My daddy’s best friend, Harry Terrill, lived just a little over three miles from my parent’s farm. Harry spent a lot of time visiting my dad, sometimes for a haircut and other times just plain old fashioned visiting. Daddy and Harry were friends from way back into the 1920’s, when they were young men. Harry did some bit part movie acting in California as a cowboy extra. Harry was born in Vermont, but was the nearest thing to a cowboy of anyone in our neighborhood. He moved back to Oklahoma to live with his Uncle Amos Terrill. Harry left his boots in California, but still wore a denim shirt, blue jeans and always wore a straw cowboy hat winter and summer. He was a stocky man with steel blue-gray eyes and had a great sense of humor that matched daddies. Harry laughed so hard at daddy’s jokes that his face turned beet red and tears welled in his eyes. They often spoke about their younger and more exciting days in California when they both lived there.
One particular spring day, Harry came to our home to get a hair cut. Daddy barbered outside when the weather was warm enough. Not long before this, dad took the wood burning heating stove down and plugged off the chimney flue with a spring cap. Daddy moved his barber chair to the spot where the stove had sat. Daddy used a barber stool that he made from an implement seat welded to a pipe with a base made from a corn sheller part. Harry sat on the barber stool while daddy got his barber tools ready. He chatted with daddy before removing his straw hat. All of a sudden they both heard a noise in the capped chimney vent and something plopped right on top of Harry’s straw hat, wrapping itself around the brim. Both daddy and Harry were startled and more-so when they found it was a huge bull snake. Harry quickly jumped up and removed his hat as the snake fell to the floor. Daddy grabbed the snake and threw him outside.

After the initial shock of the incident, daddy explained to Harry what the snake was all about. Mice were getting into the attic and mouse traps just did not take care of the problem, so daddy placed the bull snake in the attic to eat them. He never revealed to anyone what he did.

I can remember mama waking to noises in the attic at night and fussing at daddy to do something about rodents in the attic. Daddy said it was probably a mouse. Mama said she knew it wasn’t a mouse, as it made too much noise. She often heard the sound at night, but resigned herself that it was a rat and he would not bother them. Daddy later admitted that Mr. Snake had been in the attic for at least a year before making his stage appearance.