Wally Smith arrived in Oliver with wife Kay and daughter Marion in tow during the Dirty Thirties. It was that calamity which drove Wally west to the Okanagan Valley.
Upon examination of the available land, he purchased fifteen acres between Highway 97 and Park Rill. Those were the east, west, and north boundaries. The south boundary was next to the Jardine homestead.
Wally used Park Rill to irrigate the young fruit trees. To pull that life saving essence out of its bed, he built a water wheel which lasted until electrical power replaced water power.
Twelve of the fifteen acres was planted in fruit trees. The remaining three acres was left as pasture for the cow. The cow was long gone by the time I showed up, but the pasture remained just the same with the grass growing four feet high with no cow to munch it down. I loved to run through it, as a boy. On one of my forays I stumbled across a snake which I identified as a rattle snake. I usually carried a stick to whack things with and that day was no exception. I killed the rattler. Wally happened along and I proudly showed him my prize!
He looked at it, picked it up and held it aloft. The first thing I noticed was there were no rattles on its tail. It’s skin markings were similar to a rattle snake.
Wally looked at me and said, “son you have just killed a bull snake.” That is why there were no rattles! I felt terrible! I decided right there and then, I would never again kill another snake, and I haven’t.
The lesson here is that identification is essential before taking action. How many of us have thought to have killed a rattle snake when it was instead a bull snake? But why kill at all? If you avoid the rattle snake when it signals you that you are too close, then it too will avoid you. We must have respect for living creatures for they have a place on the earth as well.
Publisher: And yes it would nice to have more people tell the old stories