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chicken snakes
November 2009 
Chicken Snakes
Posted on Jul 25th, 2007
by 
Carla
Carla
When I drink iced coffee at 8 pm, I write stories when I ought to be sleeping. I have been saving this one for a while, and it is time to tell it.
On a dusty road in Tennessee, stood a little grey asphalt shingled house, just four square rooms, a front porch and a back porch. In that house lived a little girl, Carla, and her two little brothers, Lee and Bill. and her mama and daddy.
One hot evening, along about sun down, Daddy has come in from the field and settled in his big daddy chair, watching the black and white television. The show is "The Rebel", a westerny kind of show starring Nick Adams.
Through the archway, Mama is making supper, where she can see the little boys playing on the living room floor at their daddy's feet. Five year old Carla is in the kitchen helping mama make supper. It is a peaceful scene, with the sticky sweet fragrance of over ripe muscadines rolling in throught the screen doors. Crickets and frogs chirp and bellow in the grass.
Suddenly Mama looks at the front door, and studies it a while. Finally she says, Maurice, What's that on the screen door?
Daddy looks up from the television, glances at the door, and says, matter of factly:
Snakes.
Mama says, Well get them off of the door!!!
These were serious snakes. Two 5 foot long chicken snakes were climbing up the outside of the screen door at the front of the house.
Daddy got up out of his chair, went to get his shotgun, and as he headed out the back door, gave us kids our instructions: Go to the screen door and peck on it to scare the snakes off.
Obediently, the five year old Carla, two year old Lee, and one year old Bill went to the door and started scratching on the screen. The snakes weren't fazed one bit. They kept snaking up the screen, poking their big old heads this way and that, looking for a way in. They were confused. The chicken house was out back.
Fascinating how their scales would hold on the screen so they could climb. Carla couldn't see how it worked, even though her little eyes were just inches away from those snake bellies.
Daddy appeared on the front porch with the shot gun. It was clear that three little children weren't having much affect on the snakes, and he couldn't shoot a hole through the screen door. He took a stick and looped the first snake off the door. The big old thing coiled around the stick and it took some shaking to get it off. Then Daddy blew its head off with the shotgun. The second snake met the same fate. The three little kids watched from the other side of the screen door in fascination. Daddy was a hero. He saved them from the big mean snakes.
About that time, Uncle Buddley and cousins Barry and Mary Lee drove up in their old Chevy. Daddy and Uncle Buddley draped those dead chicken snakes over the bumper of the car and Mama came out with the Brownie camera and took everybody's picture.
The next day Mama gave all the chickens to the folks up the road. She wasn't having anymore chicken snakes trying to get in the house.
I don't know where that picture is. Mama still has it, I guess.
This picture is one I took off the internet, but it looks just like the chicken snakes on the screen door that night.
I guess that is where it started. Me and snakes, that is.
Bewick, this ones for Eben.
On a dusty road in Tennessee, stood a little grey asphalt shingled house, just four square rooms, a front porch and a back porch. In that house lived a little girl, Carla, and her two little brothers, Lee and Bill. and her mama and daddy.
One hot evening, along about sun down, Daddy has come in from the field and settled in his big daddy chair, watching the black and white television. The show is "The Rebel", a westerny kind of show starring Nick Adams.
Through the archway, Mama is making supper, where she can see the little boys playing on the living room floor at their daddy's feet. Five year old Carla is in the kitchen helping mama make supper. It is a peaceful scene, with the sticky sweet fragrance of over ripe muscadines rolling in throught the screen doors. Crickets and frogs chirp and bellow in the grass.
Suddenly Mama looks at the front door, and studies it a while. Finally she says, Maurice, What's that on the screen door?
Daddy looks up from the television, glances at the door, and says, matter of factly:
Snakes.
Mama says, Well get them off of the door!!!
These were serious snakes. Two 5 foot long chicken snakes were climbing up the outside of the screen door at the front of the house.
Daddy got up out of his chair, went to get his shotgun, and as he headed out the back door, gave us kids our instructions: Go to the screen door and peck on it to scare the snakes off.
Obediently, the five year old Carla, two year old Lee, and one year old Bill went to the door and started scratching on the screen. The snakes weren't fazed one bit. They kept snaking up the screen, poking their big old heads this way and that, looking for a way in. They were confused. The chicken house was out back.
Fascinating how their scales would hold on the screen so they could climb. Carla couldn't see how it worked, even though her little eyes were just inches away from those snake bellies.
Daddy appeared on the front porch with the shot gun. It was clear that three little children weren't having much affect on the snakes, and he couldn't shoot a hole through the screen door. He took a stick and looped the first snake off the door. The big old thing coiled around the stick and it took some shaking to get it off. Then Daddy blew its head off with the shotgun. The second snake met the same fate. The three little kids watched from the other side of the screen door in fascination. Daddy was a hero. He saved them from the big mean snakes.
About that time, Uncle Buddley and cousins Barry and Mary Lee drove up in their old Chevy. Daddy and Uncle Buddley draped those dead chicken snakes over the bumper of the car and Mama came out with the Brownie camera and took everybody's picture.
The next day Mama gave all the chickens to the folks up the road. She wasn't having anymore chicken snakes trying to get in the house.
I don't know where that picture is. Mama still has it, I guess.
This picture is one I took off the internet, but it looks just like the chicken snakes on the screen door that night.
I guess that is where it started. Me and snakes, that is.
Bewick, this ones for Eben.
Access: Public
Diva Carla:
You are certainly not a “chicken” when it comes to snakes!
“Johnny Yuma, was the Rebel, he roamed through the west…” and Nick Adams was HOT!
thanks for the memories and the sharing…
:)
Never heard of a “chicken snake” before now! How common are they in the South?
Otherwise known as the rat snake, because they live on small rodents, and also known sometimes as a corn snake, because they are found in corn cribs, which is a very good place to find rats. Therefore, country folk named them Chicken snakes because a chicken also makes good eating and an egg or a sitting hen is even easier to catch than a rat.
Imagine a dark chicken coop, and putting your hand up into the nest, and finding not eggs but a large coiled snake– with a lump in its gut. Chicken snakes are constrictors, kin to boas and pythons. Isn't this one pictured beautiful?
Hey, thanks for the snake info Carla! Can't EVER know too much about snakes . . . It's a beauty all right!
Finally heard your voice, talking about Love Medicine . . . Not much twang there . . . You could easily be from Iowa with that very slight accent!
What a weird coincidence. Yesterday a woman asked me if I ever touched a snake. I had to think of that for a while and then I remembered picking up these garden snakes as a kid while visiting my freind's cabin in the country. And then I remembered the snake shitting on me. Your snakes seem much hungrier and scarier.
Maze, garter snakes are the only wild snakes I have held. They do make a stink, it is defense. The boa I have in my other picture is a pet. It is amazing to hold a large snake, a being with its own agenda, very strong, muscular, and alive. Next week I am visiting the red tail boas again, and will have new pictures maybe even a movie.
Snakeeyes, I've lived in Yankee land a long time. But get me talking about barbecue, and it all comes back. Reminds me I need to go see John's BBQ pod again.