My father has told me this story again and again - so much that I seem to remember the event....On a warm sunny day when I was 2 years or so, my mother sit me on a blanket under a tree in the yard of the small, simple country house they were renting. I was a quiet, happy child outside and my parents took advantage of my contentment to catch up on chores. Mom was inside and Dad was tinkering on some car. He happened to look up and saw a snake hanging from the tree and he was certain the snake was out to do me harm. He grabbed me from the blanket, ran inside the house with me and returned to hack the snake to death with a hoe and throw it in the ditch....this is how he tells it...
