Daydreamer64
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2003
- Messages
- 1,006
I remember as a small child that we would visit my Grandparents in the boonies in the outskirts of Kissisimmi <sp> . Anyway, they moved there from Pa. and I will never forget one time my Grandfather, who was a bit of an eccentric and loved to drink 
, took me out to the free-standing cinder block garage and was making me a "stick horse" to ride out in the backyard 
.
Mind you now, in those days, parts of Kisissimmi was quite far out in the country and very unsettled. The area, as a whole, was full of water and the soil was always like a sponge and when we walked barefoot in the yard, the black colored water squished up between our toes. It's funny the things that kids remember- I couldn't wait to get barefooted and squish my toes in that cool green grass with the black water soaked into it- my toes would be stained black around the cuticles for days after every trip to see Grandpa and Grandma
. They had a "gator" fence for their whole yard, front around to the back and gates to close the yard off.
Anyway, Grandfather and I were in the garage working on my horse and my Mother comes to give Grandfather a piece of her mind for not telling her where we were- I remember that she yelled about the gators getting small kids and such. So, we are standing there, I was feeling bad for Grandpa and a little bit mad at Mommy for yelling- I wanted my horse. I couldn't have been more then 3 years old and I still remember the look on my Mom's face- she turned white and whispered "snake" about 3 times and then Grandpa looked up and I saw what they were looking at- that snake was hanging down over our heads from the garage rafters, it was longer then my Grandpa was tall and of course I didn't know any better so I started reaching toward it.
I don't know what laws were broken that day but Grandpa killed that snake with a gun before I even knew that he was moving toward from me- I don't know where he had the gun stored or what happened but I heard the loud bang and started to cry because I was afraid of the noise that I had just heard. There was nothing left of the poor thing's head but I'm sure that it would have been glad to snack on a small child if given the chance. The next thing I remember about that day was that we were packed in record time and off to a hotel in a less wild part of town
! I remember being happy to get to visit a hotel with a pool even though I never got my horse finished that day, I grew up I remembering how Grandpa saved the day.
We had visited Grandpa's house several times since that incident but never stayed the night. When I was about 15 years old we went to visit and decided to try to stay over night at Grandpa's house, by now mom was a bit more relaxed, due I suspect, to our advance age
. Grandpa had a small house and we ( my DBrother and I ) were to sleep in sleepingbags on the floor in what was essentially a big walk in closet with a smaller closet that had a curtain threaded on a rod to close off the smaller storage area.
Grandpa did not have air-conditioning, I can't imagine how he was comfortable, so we slept on top of the sleeping bags with the windows open all night, the windows were those Florida windows that roll open and shut so I wasn't too worried about any "swamp" critters getting into the room through the window. I still had a bit of a restless night due to all the night sounds that kept floating along on the cool damp night air. The next morning I couldn't find my shoe and my DBr said it might be in the curtained off closet. I pulled back the curtain and there was a hugh snake skin that again had to be longer then 10 feet if it was a foot long
. That thing was in bits and pieces where the snake had rubbed it off but I can't help but imagine how long that thing was in their closet to shed most of the skin in one place. I never did find my shoe 
. I think that Mom left a lot of "things" that she had unpacked at the house on our way to the fabulous hotel with a pool again -she would not go back to get her things ! Years later that hotel became a Christian College and then another hotel and finally it fell into ruins but I will always remember the false "safe" feeling that we had at the hotel. I guess Mom never thought about snakes and gators getting into the pool! 
, took me out to the free-standing cinder block garage and was making me a "stick horse" to ride out in the backyard . Mind you now, in those days, parts of Kisissimmi was quite far out in the country and very unsettled. The area, as a whole, was full of water and the soil was always like a sponge and when we walked barefoot in the yard, the black colored water squished up between our toes. It's funny the things that kids remember- I couldn't wait to get barefooted and squish my toes in that cool green grass with the black water soaked into it- my toes would be stained black around the cuticles for days after every trip to see Grandpa and Grandma
. They had a "gator" fence for their whole yard, front around to the back and gates to close the yard off. Anyway, Grandfather and I were in the garage working on my horse and my Mother comes to give Grandfather a piece of her mind for not telling her where we were- I remember that she yelled about the gators getting small kids and such. So, we are standing there, I was feeling bad for Grandpa and a little bit mad at Mommy for yelling- I wanted my horse. I couldn't have been more then 3 years old and I still remember the look on my Mom's face- she turned white and whispered "snake" about 3 times and then Grandpa looked up and I saw what they were looking at- that snake was hanging down over our heads from the garage rafters, it was longer then my Grandpa was tall and of course I didn't know any better so I started reaching toward it.
I don't know what laws were broken that day but Grandpa killed that snake with a gun before I even knew that he was moving toward from me- I don't know where he had the gun stored or what happened but I heard the loud bang and started to cry because I was afraid of the noise that I had just heard. There was nothing left of the poor thing's head but I'm sure that it would have been glad to snack on a small child if given the chance. The next thing I remember about that day was that we were packed in record time and off to a hotel in a less wild part of town
! I remember being happy to get to visit a hotel with a pool even though I never got my horse finished that day, I grew up I remembering how Grandpa saved the day.We had visited Grandpa's house several times since that incident but never stayed the night. When I was about 15 years old we went to visit and decided to try to stay over night at Grandpa's house, by now mom was a bit more relaxed, due I suspect, to our advance age
. Grandpa had a small house and we ( my DBrother and I ) were to sleep in sleepingbags on the floor in what was essentially a big walk in closet with a smaller closet that had a curtain threaded on a rod to close off the smaller storage area. Grandpa did not have air-conditioning, I can't imagine how he was comfortable, so we slept on top of the sleeping bags with the windows open all night, the windows were those Florida windows that roll open and shut so I wasn't too worried about any "swamp" critters getting into the room through the window. I still had a bit of a restless night due to all the night sounds that kept floating along on the cool damp night air. The next morning I couldn't find my shoe and my DBr said it might be in the curtained off closet. I pulled back the curtain and there was a hugh snake skin that again had to be longer then 10 feet if it was a foot long
. That thing was in bits and pieces where the snake had rubbed it off but I can't help but imagine how long that thing was in their closet to shed most of the skin in one place. I never did find my shoe . I think that Mom left a lot of "things" that she had unpacked at the house on our way to the fabulous hotel with a pool again -she would not go back to get her things ! Years later that hotel became a Christian College and then another hotel and finally it fell into ruins but I will always remember the false "safe" feeling that we had at the hotel. I guess Mom never thought about snakes and gators getting into the pool! 
So if you have any to share please do.
Parts of Kissimmee are still pretty empty. When I first moved here and started exploring a bit, I was amazed at how much open space there is right near Disney World. 
. I wish that we had more Eagle type of encounters instead of the creepy crawley kind.
(actually - it was the color of this bouncy!)
