Shooting Snakes

^©Growing Up in Bixby

By Don House

Water moccasins were abundant in a swampy area about two and a half miles south of Bixby before the area was drained to establish some nice farm land and a pecan grove. Three or four of Bixby's teenage hunters enjoyed an occasional purging of the snake population there. The custom was to wear waders and carry shotguns because the snakes were so plentiful a hunter could easily become the prey! The ugly, slithering critters would slide off overhead tree limbs and fall all around us as we waded through the swamp. And it wasn't unusual to find four or five snakes in a single wad among the stumps and roots in the muddy, knee-deep water. The blast from a twelve gauge would dispatch the entire wad to the great beyond.

Now for the rest of the story, fictitious names will be used to protect the guilty. During one of these hunts, 'Jim-Bob felt the call of nature. After finding a dry area, safe from snakes, Jim-Bob dropped his waders and squatted to do the business which had distracted him from the hunt. Another of our hunters, 'Bubba', carried a little 22-caliber pistol in addition to his shotgun. Something about Jim-Bob's situation must have temporarily robbed Bubba's sanity causing him to draw, aim and fire the 22 into the excrement beneath Jim-Bob's squatting form! Fortunately for Jim-Bob, Bubba's aim was accurate and only the splattered excrement hit him.

The current residents of Bixby are fortunate that Bubba could run faster with his waders up than Jim-Bob could run with his waders down. Had the situation been different, we might not have our Y.M.C.A.

© 2006-2008 · Don House · Bixby OK · All Rights Reserved. Published at Bixby Historical Society Online with permission.