may change name to copperhead

[Appalachian Blues]

I got bit on the right forearm the other day by a copperhead. Just a little feller sunny himself on an empty 55 gal. drum at the shop. Didn't see him or smell him as I walked by and bam... :?
Squeezed the bite, sucked on it a couple times and smashed his head with my boot.
Felt okay when I left to go home but later that night the bite swelled up and I was nauseous and had stomach cramps.
Wife wanted to go to the ER. My truck owner still hasn't paid for the head injury trip in Feb. (we've been referred to a collection agency over that one), he didn't want me to use Workers Comp.
Pepto Bismo and hot coffee instead.
Okee Dokee fine now :shock:
What if I decide to change my name here to Copperhead? Does that require a new profile etc.

 

[Graham]

Didn't see him or smell him as I walked by and bam... :?

Hope you're feeling better Billy.

What do you mean by you didn't smell him?

 

[Scratch]

Get well soon, Billy. Hope this didn't interfere with your musicfest?

 

[West R Lee]

When I heard about this and knowing your screen name was "Appalachian Blues", I thought it might have happened during a church service :wink: . Just kidding.

I'm so glad you're ok Billy, I know guys that have lost fingers due to copperhead bites, one of my biggest fears is losing a finger....sure would make it difficult for a shade tree guitar player to play (though Phil Keaggy seems to do ok). Furthermore, I think since you've been bitten and lived to tell about it, you have more right than anyone to use the name "Copperhead Blues"!

Great hearing from you.................and how I love your music my brother.

West

 

[FNG]

You got bit by a copperhead and didn't go to the ER? :shock: :shock: :shock:

That's funny, West... :lol:

 

[Qvart]

Didn't see him or smell him as I walked by and bam... :?

Hope you're feeling better Billy.

What do you mean by you didn't smell him?

They smell sorta like cucumbers.

Ouch. Hope you're healing up.

 

[West R Lee]

And a cottonmouth has a very, very musky, muddy smell. We used to hunt them when I was a kid, and sometimes you'd smell them before you saw them. Walk up and down the creek banks in northeast Texas in the summer, you'll find one.

A little educational link. Sometimes just impossible to see, especially in wood piles and autumn leaves.

http://www.no-pest.com/Creature-of-the-Month.htm

West

 

[GardMan]

Glad your OK...

A friend of mine was bit by a baby rattler two springs ago... one fang into the middle finger of one hand. We had him to the ER within 15 minutes. Still, he spent two days in the hospital, 8 doses of antivenom. He didn't lose any fingers... but still suffers from some after effects.

Dave

 

[krysh]

hope you are fine fast.

 

[Appalachian Blues]

[quote="Graham"

What do you mean by you didn't smell him?[/quote]

Actually, when there is a mass of them, not so much just one, there is a cucumber smell. Once where Lisa and I rented when first married, there was a shed on the property. It had junk and weeds on one side of it and one afternoon while putting my racebike away, I smelled them. Borrowed a slingblade from a neighbor and when to town, moving slowly. The smell got stronger so I stopped and went and got my 12 ga. shotgun. Picked up what looked like a metal panel from a large appliance and walla, a ball of copperheads.
Pumped the Mossberg until the last shell ejected. Continued to clean up the mess and one day the owner stopped by, saw what I had done and gave us a months free rent. Told me that he had spotted "snakes" around the building but hated snakes and wouldn't go near it.

 

[Appalachian Blues]

You got bit by a copperhead and didn't go to the ER? :shock: :shock: :shock:

Now you sound like my wife :mrgreen:

 

[West R Lee]

You got bit by a copperhead and didn't go to the ER? :shock: :shock: :shock:

Now you sound like my wife :mrgreen:

:lol:

West

 

[JerryR]

Glad you're on the mend, Billy

 

[chazmo]

Ouch, AB! Feel better!

 

[Qvart]

When I heard about this and knowing your screen name was "Appalachian Blues", I thought it might have happened during a church service :wink: . Just kidding

I was going to say I think Thornville's a little too far north for snake handling churches as I always thought of them being more in the coal mining regions (like West Virginia) or in the deeper south (Georgia/Alabama). Looking around on the internets I'm seeing more reports about it in Ohio than I expected, and not just in the southern part of the state where I would expect it to be more likely to exist. I gotta say I'm not surprised though - it is a part of Appalachia after all!

Dad warned me and my sibs numerous times about the cucumber smell when I was growing up in SE Ohio. Especially since there was a large patch of woods behind our place that we like to play in, as well as an empty lot next door with high grass and weeds and some concrete rubble piles left over from a building project. I do remember one day I caught a whiff of the cucumber smell and promptly reversed course away from the pile of concrete.

Funny thing (sorta) about that empty lot and the warnings about snakes: we rarely ever caught sight of a copperhead (whether they just weren't there, scurried off when we came near, or were too well-camouflaged). Black snake and garter snake sightings were very common. Anyway, one day a few of us kids from the neighborhood were playing football or something and the ball ended up in the long grass of the empty lot. One of the kids waded into the grass to retrieve it only to disturb a nest of red ants, who promptly swarmed and bit him many times. He came running and screaming out of the high grass which in turn brought the adults running. His dad went immediately to a shed for a gas can and torched the mound the ants had built. Too bad there wasn't a distinctive smell to alert us about the red ants!

It's been a few days now. How ya feeling, Billy?

-Geoff.

 

[Appalachian Blues]

Hey Qvart, where in SE Ohio did you grow up? I grew up in a little village nestled in the hollows of Duck Creek and Paw Paw Creek called Lower Salem. It's about 8 miles north of Marietta on the edge of Wayne National Forest.

