My father had a friend (classmate) when he was growing up and in high school who liked to catch and play with snakes. The friend and his father were out with a tractor in one of their tobacco fields plowing when one of the cultivators on the tractor broke. The father sent the son back to the farm implement shed to get a wrench to repair the cultivator. The trip down the farm path to the implement shed to get the tool needed should have taken the son no longer than 5-10 minutes; but when the son did not return after being gone over 30 minutes, the father decided he needed to go looking for him. Half way back to the implement shed, sitting beside the farm path, the father found his son with his hands clasped together at a distance looking like he was sitting praying. When the father got close enough to speak to his son, the son did not respond to the father asking him what he was doing sitting down when there was work to do. Then the father realized his son was staring face-to-face with one of the largest copperheads he had ever seen. The son had spotted the copperhead on the farm path and decided to catch it. Somehow the son was able to grab the copperhead behind the head, but the copperhead was so large and strong it wrapped itself around the sons forearm and began constricting his arm, his hand holding the snake turning blue. Realizing he was in trouble and that he could not turn loose of the copperhead, he tried to un-wrap the snake from his arm with his other hand; then the copperhead, given access to the sons other wrist was able to wrap itself around the other wrist, effectively handcuffing him. The copperhead, stronger than the son, now had the upper-hand; and the son went into shock. It was fortunate the father had come looking for the son. The father, after assessing the situation, then drove the tractor quickly to the implement shed to get a set of vise grip pliers, then returned to his son to administer the copperheads death sentence when he clamped down on the its head with the pliers to get the copperhead to release his son.
