“Choose not to look, however, at your own peril. The owner of an old house knows that whatever you are ignoring will never go away. Whatever is lurking will fester whether you choose to look or not. Ignorance is no protection from the consequences of inaction. Whatever you are wishing away will gnaw at you until you gather the courage to face what you would rather not see.”―
I spent part of my youth growing up outside San Antonio. My father was a fisherman, so we spent a great deal of time at the local lakes. Frequently visiting places like Canyon Lake and Lake McQueeney.
Both had their attractions. Canyon Lake was home to bigger fish, but McQueeney had a juke joint near where we fished, and I have very fond memories of the sounds drifting across the parking lot while we tried to catch a bass or a catfish. That bar played both kinds of music, country and western.
Both lakes were also home to very healthy populations of Cottonmouths. These were the Texas version of Cottonmouths, not the kind that is rumored to reside in Tennessee. I’ve fished all over this state and I’ve never come across a snake that rivaled these south Texas serpents for meanness and nastiness. truly the stuff of nightmares.
At Canyon Lake, we’d fish off of a low dock at night for catfish. The light would draw the snakes and you would see them swimming towards it, only to duck underneath the dock at the last minutes. The proximity to these ornery creatures never failed to unnerve me. sending me home with fresh nightmares.
One spring, I must have been around 12 years old, we were visiting McQueeney. It was an exceptionally warm day and I wanted to get in the water something fierce. My parents weren’t CONTINUE READING: IS IT GOING TO TAKE GETTING BIT? – Dad Gone Wild
