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The Blue Racer’s lunch When I was 12, I attended a summer camp in Michigan. It actually gets hot there in the summer so our uniform included shorts and knee-length socks. One particularly hot day, my group went on a hike. As we were walking along, I heard a rustling in the leaves on the ground. Passing right in front of me was a three- to four-foot Blue Racer snake. Blue Racers, native to Michigan and adjoining states, are appropriately named because of their color. Plus, they are among the fastest snakes around. I was going to catch him. He was slithering in a serpentine fashion. But he was no match for a persistent 12-year-old, and I won! Blue Racers can bite, but they are not poisonous, so I held him tightly behind his head between my thumb and forefinger. Now what? When I held him up, I noticed he had a large lump about a foot from his tail. I didn’t have a sack to carry him, so I got creative and removed one of my socks and put the lumpy snake in. I couldn’t wait to get back to camp to show off my catch. In front of a large crowd, I proceeded to shake my sock. Lo and behold out came the snake without the lump. I shook the sock some more and out plopped the lump—a large, green headless frog. YUCK! Roger King | Highlands |
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