Yesterday, I flew to 19 Lewis Avenue, Trenton, Ontario. It's not there. But the tree I used to walk my snakes in is. It's a bit bigger now as it is 47 years since I last saw it.

I recall one particular snake. It was a monster of a "Garter Snake". I was walking him in the tree when Mrs. Coles from the house on the other side of the ditch (still there as can be seen by the ground cover) came by with her yappy little dog and asked me what I was doing. I suppose it did look rather odd. A little boy holding a string that reached up into a tree. I replied that I was walking Smilie the 9th. She came close to have a look but couldn't see him. I pointed and she got closer but still couldn't see him so I tugged on the string. That's when she relized what she was suppose to be looking for. That poor dog. I mean, the shriek hurt my ears so he must have gotten more than an earful, not to mention the fact that she ran so fast she drug his yappy little ass half way home.

Smilie the 9th met an unfortunate end. I tethered him to the oil fill pipe next to the door steps so he could take sun or shade as he wished. Under the steps, I placed a water dish and a bucket of frogs and beetles and whatever a 6 year old thought would appease the palette of a snake of Nine's stature. Yes, stature. Even the big kids from as far away as across the field, when hearing of his size, would come to see him. I like to think he enjoyed all the attention. Alas, I recall the fateful day when my father first saw him. I was coming across the field at lunchtime and saw Dad just about to enter the house. He spotted Nine basking in the sunshine whereupon he dismounted from the landing using the railing and made a perfect plant. He saw the string. He raised it up. I screamed and cried. At least Nine died quickly.

I was subsequently forbidden to keep snakes near the house as, "They might scare your mother." He didn't have to say that as I was scared for the snakes and kept the next 17 well out of sight, especially Smilie the 21st. He was a Hog Nose Snake about four feet long. Only kept him a few days. When a bunch of kids would come to see him, he would play dead and he smelled really bad. But, he was cool. Looked like a cobra. When he refused to eat, I took him back to the dump. I guess he preferred rats to frogs.

Thanks for reminding me of all the Smiles, Google Earth.

Hmmm. Ontario. That reminds me… where is LH?