Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms I have a visitor...

Snakes....I don’t mind them but....
I was fishing one evening on the river Tywi a couple of miles up from Carmarthen. Setting the gear up to run a worm down. Bugger! Left the worms at home. I spotted a couple of logs so lifted one up. Adders under there! After that I never used my hands to lift stuff. A family friend was a doctor and he came out to help hay gathering on my uncle’s farm. We had stacked bales the previous evening ready to liad the next morning. He pushed an arm into a gap and got bitten by an adder. No major problem apart from a swollen arm and nausea.
When in the cigar factory we had customs officers based permanently there. They also covered Barry docks where the Geest banana boats came in. They used to check for contraband. A walking stick was an essential item to poke into places checking for “nasties” before closer inspection. Smugglers sometimes placed snakes, spiders there as frighteners. Some would get trapped during loading too.
The tobacco we imported sometimes contained odd things. Anything living wouldn’t get through due to infestation procedures. We had one small monkey compressed in a bale ( fell in ) of Brazilian tobacco. Lizards, flues but I never saw a snake. Notes from husband seeking ladies too with contact phone numbers, addresses.