[thechat] Duck Bucketing --- wuz Something Really Silly
Luther, Ron
ron.luther at hp.com
Wed Jan 26 16:17:27 CST 2005
Morgan Kelsey also noted:
>>we also used to play "hold the gardner snake til he bites you with his gums"
Heh. Must be onna them 'Yankee thangs'!
(I growed up calling them 'gardner' snakes as well!)
<technical correction>
(What can I say? My 'interview' to volunteer here at the Houston Zoo
comes up in less than 2 weeks and I need the practice.) <shrug />
Harrumphh! ... Wellll ... actualllllly, the correct name for these
(very common, very small, and very harmless little boogers) is 'garter'
snake ... which, naturally, conjures up *much* more interesting ways
to play with them!!
;-)
</technicality>
As kids, it was pretty easy to find bunches and bunches of these
little boogers in the parks in NorthEastern Ohio in the Spring.
You'd sit in the grass, take off your shoes and socks and let them
crawl around and between your toes. It tickled. You'd wait to see
which kid would flinch first.
I always found it oddly relaxing ... little did I know what was
_really_ going on ... [spoiler at bottom]
>>WHACK-A-MOLE
Oh Man ... I never got the hang of that ... it's onna them damn games
like Foosball where these little people crawl out of the woodwork and
kick your butt ...
Nope - not my game.
RonL.
(I bet I could still hustle you for a beer over a game of air hockey!
... but I ain't a-going anywhere near that whack-a-mole thingie!)
<spoiler - more than you ever wanted to know about garter snakes>
Garter snakes hibernate/estivate for the winter and are one of the
first snakes to become active in the Spring ... generally emerging
from their burrows sometime between late March and early May.
... and with pretty much 'one thing' on their tiny little minds!
Yup - it's their breeding season!
Which they tend to view as, uh, a 'group' activity!
(You beginning to understand why it's easy to find 'bunches' of
them together in the Spring?)
... Oh Dear! ... My poor little innocent toes!
Last pic here shows a garter snake 'breeding ball':
(Warning - potentially NSF ... Herpetologists):
http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/eastern_garter_snake.htm
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