222

A. Varesano interviewing Joe Sulkusky and Mrs. Sulkusky
- 4 -
Tape -

132
towards Bertha's or did he cross the road and go in on that side?

AV: A big black snake?

JS: A big black one. Well, they don't hurt you if they bite you, you know. They
might sting like a bee or something, you know but it's not poisonous like
that. A rattlesnake, you he bites you, look out! You run for a doctor, as
quick as you can.

MS: Well, they were sayin' that there's a snake, a copperhead, was down where...

JS: Well, a copperhead is more dangerous that...

MS: One of the men....

AV: More than a rattler? Why?

JS: See, a rattlesnake, he rattles. He'll warn you that he's there, and you'll
be on the lookout. But a coplperhead, he won't. He just gets set, and if you
come close enough for him, he'll just jump, and he'll get you, he'll bite
you right away. And if you do't get right away to the doctor, quick, you're
a dead pigeon. they can cure you, but it's a little bit longer than it
should be.

AV: Did you ever get bit by one?

JS: There's copperheads around. There used to be, but I don't know, I think
they're dying out, the snakes. It's too cold in the winter.

AV: Did you ever get bit by one?

JS: No. No. Oh, I killed plenty of them. Oh, God Almighty, I killed hundreds
and thousands of them in my day.

AV: How did you kill them?

JS: With a stick. I used to kill eighteen til dinnerime, and then go out after
dinner and kill some again when he'd go pickin' berries. We went down here,
Number Three, anothere place where the creek comes down off the mountain and
cross under the center railroad and down there is the farm, down on the lower end,
Harris's, they used to call it you know where that dam is in there. Harris's.
When you make that curve down around R[???], and then you go through
Campbells. There, there was a nice place, down in there. Harris's. I
don't know if anybody's livin' there now or not

AV: That's where you found all the snakes?

JS: That's the place there, up there on that hillside. Oh! Gee! Well, the most
rattlesnakes I seen was down on the Weatherly Mountain. That's the mountain,
when you go down Buck Mountain you can see on the side back there. There
were lots up on there.

MS: That's where we get our mail from, Weatherly.

JS: I was down there one day, and there was a boy from downtown, he lived down
below and there was a family, he was with them. He come over and he
says, you want lots of huckleberries, he says, you go back down there, he
says, my god, he says, the ground is just blue with them, he said. Just
chunks lyin' around. Well, I said What's the matter you didn't pick em? Oh,
he says, we run away from there. He says, There's a big bunch of rattlesnakes
on a big stone, he says, and are they rattlin', he says. They're buzzin', he said,
so much, he says, you get disgusted listenin' to them!

MS: Angie, well when you listen to these stories, can yousleep in the night?

AV: Yes! Ha, Ha!

MS: You'll be dreamin' about them.

AV: No.

JS: We had two buckets and a can, you know. Well, you know it's too much carryin'
in your hand, two buckets, so we used to have like a sheet or something, and
put one bucket in the back, and one hung in the front, and put ferns or
leaves, you know, on the side of the bucket that it wouldn't rub your back too
much, and keep goin'. So, we were all tied up, and started out when this boy come