We had come from Florida, to visit my parents in PA, and my husband had brought several snakeskin hatbands and wallets, and buckles that he had made from dead diamond-backed rattlesnakes. We were sitting at the diningroom table and my little brother wanted to see one of the snake skulls. It was handed over to him under the table so my one sister-in-law would not see it, and when he suddenly brought it out from under the table and thrust it toward her. She screamed at the top of her lungs and jumped up and ran from the house, crying and screaming the whole way down the street. My brother said she was in a panic for days after that. Needless to say none in the family were happy with my younger brother's antics and she never forgave him for it. She had told us as a young girl the neighborhood boys had chased after her with live garter snakes and she has been very afraid of snakes since that time.
