By Ray Collett

Hello Readers,
Whew, it is really hot isn't it..I don't know how we used to stand this heat years ago, maybe it was because we were younger. I got a lot of response from last weeks story about the contraption my father-in-law made and scared half of the Grandview community out of their wits.
Let me tell you about a terrible sound I heard once while living in the Clymersville area. It was one hot summer day and I was busy a" hoeing corn when my friend Bill "Runt" Wilkey happened to come by. He wanted me to go to town with him and offered to help me finish up my hoeing. All at once Runt said" Hear that whistle?" Sure enough, I heard what sounded like a wolf call, like when the teenage boys see a pretty girl go by, and they whistle at them. It sounded sorta like that. The noises appeared to be coming from the top part of the field which was a pretty steep hill. Runt said they do that sometimes to try and lure people out in the open, or to come closer to them before they attack.
I asked Runt, "What is that thing?" A hoop snake, Runt replied. I have seen them twice in all my life. They grow about 5 feet long and are thicker than a normal snake, they crawl to the top of the fields and lay there silently watching for farm animals or even humans to wander into the fields below them. Once they spot a target, they will start a series of whistling that can mimic a humans, this often causes a person or animal to wander closer to investigate the sound. Then the snake will tighten it's muscles and will bend itself into a circle or hoop shape. Taking its tail into its mouth it will begin to roll using its body and gravity to propel itself toward the intended target. Now the hoop snake has a spiked tail and is filled with poison much stronger than any diamond back rattler. As the snake is near its target, it leaps and thrusts it's tail at the victim. Now that sharp tail can pierce through a piece of wood very easily.
As Runt and I listened, we clearly heard four distinct whistles coming from the field above. Soon we could see a snake come rolling down the field in our direction. When it got close to us, it flung it's tail and hit the handle of Runt's hoe. Now the poison in that snake's tail caused the hoe handle to start swelling up. That hoe handle swelled so big that Runt and I loaded it onto a flatbed truck and took it to Molyneaux's lumber yard and got enough lumber out of it to build a three bedroom house and a two car garage....
You have heard about the Rockwood Wampus Cat, so now you know all about the Tennessee Hoop Snakes. During my Navy days, I had my shipmates believing all kinds of tales. Got a million of them.
I am sure some of you have been "snipe" hunting...Send me an email about one of those "hunts."
Until next week..........Ray