I may share a variety of things on my blog here... here is something I was thinking about yesterday that I thought was somewhat interesting:) I grew up in Michigan, in the 'Lower Peninsula'. My sister and I spent time at a neighborhood boy's house for many years as children. One summer, this family took us 'Up North' to stay in a cabin in the Upper Peninsula. In Michigan, "Up North" means driving anyplace in the Northern direction, to escape your life for a short time (but still in Michigan, if you drove to Canada, you would just say "I went to Canada". You can't go to another state and be "Up North"!). It's a Michigan thing and boy do I ever miss Michigan.
On this trip was myself, my sister, the neighbor kid, his friend, the mom and the mom's boyfriend. These boys went to school with us and were in our grades. This matters later:) We drive for a long time and don't get to this cabin until dark. It's pitch black in the middle of nowhere. I honestly don't know how these people found the driveway, as I don't recall any markings to indicate one. We go into this rustic cabin with no electricity or water in the dead of night. It was pretty exciting for me... I was always up for nature type adventures as a child - and there were many to be had in Michigan. I had seen the famous Patterson-Gimlin film of Bigfoot not long before this trip, and this was exactly the sort of place that Bigfoot would roam. This was cool & exciting as long as I was with a group of other people, safe inside the cabin of course. And to be in this vast dense forest, with no people around for miles, was thrilling. We had made stops before the cabin, since there was no electricity or water, so just loaded our stuff inside and went to bed.
When we woke up the next day, I had asked where the bathroom was. The Mom & boyfriend began explaining 'how things work up here'. The bathroom was outside, in the outhouse. Don't go walking around by yourself, because there are animals, specifically bears. It wasn't a situation where there might be one bear to thousands of people ratio. It was more like there could be a few bears, to the few people you were with - and this was their territory. There were wildcats & porcupines. When I went outside to the outhouse, I saw a dead porcupine on the ground. The needles! Wow, I ignored the stench and touched some of them. While I took in my surroundings, which were quite magical & had me on alert at the same time, I meandered to this outhouse.
Well of course it smelled bad as soon as I opened the door (ewww). I locked the door immediately, as I did not want the boys playing any pranks on me. I open the lid of the toilet, which was fastened to a plywood bench seat, and inspected what was down there, in case it wasn't good (paranoia much?). Well, it wasn't good. There was a big black snake down in the sludge. Was that thing alive? I unlocked the door, grabbed a stick and threw it down. The snake moved! Dear god. I went back inside and told them about the snake, thinking there would be an alternative to the situation. No, they said to ignore it. It was too far down to do anything. Well, my young imagination had that snake flying up to bite my butt if I dared go to the bathroom on it. I thought about just going in the woods somewhere.... but the bears.... and the boys - they were not to be trusted. They were the type to spy on you & laugh when you discovered them - then tell the whole neighborhood later (weren't the 80's fun? sometimes not!). I felt I had no choice but to urinate on that snake. That snake that looked about 6 feet long & about 3" diameter for its body.
I did it, and the snake did not fly up and bite me. It just sat there, getting peed on. Thinking back, it probably would have loved to escape its sewage prison. What a horrible way to spend the rest of your life? Unless it was a water snake, but still - gross! No creature in its right mind would prefer 'that' water. I'm sure I went a couple of times during the trip and grew to accept the situation. But for years as a child, I was scared of snakes in my toilet, which other kids may have experienced too, except I think I had good reason for that fear:) The fact that the snake didn't do anything meant nothing. To have something with teeth so near your vulnerable parts, having all the access while you blindly hoped nothing would happen... what a strange thing?
That's all, just an odd story from childhood. Life is never dull, is it? :)