Childhood memory revisited

I once brought my mom a gift as a small child. I can't take full credit for the gift because I dinstinctly recall my older brother being the brains behind that giving spirit. We might have been 7 and 5 at the time, and netsters, nothing says "Love you, Momma" like a big bushel basket full of garder snakes. No, of course I wouldn't really bring my momma a snake infested plastic laundry basket. No, it was wicker.

So she frantically screamed and backed away (into the next room), then yelled, "Get rid of those things right this very minute." We did.

The next day, you could have heard our neighbor's banschee cry clear to Timbuktu. She lived across the street from us. Story goes she was putting her toddler in their sand-filled plastic swimming pool when what should rise up out of the sand but a snake.

Or two.

Now, I can't say with certainty but there is the chance that those just might have been our snakes basking in their neighborly sun and sand. How they got there? Let us just recall that my mom never did say to take those things back where we got them and, well, everyone knows that children need clear direction and don't assume they otherwise understand (or else).

Toni