Harry Sutton told me of working in the woods with my father, Errol Haynes...and daddy liked to catch, kill and skin rattlesnakes...he sold the hides at Harrison to be shipped to the businesses that made boots and other leather goods. All my life I remember rattlesnake hides hanging in our barn, drying and stretching. He stuffed them with sawdust while they dried, so they kept their shape.

One incident with the hides happened when my little sister Patsy's cat got out there in the barn with her while she was milking...I never did learn how to milk, managed to pass this job on to the little sisters, I was the housekeeper in the family, and boss of the house many times when my mother went off to work...I was about 14 at the time, Pat only about 9...Anyway, her cat came out there and saw Daddy's snake skins hanging up, thought they would make a great scratching post...Sawdust was everywhere!! We never did tell daddy what happened, as the cat would have disappeared...

Harry Sutton said that my dad liked to scare his truck driver...He would catch snakes by the tail and hit their head on the ground to kill them so they would have a good skin to sell...then to scare the truck driver, he teased him by curling the snake up in his truck seat. Harry said that guy hollered to the highway when he almost sat on the snake...said he never trusted my dad again.

Daddy was a big tease and nothing pleased him more than to scare any of us, or any of our friends. Labrisha Ricketts was one of my girlhood friends and a few years ago now, she tells of the time she and her cousin, Mitchell Smith's daughter, Juanita Smith were walking from Lurton to her home after dark. She lived in North Lurton on the hill and had to pass the Handle Factory. Daddy was the night watchman at the time. In the moonlight, he saw the girls coming up the road, looking back and all around. He thought how funny to jump out and scare them by hollering like a haint. He did this and they ran and ran and ran. Next day they were telling their story at the General Store, and dad happened to be in there and he could not resist telling them their "Haint" was him. Labrisha told me she told him, "Errol Haynes, I won't never trust you agin."

Thanks again Colleen Haynes Rongey for sharing another good one!