Uncle Roy and the Snake Lasso

Uncle Roy and the Snake Lasso
recorded by
Brian Barnett
Roy told me this story at least twice now.
Roy, being nine years younger than his twin brother, Harold and Carold, it’s hard to say how he survived childhood. My generation will have to pause for a moment to consider that there were no televisions, no video games, no cell phones…kids used to have to come up with their own sort of entertainment to pass the time. For Harold and Carold, it seems, their favorite pastime was mischief.
Apparently once the three of them were in a creek bed playing with snakes – yes snakes. Papaw and Harold were boiling water and tossing the snakes in to “watch them tie themselves into knots” as Roy puts it.
Well, apparently Roy, at the age of five, had a genuine fear of snakes. Papaw, knowing this, grabbed a dead one and teased Roy with it. Roy tried to run away. Papaw twirled the snake around like a lasso and threw it at Roy.
Roy says that he was sure that Papaw was just trying to maybe let it hit him and fall to the ground.
The snake wound up wrapping around his neck. Of course Roy was terrified and tried to take it off. Papaw, I’m sure laughing the whole time, tried to help take it off, but he could barely do it since Roy was slapping his hands away in blind fear.
Again, I’m not sure how Uncle Roy survived childhood.
Category:Stories from the Barnett Family
Category:Stories