[lumberjim]

When I was about 10 or 11 yrs old, my friends and I were fascinated by snakes and other reptiles. We would catch them and try to feed them toads. ( snakes don;t really like toads that much, but we couldn;t seem to catch any mice.)

One day, my friends, Dan and Eric and I were walking through the woods when I spotted a medium sized Garder Snake. Non poisonous, and extremely common in Pa. Eric and I reached for it at the same time, and it wound up biting me on the finger. Reflexively, I yanked my hand back, slashing my finger where I would have only had two small punctures. In the process, I flung the snake into the air, and it came down right on Dan's head. Dan did the " I'm a prissy girl who just had a spider dropped into my dress" dance, screamed, and ran about 20 yards away. Dan never did like snakes much after that. He stopped attending our weekly Herpitology meetings.