By Dorotha Schaefer

Visitors from Florida like to tell about the flower wreath on the front door of their home. The wreath is quite large to match the door itself and made with a handsome arrangement of colorful plastic blooms. The children in the family noted unusual occupants of the wreath – a tan colored bird, her nest and as the days went by, blue eggs. Five of them! The mother bird sat upon them and finally there was a chirping sound.

The eggs had hatched. Such excitement. Each day the family checked to see what was going on in the nest. It happened, the world’s worst event. A great hungry snake took over the nest and ate the chirping birds with the mother bird trying to stop the murder. With the family watching the snake took over the nest and it was possible to see the outline of the baby birds in her body! She was in no hurry to leave.

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That isn’t all the invasions reported by the Florida visitors. While Steve and his dad went to take the car from the garage. they spotted a black racer snake was there, too.

Snake had taken over possession of the cool floor. The two fellows started chasing the snake around until all three gave up. He may be there yet, in hiding?

Neighbors say it is harmless.

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Also of note from the Florida area is the fact that there are no mosquitoes making the outside miserable this summer. A thousand or more bats have taken up residence in the attic of an empty house and fly out each evening to eat the insects.

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And yet another snake story, also true or at least as true can be remembered. Uncle Elmer and Aunt Lillian were visiting from Michigan on a hot summer day and wanted to cool off by taking a walk down the road to the nearby orchard. One nephew went along. This tale is a Paulding County one.

They walked through the orchard, enjoying the cool of the evening and went back to the road. At that time they noticed the black snake was coming after them down the road. Nephew took off running at top speed with the snake following on his heels. The kid won the race. The relatives were untouched as was the reptile.

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“Years ago,” the Kentucky mountain woman told us, “I was sittin’ on my front porch rockin’ and spittin’, no one around but Old Mean Yeller, my dog, when a stranger came by drivin’ a blue pick-up. He clumb out, sat down on the porch and commenced strummin’ his guitar. I picked up my banjo and started playin’ and singin’ with him.

“We played for hours, sometimes I played my harmonikey. When he left I said ‘You come back, you hear.’ He forgot his guitar, left it on the porch and I turned it over to read what was on the back. I sure hope Elvis comes back some day.”

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A perfect summer day, says Jerry, is one which the lawn tools have been borrowed and not returned, and the lawn mower is broken and won’t run. If that is what you want, may you have it.

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Have you had problems with snakes, wreaths, nests or such? Tell us, we’ll tell everybody.