This happened to me once a few years ago, too. I did see the snake's tail waving above the stove burner and then disappearing. I deduced that he had climbed the outside wall of my kitchen and come in through the stove vent. I took a peak and there he was curled up on the floor of the oven. He seemed quite comfortable and not inclined to move. I paced and paced about what I should do. I couldn't turn on the oven. I decided eventually he would get hungry and leave. Well. It took a few days, but he did finally leave--apparently the way he came. I did n't see him go. The oven did take some scrubbing, but I don't think Ive used it since.

Yesterday, a friend called me to tell me she had just seen the 1953 movie, Mogambo. The stars are Ava Gardener and Clark Gable. What I remembered first about the movie that I haven't seen in many, many years, was the scene where Ava Gardener discoverers Sam the snake (a huge snake) in her bed. She doesn't freak out. She simply asks him politely to leave. And eventually in his own sweet time he does vacate the bed.

So strange to find your snake story this morning when I checked out ATP, Sharon!

Connections, Gloria, just simply connections.

Sometimes in this great big crazy world there are connections. Defies explanation. And besides who would want to try to explain snake-y connections.

I remember that movie too.

I really do have a fear of snakes and I was afraid I'd have nightmares when writing this article. One of the things I didn't inherit was Ninna's calm when it came to snakes. At least I got her gardening genes. But I don't have her shady garden, in fact mine is burnt to a crisp at the moment. Anyway, fun to hear from you, I don't use my oven much either, you never know what might be lurking there.

Hee hee, Sharon, I promise, then, not to send you any pictures of me cuddling my 6-ft boa constrictor. (No, no, we left him with a good family in SoCal when we moved to the frozen northland.)

Ack, Woofie!
I don't want to see, although I have touched a boa.
Sort of.

Doesn't count if it had feathers!

I've touched those too.

Be very glad that I am a (snicker) "mature" person, capable of restraint.

Woof.
I really hate to tell you this, but your definition of restraint and mine are nowhere near the same.
Nowhere.

Snakes are so velvety to the touch! Did you think they were slimey? They do like to cuddle in warm places, but I don't know if they like to cuddle next to human's especially.

What fascinated me about Southern snakes is that they have the ability to crawl straight up the side of a building or tree. That's how they get in attics.

Shuddering thoughts.

Hazelnut, Don't know about Sharon but I did not need to know that!!!

Sharon, your memory of experiences and days gone by amazes me but those memories held close to the heart are easy to find for you and we get the benefits of that. Thank you so much for sharing that which is precious to you with us.

Luckily for me and my memory, Bev, I've always been a writer. Not always a good writer, but good enough to trigger memories. I kept little notebooks and scrapbooks filled with 'happenings' from the time I learned to write and have had them for all these years. Now, things will trigger an event or occasion, a scent, a bloom, a word or two - and I dig out those notebooks.

The other thing I have is quilts, all made by the women in my life, and all of them have scraps from the clothes Mom made for me. So with every quilt there will be fabric pieces that yet again, trigger my memories; like the pajamas in the snake story. And photos. I have tons of old b/w photos. It also helps that I have a lot of notes that belonged to my grandmothers, my grandfather, Mom, and also some that belonged to Aunt Bett. I guess I've always been a keeper of 'notes'.

I started turning the old notebook writings into articles after my husband died, so that my children would be able to know what I had learned, how I had grown up. So I just keep on writing. Thanks to all, like you, who keep on reading.

Thanks for sharing with us, Sharon. And for every precious memory you share with us, there are more from our own lives. The past melds into the future.

Old quilts. Just now I am learning to copy old quilts too shredded to use any more, but the designs I don't want to give up. Making old things new.

And we can't let those memories be forgotten; they hold too much learnin' to be dropped by the wayside.

So glad about your quilts; sometimes you'll find a spot, a corner or maybe the block in the center, that has less wear and I've found myself saving that section, if only to add a back and stuffing for a pillow, or maybe even to make a little framed wallhanging of it. Anything to save those old original designs and remnants of cloth.

I hope your summer is cooperating down there.
Hot and humid here.

Drippy hot and humid. Rain ever day. Can't even mow the yard--it never gets dry enough.

Drippy hot and humid. Rain ever day. Can't even mow the yard--it never gets dry enough. Grump! Lets have winter!