Show Terror in a Tent HELLO EVERYBODY I I You know theres there's always a alot lot o of hard luck on camping camp camp- ing trips Somebody is sure to get sunburned and somebody somebody somebody some some- body else always steps on a rusty nail or clips himself with the hatchet while chopping wood for the fire The bird who is doing the cooking burns half the food and just when you youre you're re comfortably settled and getting along fine F Farmer Jones comes along and orders you to move on Camping trips just breed hard luck but the one Syd went on was the champion hoodoo camping trip of them all It started dealing out tough breaks before Syd and his pals even got started Syd lives in Brooklyn N. N Y It was in the summer of 1935 that he and half a dozen other lads began planning that camping trip They had picked a spot upstate in the nei neigh neigh- h- h of Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie- and were all ready ready to go Th Then n two days before they were due to leave there was a terrific rainstorm in N New ew York and after inquiring about the weather they learned that it was the same upstate The gang decided to go anyway anyway at at least some of them did When the day of the big trip rolled around one fellow had the mumps Another was laid up with an Infected foot and two other fellows had mothers who said they couldn't go camping in such weather because they'd catch their death of pneumonia sleeping on damp ground The trouble had started early but it was nothing to what Syd was to get into before that trip was many days older The Hikers Find a Camping Site There were only two brothers and myself left says Syd but we went anyway The brothers were Harold and Jerry Leff The three of them took a boat to Bear Mountain 1 and then started to hike with two tents and blankets and equipment on their backs After Arter a day on the road road and and Syd doesn't say whether they walked or thumbed rides they rides they reached the spot they had bad chosen and picked a camping site The ground was wet and the earth was loose They had a little trouble putting up their two small tents But finally everything was Finally he had bad a a. horrible dream shipshape They got a fire going cooked a meal and when they had eaten it they were ready to turn in Jerry and Harold occupied one tent and Syd slept alone in the other Syd dropped off to sleep but he didn't sleep very well Finally he had a horrible dream dream dream-a a dream that something cold and slimy was crawling over his arm The dream woke him up and as he came slowly to his senses he realized that that dream was a cold hard reality Something ng cold and slimy was resting against his arm In w an instant Syd was wide awake A full moon was shining and its bright brig light ht streamed in through h the open flap nap of the pup tent In that light Syd saw something that made his bis blood run cold His ills arm was lying outside the blanket and a a. snake had crawled up and nestled against ag it And nd Syd Sd recognized that snake sI for a poisonous copperhead Frozen With Fear He Hc Cannot Move 1 Says SaS he ho My liMy first impulse was to ie jump up and scream ca But ButI I couldn't have moved to save my life I was frozen stilT stiff with fear The moon bathed the head of the snake with light and as I Ilay Ilay Ilay lay there stiff and trembling it crawled up to my shoulder A cold sweat broke out on my forehead Now I began to realize that I didn't dare move even if II I could One move move would cause the reptile to strike But it seemed to Syd that he could hardly keep himself from ing Somehow he managed to lie there stiff and still The hours rolled on Syd doesn't know how many of them went by Each minute seemed like a year and each second was like a week of torture I wanted to scream he says I felt as if I could control myself no longer At last the sky began getting gray and off in the distance I could hear some farmers farmer's rooster crowing Then again the snake shifted its position This time it came to rest with its head across my gullet Now Syd was afraid to swallow for fear of disturbing the snake He felt his spine begin to creep and his hair felt as if it it were standing up upon upon on his head hend It was getting lighter now and Syd was able to distinguish distinguish distin distin- objects around him that he had lost sight of when the moon went vent down Still it was a long time before dawn and his only hope was to lie still until his pals awoke The Snakes Smelled of Rotten Cucumbers He fie could see sec the snake clearly now And then out of the corner cor cor- ncr ner of his Ws eye he be saw another another and and another There were a bunch of them In the tent And two of them were over four feet longI longI long I couldn't see the others very clearly he says for I didn't dare turn torn my head and it strained my eyes to look at them from Crom my position I was beginning inning to shiver My Iy muscles were cramped and sal saliva va dripped from my mouth The snakes smelled of rotten cucumbers and the odor sickened me But the sun was coming coming- up and I could hear movements mo in the other tent That renewed my courage e. Harold and Jerry were up A couple of times they walked past Syd's tent but they didn't look In Then Jerry glanced through the open flap and his eyes froze on the terrifying sight Syd says he owes his life lie to those two brothers He thought Jerry was going to scream lm but he didn't He remained cool and so did Harold The pair of them stole up behind Syd's tent gathered some damp hay from a n field and set it afire Huge billows of smoke poured through the tent I began choking says Syd but so did the snakes They moved and I lay back and breathed a sigh of or relief relie After a few minutes I went outside picked a spot In the sun and dozed off It was seven hours I woke voke up again And if it you want to know what a nightmare is ia like just ask me Ive I've bad had dozens of them since singe that night niehl Copyright Service |