Snakes in the Walls

Snakes In The Walls

As long as we are on snakes. John Craig invited me to go detecting with him a couple years ago, in Virgina. I had a great time with the Va crowd. On one of the last days I was there John asked me if I would like to see one hell of a collection of CW relics. I thought I had already seen half the relics found in Va when I saw his and his dads!
I told him I would love to and he made a call and set it up. Later in the day we head for the guys home. I can't remember his name but wouldn't tell it without permission anyway but as we drove to his home I was impressed by the houses in the area. Beautiful, huge estates, at least in my eyes!
We pull into his drive and it wound to the rear of a beautiful ranch home. Beautifuly landscaped with, if I remember right, tennis courts behind the house. I saw a lady working in the yard.
We went up and knocked on the door and a tall, distingushed gentilman, probably in his late 60's warmly met us at the door. He asked us in and offered us each a refreshment.
The home was like one of those, "Home and Garden" homes.
He asked us to come down and see his collection. Now I was figuring that I would see a box full of goodies but could not have been more wrong! His basement was like a Museum! The walls were lined with built in, glass, cablets and they were full of CW relics! There must have been dozens of belt plates. There was at least 40ft of cabnets on one wall and also glass cases down the middle of the room, all full with relics. He had some of his great-grandpas CW gear, stuff he used!
I wandered around and was in awe of the collection. He then asked if we wanted to see his sword collection! Heck yes! It was in an ajoining room and he led us there. It was dark and he hunted for the light switch. Click! Damn. The left wall was covered with the things! All kinds and I am not gonna try to tell you I have any idea what I was seening. It was incredable!
The lighting pannel was on the opposite wall and John pointed to a long shake skin wound around the wires comming out of the top of the pannel and mand some comment like. "Found a snake skin" or something like that. This distinguished lookin' gentilman said, "Na, the snake left it there. Lots of them in here!" WHAT? I thought he was pulling my leg and think John might have felt the same. He said he saw one shedding a couple days before in another storrage room. Naaah says I, you kiddin'? No, he says, common I will show you and as I turned I looked up and I will be damned if I didn't see a skin going up and into the insolation batt, above my head! It had been shed there and the snake was long gone. Hell, he wasn't kidding!
We walked into the next room and he turned on the light. There was a lot of cardboard boxes there and I'll be damned if there wasn't a big skin a laying across one! He pointed to it as I saw it.
I never saw anything like it. He said that they came in every year in the cool weather. He said, as calmly as hell with a little chuckle that he and his wife can lay in bed and hear them crawling through the walls! These were bigassed black snakes, I think he said! The skins were at least 5 ft long and some will go over 6, I am sure! He saw we were aghast and chuckled. He says you get used to it. My ass! I like snakes but I sure the hell ain'ta gonna lay in no damn bed and listen to them crawl through my walls! Part of his house had a crawl space and he laughed when he said a 6 footer almost jumped in his face when he opened one of the small doors in the spring! It was just waiting to be let out, says he. I know I was looking at him like a calf at a new gate, ya know, a little doubtful like. I asked him how his wife handles her walls full of snakes and with a smile he says, "She don't mind. She likes animals" Man did he find the right woman!! :0)
After that he took us up stairs and finished the tour. Baby Grand Piano in the music room and all. Man I will never forget that day. The house was beautiful. Furnished like a museum with the antiques and all. Spotless! They lay in bed and listen to the 5 ft snakes crawl through the walls! Hummmm
It was an injoyable day. One I will never forget. These were true nature lovers!!