[thechat] Duck Bucketing --- wuz Something Really Silly

[Luther, Ron]

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