Copperheads tend to be fairly shy and usually unseen. Seen them at the base of rocks in the woods as a kid walking home from fishin', walk up to take a closer look and they're gone. Black snakes, Hissin' Adders, and Garter snakes I've seen alot of but will never kill one, unless absolutely necessary. Knew an ole boy down home that had a Black snake in his cold cellar. It was blind and huge. Weren't a mouse or rat within miles of that house. Had 2 Black snakes one day baring down on Mom when she was hangin clothes to dry. I was mowing the yard and saw them when they were about 10 foot from her. So I walked over and told her to move so the snakes could go by her. She freaked and pleaded for me to kill'um. I went and got the coal shovel and scooped them up and carried them down to the edge of the creek. Couldn't kill them!
The copperhead that bit me was smaller than an adult. Maybe a foot and half long. Apparently my bite was nonvenomous for the most part. His bite has the fang holes and some scratching behind the holes. He was lying on a rusty 55 gal drum lying on it's side on top of some decaying lumber. Probably why I didn't see him cause he bended in with the rusty drum.
Friday, when I got back to the shop, the wood and drum were gone. Don't know if whoever cleaned it up ran on to any more.

Feeling okay, thanks everyone The bite has scabbed over and the redness is gone.

 

[Qvart]

Hey Qvart, where in SE Ohio did you grow up? I grew up in a little village nestled in the hollows of Duck Creek and Paw Paw Creek called Lower Salem. It's about 8 miles north of Marietta on the edge of Wayne National Forest.

You nailed it - MARIETTA!

Although I have to question if you really are from that area, as everyone knows it's Duck Crick!


Lower Salem is out 821 right? Didn't have many reasons to go out that way but I've been there. I remember playing basketball games there in grade school. Although we used to camp at a fish and game club in Whipple, which is close to Lower Salem if I remember correctly.

 

[Appalachian Blues]

Hey Qvart, where in SE Ohio did you grow up? I grew up in a little village nestled in the hollows of Duck Creek and Paw Paw Creek called Lower Salem. It's about 8 miles north of Marietta on the edge of Wayne National Forest.

You nailed it - MARIETTA!

Although I have to question if you really are from that area, as everyone knows it's Duck Crick!


Lower Salem is out 821 right? Didn't have many reasons to go out that way but I've been there. I remember playing basketball games there in grade school. Although we used to camp at a fish and game club in Whipple, which is close to Lower Salem if I remember correctly.

Crick is just how we said it

Lower Salem is just 3-4 miles north of Whipple on Rt. 821, what use to be the main north south (US Rt. 21) between Charleston WV and Cleveland. The Fish and Game Club was still there a couple years ago, don't get down there much since the folks passed on.
Won alot of turkeys, bacon and ham at the slug shoots there with an old Remington 870 12 ga.
As far as you playing ball out at Lower Salem, not knowing how old you are, but we use to play a team from Marietta when I was in junior high, 1964-66. It wasn't Marietta junior I don't believe. Seems like one of the church schools in town. Long freakin' time ago :mrgreen:
Holy Mackereal, use to gig a bunch at the New Mecca and a bar on the westside along the river with Mark Funk (Funk & Reiter), closed the Time Out Bar alot, got lots of friends down there, was in a band with Steve Pottmeyer (we did the first Sternwheeler Fest), played at the Wash. Co. Fair with the Vinton Co. Frogwhompers, Dave Martin of Third St. Music was in our band then. Dated a pretty girl from Marietta for several years who ended up marrying an attorney. Worked at Sperry Univac and Dravo 'til I got restless and hit the road. We use to motor our hot rods out to the root beer stand (B&K) and the B&O parking lot. Our drag strip was the I-77 bridge between Marietta and Williamstown. Not much traffic at midnight on.
Small world Qvart

 

[Qvart]

As far as you playing ball out at Lower Salem, not knowing how old you are...

Well, I'm 35, born in '74, so you're a bit ahead of me...

Holy Mackereal, use to gig a bunch at the New Mecca and a bar on the westside along the river...

Don't know that. Must have been before my time. But maybe you'd know the Harmar, which was the place to stop at the end of a night of drinking for a 2am fried bologna sandwich!

...with Mark Funk (Funk & Reiter), closed the Time Out Bar alot, got lots of friends down there, was in a band with Steve Pottmeyer...

Definitely Marietta names - I think my dad knows Steve Pottmeyer, and I'm pretty sure Mark Funk would be the father of one of the Funks I went to school with...

...(we did the first Sternwheeler Fest)

- that's about the only thing of consequence that happens in Marietta! Good times with the streets closed down, music on the river, street vendors and a ton of people. Of course now they have Formula I boat racing where the Ohio and Muskingum meet. Actually that was this weekend.

...Dave Martin of Third St. Music was in our band then

Cool guy. I always stop in there when I visit Merryghetto. Last time I was there he had some cool stuff, but no Guilds. Just Guild strings. And this:

Worked at Sperry Univac and Dravo...

My grandmother retired from Dravo!

...'til I got restless and hit the road. We use to motor our hot rods out to the root beer stand (B&K)...

I miss those. Old school hot dog stands where they bring you the frosted glass of root beer on a tray and set it on your car window. There was one in Parkersburg my mom would take me to when we'd meet my dad for lunch. Forget where he worked down there but I think it was close to the Fifth St. bridge.

Our drag strip was the I-77 bridge between Marietta and Williamstown. Not much traffic at midnight on.

It still is my dragstrip, when I got back to Ohio. The last quarter mile there is all concrete barriers on the side so the troopers can't sit anywhere and I start gunning it about a half mile before the bridge so I'm hitting 100+ by the time I'm on it. Gotta make sure you slow down in time for Exit 1 on the other side though!

Small world Qvart

Definitely! Everybody get their fill of SE Ohio history?