The holiday weekend.
Memorial Day, specifically. For about the past 150 years, Americans get together in the late Spring. May 30-ish. The purpose is to honor the sacrifice of those who have given their lives in service to their country. It started out as a very solemn “holiday.”
These days, we still pay homage to the fallen soldiers of war, no doubt. But somewhere along the line, it transformed from being a very somber tribute, to a big weekend hoo-ha. People have parties, and cookouts, and go swimming, and celebrate the start of summer.
Even though it is not yet summer.
Every year, we observe and pay tribute to those who have served. And then, we throw a big hoo-ha. For our family, mostly. And. Today was hoo-ha day.
So we had a party, and cooked out on the grill, and went swimming, and celebrated the start of summer. It was great, great fun. A terrific feast, with loads of laughs, and superb company.
Everything, including the weather, was going perfectly….
And then the snakes came.
Now, I like snakes. I think they are incredible little beings. But in this case, there was a family of three. A very BIG family of three. Black snakes.
They decided that Memorial Day would be a good time to explore the bird nests in the eves of our pool house. So they slithered up the lattice and the down spouts. Then, just like that, they exploited the nests, feasting on baby birds, like they were regular customers at Kentucky Fried Chicken.
At one point, a small crowd had gathered to take a closer look as one made its way up the leaf-covered lattice. That snake decided to give everyone a grand surprise. So it dropped right off the eves and in to the crowd. The screams were enormous. Epic even. And the scattering of people was nothing like I had ever seen before.
Needless to say, from that point on….. the guests started to filter out, one by one.
Despite The Snakes on a Poolhouse, (minus Samuel Jackson), the rest of the day was a big bunch of fun. And probably one, that the people here… will not soon forget.
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“I know enough of the world now to have almost lost the capacity of being much surprised by anything”
― Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
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