Real Texas Rattlesnakes

Editor’s Note:  This is part 9 of How To Be Texan, Wherever You Are.  It’s an up and coming eBook on how to maintain your Texan ways, no matter where you live.  Some of us fortunate souls still live in the Great State and others are Ex-Pats who were forced to leave by marriage, jobs, or circumstance.  You all however, have a great heritage and you can still be Texan, Wherever You Are….just watch out for Texas Rattlesnakes.

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Every good Texan has a rattlesnake story to tell and if you are temporarily out of state, you can keep a copy of J. Frank Dobie’s novel devoted exclusively to the fanged terrors handy, and answer questions your non-Texan friends may have about Texas Rattlesnakes .  It’s all part of  How To Be Texan-Wherever You Are.  Dobie’s book on rattlesnakes is told in an episodic manner, meaning he skips from story to story and snake episode or encounter one after the other.

Dobie began collecting rattlesnake lore and after a while, he had enough material for a book devoted entirely to the species. I enjoyed the book quite a bit because swapping rattlesnake stories is just part of what we do here in Real Texas.  There are smaller rattlers over in the woods of East Texas, some medium sized ones in the mountain areas of the Davis Mountains, and the big boys we know as Western Diamondbacks reside out here in Real Texas. Mr. Dobie covers most of them in his book and there are rattlesnake stories in all parts of Texas, many passed down from generation to generation.

There is still a snake farm between San Marcos and New Braunfels which I associate with rattlesnakes.   I drove by it a couple of weeks ago, although I don’t know if they still have a pit full of rattlers there.  The sign still advertises “Snake Farm” big enough so you can easily see it from Interstate 35.  Here’s a song about a snake farm by Ray Wylie Hubbard.  See if you can hear the part about Ramona.  She hates the mere thought of snakes of any sort.  Yes, even Ramona has come very close to rattlesnakes out in her squash garden.  She called the Deputy who lived next door to come and kill it.  He told her she had to bury the head to keep it from growing back……Yes, of course she believed him.

With the weather warming up some here, we always watch for rattlesnakes.  It is a danger we all grew up with and it is ingrained in our Real Texas DNA.  I’ve even seen rattlesnakes cooling their heels (Do they have heels?  No!) in cement water tanks out in the pasture.  They prefer the covered area where the floats are located so when you grab the wooden cover they can jump out at you and scare you out of your wits.  I’ve also seen them swim across open water in a lake and they can swim quite easily.

I’ve even see grown men abandon a boat out in the middle of a lake due to rattlesnakes having taken up residence there during a long dry spell.

They just seem to pop up in some of the most unlikely places.

Rattlesnakes will make your dog’s nose really swell up and they can even kill smaller dogs.  However, I have seen feral hogs wade right into a snake and eat it even after being bitten several times.  Snakes don’t seem to bother the feral hogs at all.

Sweetwater has an annual Rattlesnake Roundup in the middle of March every year where participants gather all the rattlers they can find and have all sorts of events like who can get in a sleeping bag with the most live rattlesnakes.  Sounds like fun, huh?  Do they ever run out of rattlesnakes?  No.  Not in Real Texas they don’t.

I have had friends bitten by rattlers, my dogs have been bitten by rattlers and my wife’s Boston terrier was killed by a rattler.  I have stepped right beside the dern things and jumped quite high in the air when I realized it.

I should never have yelled at my late father because of his deafness.  But you should have heard me and others actually screaming at him when he was just one step away from walking into a very large buzzing rattlesnake.  He finally heard us and turned around quite annoyed that we were all hollering at him to stop.  He carefully retreated and thanked us all later.

Now, I am the deaf person they all have to deal with and hopefully, I’ll just let someone else take the lead when I head up the trail to the top of Enchanted Rock or Guadalupe Peak.

This year the annual Sweetwater Jaycees Rattlesnake Roundup will be held starting Thursday, March 8, 2012 with a parade.  Later that evening, the Jaycees will crown a Miss Snake Charmer at a pageant in the Municipal Auditorium.  Activities will kick off the next day in their 54^th annual event.  Snakes will be weighed in starting at 7:00 a.m. and during the day you can watch snake safety demonstrations and you can even enjoy some deep fried rattlesnake.

Yes, I have had some and it was a little greasy.  One of the students and her mom prepared it for a class demonstration when it was Texas food day in my Texas History class.

If you attend the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup, you can also participate in a guided snake hunt, eat at the annual cook-off, buy plenty of snake related souvenirs, see the pretty girls vying to be Miss Snake Charmer, and wind up the day attending the Rattlesnake Dance.

Those intrepid folks entering the competition all have a valid Texas snake handler’s license.  That’s right; the state even wants to get in on the snake business by attaching a fee to this activity.

The Sweetwater Jaycees have also had to deal with their fair share of animal rights nuts who have given them some grief throughout the years.And,  I’ve had friends who have had the quite interesting hobby of collecting rattlesnakes.  They ‘gas’ the snakes out of their dens using a pump up garden sprayer spraying gasoline and its fumes into the den, catching the snakes, and putting them in a Rubbermaid or similar type rubber or even metal trash can….with a secure lid.  There is probably a better way to get the snakes to abandon their dens, but I an not aware of all the methods used.  The Jaycees do not advocate the mass killing of rattlesnakes or any other animal.  However, it you talk to most Real Texans, they will tell you if they see a rattler, it is soon going to be a dead rattler.

I’ve only heard of one exception to that rule.  I do know a lady gardener who had a rattlesnake who lived near her greenhouse and garden area.  She said she and the snake had an ‘understanding’ with each other that they would live and let live.  She never had any problems with that rattler.

Go ahead and get out and enjoy Texas, even if that means attending a very unique Texas event such as the rattlesnake roundup in Sweetwater.  And the admonition, “watch where you step!”  is often repeated out here.   Yes, we watch where we step when it gets warm enough for rattlesnakes.

Everyone in Real Texas has a rattler story.  You can be Texan Wherever You Are by watching where you walk and having your own rattler story handy when the time is right.

Let’s hear one of your favorite bits of rattlesnake lore or close calls…..

Tagged as: rattlesnakes, Texas Lifestyle, Texas rattlesnakes