Playing Hide 'n Seek

My father was a builder and he had the typical tools of the trade, the main one being a big brown FORD van. He used this to lug all of his builder’s paraphernalia around from project to project. It was a manly van, no frills, no amenities, no radio, no A/C, not even a flat floor in the back, just a steering wheel with two front seats. Dad laid a piece of ¾” plywood down in the back so one could walk on a flat surface and not break a leg by tripping over the ribs [I don’t know what you call these pieces of the structure] and it was probably easier on the myriad of tools he kept in there as well.

Of course after a few years of wear and tear the plywood was chewed up and falling apart, so dad and my brother [who was working for him during this particular summer] simply laid another sheet of plywood over the disintegrating one and piled the tools back inside when they were done. Why even bother taking out the underlying mess, just cover it up…must be a guy thing, because it drove me nuts.

Anyway, my sister and I love to garden, and as a result there's always a lot of yard waste to dispose of, but unfortunately where we live we have to haul it by our own means to the town dump. At least twice during the summer months, we would take all the tools out of dad’s van and fill it to capacity with branches, clippings, weeds and leaves. We’d make several trips and heave a sigh of relief when it was over.

During one of our clean ups that summer mom noticed a big stack of firewood that had begun to decompose; she told us to dispose of the logs “while we were at it”. So, my sister and I put on our heavy leather gloves, moved that stack of wood piece by piece to the back of the van, and after several trips to the dump we had reclaimed a lot of space in one of the side yards. It looked great!

Fast forward to three days later, when my brother went out to the van in the driveway and opened the rear doors to get out a saw. There sitting on top of the pile of tools staring at him was a snake [It must have been inside one of the rotting logs we had thrown in there the day before. I'm sure we jostled it and it hid under the plywood.] Well they startled each other, the snake slid under the plywood floor and my big burly brother slammed the doors closed, forgetting all about the saw he’d wanted to use.

My brother was traumatized!! Going near that vehicle from that point on proved to be pure torture for him. All his mind kept focusing on was the fact that a snake was loose and it might slither on him or something. Dad said he tried to find the serpent, but I don’t think he searched very hard, because I couldn’t imagine what he’d do with it if he had found it. Dad wasn’t fond of wild creatures. So all summer long they both drove around in that thing keeping a wary eye for squirming movement. Could you imagine what would have happened if that thing had popped out while they were driving on the highway?? It would have been a disaster!

It was probably the only time in his life my brother was ever happy to return to school after a long summer vacation. It meant two things to him, 1) he wouldn’t need to go into the snake pit any longer, and 2) winter was coming and there was no way the snake could make it through the frigid months in that uninsulated tin can.

Poor guy hates snakes with a passion to this day.

Sigh. I wonder if we still have the big rubber snake at home, that would be fun to get out this summer to see if it would float in the pool.