Never Go Swimming With Snakes

I was 10 years old and playing in the Louisiana woods near my house with several of my friends. This particular day, we were out to find a certain river.

We had been told that several miles into these particular woods, there was a river and we were determined to find it. We had all been in these woods but we never gone very far in them. We would climb the trees and explore and pick blackberries that grew there, but we never went more than a half mile into those woods. On this particular day, we decided to find that river.

I don’t recall how long it took us, but I do know it was a couple of hours at least. We finally reached the bank of the river and to our delight, we’d actually stumbled onto what was apparently an old swimming hole. There was a rope hanging from this huge tree and at the end of the rope was a piece of wood. Clearly, there had been many a body swing out and drop from that rope into the river. It was pretty clear from the afraid look of the rope and the aged look of the wood that this had been here for many years and was no longer in use.

I’ve always loved the water. As a kid, if it rained I wanted to be in the rain. After the rain, water pooled in the yard or in the ditches outside near the road, and I was in it. Every chance I got to get in the water, I did. This wide (about a football field in width), emerald green river was too much to resist. It was not a swift flowing river but was instead, a gentle, inviting, alluring temptation. Everyone dared me to swing out on the rope, but frankly it didn’t take much urging to get me to do it.

I shucked my short pants which left me completely naked, and of course I was, as usual, barefooted. I got on the rope and swung out over the water. As I let go of the wooden handle, I was looking down. Imagine my horror when I saw directly beneath me a snake. It was a large one and was swimming where I was about to land. As I plummeted towards this “S” shaped venomous water moccasin, I actually tried to swim through the air. Trust me, it is impossible to swim through the air.

Landing on a Snake

I landed on top of that snake. I’m sure it was as startled and frightened (assuming snakes can be afraid) as I was and I have no doubt that the force of impact drove it to the bottom of the river. As for me, I was in full swimming motion even before I hit the water and once in the water I was moving for the shore at full speed.

On the river bank, my friends were screaming at me but I could not understand what they were saying, but they were pointing down at the waters in front of me. I stopped and my fear level reached new heights, impossible though it seems. Swimming towards me from underneath the bank of the river were dozens of snakes, all headed directly at me. Apparently, the big splash that I’d made, largely because I’d landed flat on my belly, had created a wave that had disturbed an entire nest of these deadly vipers. I was sure that they were out to take vengeance on the one that had disturbed them. I also realized why this swimming hole was no longer in use.

I reversed course instantly and began swimming upstream because I figured it would be harder for the snakes to follow me against the flow of the river. I have no idea how close they got to me or even if they were following me. I was too busy swimming for my life.

I finally reached a safe spot to exit the river. I raced back to where I’d left my pants and discovered all my friends had abandoned me. Seriously. They’d been so afraid of the dozens of snakes that they had raced back into the woods, headed home. I have to cut them some slack here. These were kids ranging from 7 to 10 years of age and all of them, including myself, had come to appreciate the deadliness of snakes. We were all very afraid of them. It did not make us to afraid to walk in the woods because we all came to realize that the snakes would move away from noise and unless you just happened to step on one (as did one of my friends), you are unlikely to be bitten. So, we never really thought much about it, but there was definitely a fear of snakes in all of us.

I put my pants on at a run and managed to fall down at least twice. I never went back to that river. In my mind, that will always be the real Snake River.

Death had tried again…and failed.

It would try again.

The End

copyright 2020 Voyle A Glover