “Why did you bring us up from Egypt to kill us in the desert, where there is no food or water. And we detest this miserable bread!” So, the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit the people.”

Two questions to consider. Why would the people complain having just been freed of bondage in Egypt? It is our human nature to just get by with what we have. People will accept the pain of what they know over the fear of the unknown. Why would God punish them with snakes? Read more in Numbers then jump to John 3 starting at verse 14 to get the answer. It is our salvation story.

Bayou Teche gets its name, we presume, through the indigenous people in the area. Snakes were part of their day-to-day existence and most likely were a source of many stories from sad endings to victory. Consider your snake stories and thank our Creator for our very existence.