The Bright Side
By Tom Peterson
Great Uncle Richard Peterson had no fear of snakes. Me? well…
That’s a big snake.
Particularly, a Rattlesnake - and I have history.
In this photo above, my great-uncle Richard Peterson, out south of Ione, found this lovely in his daily toil on the family homestead at the turn of the century. Take a good look - the snake has extended its jaw to swallow a rabbit, whole. Legendary in Peterson folklore. Henry was a much bigger man than me. Both in stature and courage. Just look at that right hand.
Some 90 years later, however, I had my own fight with a rattler.
In 1990, I was 21 and I could drink a pint without stopping. I was still in my formative years, but I knew a lot more than most. I had escaped Scientology twice. I only took a couple of classes before I escaped the alien ending. I was smart, I tell you.
That summer, I took a job with the Anderson Family on a farm outside Condon.
It was myself, Earl Anderson, 13, his mom and dad, Barb and Randy, and daughter Breana, 4.
Earl and I picked rock for the first few weeks leading up to harvest - meaning you go into a plowed field and when you see a rock, you pick it up and put it in the bucket of a tractor; now repeat. Big rocks and combines don’t mix well. It was honest, hot, dirty work.
On this particular day of picking, we returned to the farmhouse at dinner time. And as we went inside. Barb said that “Precious,” the silky white family cat, had brought a snake into the house.
Barb said she was unable to find it.
“Strange,” I thought in my steely mind.
But Randy and Earl only had a mild reaction after some quick words from Barb. So, I thought, ‘well, this must be regular stuff for the country’ and went on about my business.
We were filthy after a day of kicking through the dirt, and it was time for a shower before dinner.
I went to the basement to do so.
I turned the water on, got undressed and proceeded to get cleaned up.
“Dad and mom and I snuck downstairs and waited outside the bathroom,” Earl, now in his 40s, told me.
“You finished the shower before you realized it was in there with you,” Earl said. “We were about ready to go upstairs thinking this was a dud.”-
“Suddenly you shouted out this horrific scream,” Earl said. “There was banging and rattling and what we were imaging was sheer panic in the shower,” he said.
In the shower, I saw just the side of the snake sticking out of the bunched shower curtain in the corner of the square shower base. The coloration was right. Rattler! I managed enough restraint to put my underwear on before exiting the bathroom.
“You came running out, and we could not understand a word you said. You did manage to get yourself dressed before you came out, and we were thankful for that. You jumped on the bed, and you were yelling, ‘there’s a snake,’” Earl said.
“My dad went in there and grabbed it and tossed it on the bed. I swear your head bounced off the ceiling as you dodged it.”
It was no snake. But there were some others in the room.
Barb had found a long seed pod that looked kind of like a snake and planted it in the shower and then came up with the cat story. My brain did the rest.
“We had some good times,” Earl said. “Sometimes at your expense, but we had some good times.”
