The Apple Orchard and the Snake

Just imagine life with ten or so children in the house and a small Michigan farm as their playground. My aunt and uncle had their own family plus the children of another aunt who had passed away, and myself and my sister to care for. During those times I know the older children had chores both around the house and the farm but the younger ones seemed to mainly follow the older ones around and attempt to do what they did. Running the fields and the apple orchard seemed to be our favorite pastimes.

It was one of the days we were playing in the apple orchard that I had an experience I will never forget. I can't remember now if we were playing hide and seek or maybe collecting apples that had fallen from the trees. What I do remember is my aunt's words telling us not to play in the orchard without shoes on.

This particular day though I know I didn't have shoes on. I hadn't listened to my aunt but before the experience was over I certainly wished I had.

Hot and tired I stopped to lean up against one of the apple trees. As I stood there watching some of my cousins dodging here and there behind trees I felt something on my barefoot. I didn't think anything about it. Figuring it was just a leaf the wind had blown across the ground or a small branch I had displaced when I went to stand next to the tree. I was more interested in what the others were doing.

It wasn't until one of my older cousins yelled that I realized there was something wrong. The panic in his voice startled me as he yelled from several feet away, "Faith, don't move!" I followed his stare to my own bare feet. There among the leaves was a snake, the biggest snake I had ever seen and it was slithering right across my bare feet. I remember starting to cry but I didn't move. I stood there for what seemed like forever as my cousin looked around for a stick. He finally pulled a branch off a nearby tree.

By now some of the other cousins had noticed something wrong and came closer to see what was going on. The movement of the others must have alerted the snake because it stopped where it was, stretched across my small bare feet. The conversation among the cousins was what to do. Someone suggested calling my aunt out of the house while someone else said maybe if they made a lot of noise it would scare the snake off.

My cousin who had spotted the snake and was holding a long branch took control of the matter. He informed everyone we couldn't call my aunt because I didn't have shoes on and would get in trouble. Making noise might work but it might make it mad too plus my uncle was in the barn and if he heard the noise might come out in which case my aunt would hear about the situation and the no shoes. "Everyone shut up, I'll take care of it" was all he said as he moved closer to me.

I remember thinking he must be an Indian or something because he was so brave and was not making a sound. He was after all the mature age of 11 at the time. I could hear the leaves in the trees rustling in the breeze but couldn't hear even the faintest of noise as he walked across the dead leaves and branches on the ground of the apple orchard.

All of a sudden he jabbed the stick towards my bare feet and I thought to myself if the snake didn't get me my own cousin was going to stab me with that stick. He didn't though, he missed my feet but somehow managed to in a flash get the stick under the snake and lift it off my feet. In the same instant he swung the stick off to one side sending the snake along with it.

Several of the boys ran in the direction of where the snake had landed with excited screams of "let's catch it" and "why'd you have to throw it so hard". They never found the snake but it was decided by the older boys who were experts on snakes that it was a blue racer and had to have been at least three feet long.

Needless to say it was a long time before I went into the apple orchard again and when I did finally venture there I wore shoes and watched every step I took. Thinking back years later I realized I learned two lessons that day. The first was when adults tell us to do something there is probably a reason why such as don't go in the apple orchard without shoes. The second was we need to watch were we are walking but when we're standing still there can still be serious danger.