My Book Fun article has inspired more sharing of stories in my family. My mother had me in fits of giggles this week over the antics of my father. She reminded me of the time my Dad expertly fixed her broken windscreen wiper with a ball of Hubba Bubba chewing gum. It stuck fast, fooling the Queensland Transport inspector who had come to town to issue fines for all non-compliant vehicles. The wiper stayed happily in place until the next downpour of rain, when (forgetting it was held on by chewing gum), my mother turned on the wipers sending the broken arm flying off the glass and in the direction of the main street footpath. It narrowly missed an unsuspecting pedestrian. My mother, and sister, (who was in the car at the time too), didn’t realize what had happened until further down the road when they put the events together. It was fits of laughter all around for that tale, and for every retelling of it since. 🙂
Another amazing family event was the story of my cousin. In his youth he and his mates were on their way back from a night out. He leaned out the window of the car to give a spontaneous ‘Ya Hoo’, and the car hit a bump forcing his hat from his head. Now, an Acubra hat is a vital piece of clothing for a country man. In country Australia hats are used for far more than keeping the elements off one’s head. They are also used to fight fires, direct livestock, swipe at something attacking you, and to hold a drink of water from a creek if needs be – so a hat was something to retrieve. The problem with retrieving this hat was that, when they reversed the car they found the bump in the road had been a massive carpet snake. The snake spanned the road with the hat resting next to the snake’s head. My cousin thought the best idea was to pull the snake off the road by the tail, thus gaining enough space between head and hat for the retrieval.
He started pulling the tail when suddenly the snake whipped around and latched onto his hand. If this wasn’t a dire enough situation, seconds later the local drunk screamed around the corner, collecting both my cousin and the snake. The force of the blow from the vehicle dislodged the biting reptile and sent both snake and man flying into the air. The good news was that the hat was retrieved. The bad news was that my cousin suffered a broken leg, (thankfully that was the only injury). To our knowledge the snake went on his way, but he left his mark – the really bad news was that for years to come my cousin’s hand would swell up with little sores. From these little sores a carpet snake’s tooth would emerge.
This story was so amazing that it made the national news. It was certainly a series of unfortunate events, with really quite a fortunate outcome.
If you would like to hear some more of my family stories please have a look at my article in this month’s Book Fun Magazine. Scroll down the index until you find ‘”Yabberin'” – Page 159.
http://www.bookfunmagazine.com/i/304623
I must also say that it is due to the great protection of the Lord that our family are able to tell these stories. I do not advise anyone to pull a snake (even a carpet snake) by the tail.
Rose Dee. Author. Redemptive Fiction 
Hi Rose,
Thanks for those great, authentically Aussie, true stories. Wow, your poor cousin!
That photo at the top gives me the creeps too. We’ve had one or two brown snakes in our backyards at various times, but none that enormous.
I don’t think that snake would even fit into our yard, Paula. It’s scary isn’t it!. My cousin was really fortunate – and greatly blessed. About 10 years ago he was also bitten by a death adder. He was in hospital for a few days but recovered.
Thank you for stopping by. xo
I know Australia is a beautiful country, but I’m not a fan of any bugs or snakes. I’ve heard horror stories of large spiders and now snakes!!! I’ll just have to continue to look at pictures of your country and any documentaries that I come across!
We have our fair share of bugs and snakes in Georgia and would gladly have them all removed!! We have copperhead snakes in the woods around our house and a baby one even crawled its way inside our garage one night! And spiders…we do have them too! A couple of weeks ago while in our church Media Center, I was sitting at the computer desk and then got up to put something on the shelf and felt something on my neck, I reached up and kind of brushed my neck and a huge spider flew off on the floor. I was screaming and stomping that spider to death. Shaking my clothes and my hair like crazy!!! I’m shivering just thinking about it! We have scorpions too at our house and I’m getting the “willies”! Can’t even talk about it anymore. I know God knew what he was doing when He created all these creatures, but I don’t want them around me!!!
Your stories were funny!!! I’ll have to check out your article at Bookfunmagazine!
Debbie
Hi Debbie,
That sounds like me – I would be jumping around like that as well. I am especially flighty around cockroaches though. I can’t stand it when the big ones get in our house and fly around. They have no sense of direction and they have always honed in on ME. YIKES.
There are a lot of little nasty creatures around here, but OH – the things you miss if you don’t get ‘out there’. This weekend we went to our bush camp and we saw the most gorgeous little grey kangaroo and her joey, emus, a huge flock of brightly colored parrots, two laughing kookaburras, and a spectacular sunrise through the fog. It was sensational. You have to be aware of the bad, but focus on the good, because the good is truly amazing. 🙂
I would love to visit Georgia. One Day for sure.
Thank you so much for stopping by to read my post.
xxRose.
I would love to visit Australia too! I bet if I could stay away from the bugs and other scary creatures, I could really get in to the beautiful scenery and really enjoy looking at all the amazing animals you have “down under”!
Have fun out there, but be careful too.
Debbie