The first group I led was to Sawyer’s Bar. To get to the site, we traveled forty miles on a one-lane dirt road, well traveled by local lumber trucks and full of switchbacks. The town had no electricity except for what was run by gas generators. The locals bathed in the river and the local one-room schoolhouse only went to eighth grade. A child who wanted to go beyond eighth grade was required to move to Etna.
In the early SSP days, families could participate. Our family including my wife, Cheryl, and our children went along. David was fourteen, Shree was twelve, and Jimmy was five. Joining the family were twenty-two junior high and high school students.
In the early SSP days, families could participate. Our family including my wife, Cheryl, and our children went along.
We worked at Sally’s house. Sally’s income was limited. She traded her moonshine for goods. There was a hole in the floor near Sally’s bed. She told us that she awakened one night and found a rattlesnake there. She reached for her shotgun and blasted it.
At the end of a very interesting week, all the homeowners whose homes we had worked on thanked us with a potluck picnic at the park. I was playing cards with some of the campers when someone ran up to tell me that Jimmy had been bitten by a rattlesnake.
We ran to Jimmy and found him in tears with two puncture marks in his cheek. It seems that one of the young boys who lived nearby had found the head of a rattler. When Jimmy ran over to see the head, the boy thrust the head in Jimmy’s face and the teeth struck his cheek.
Jimmy looked out the window and said, “They are praying for me, aren’t they?” I told him that yes, everyone was praying for him.
The chief of the tribe told us not to cut the cheek but get him to a doctor in Etna as fast as we could. I put Jimmy in the car and we set off for Etna with a young man who was studying to be a paramedic. As we left the park, community members and SSP volunteers held hands and bowed their heads. Jimmy looked out the window and said, “They are praying for me, aren’t they?” I told him that yes, everyone was praying for him.
Although it had originally taken us an hour and a half to get from Etna to Sawyer’s Bar, this trip only took forty minutes. A call had been made to the clinic in Etna as there was not a hospital. Before leaving for Etna, someone had placed a band-aid on the bite. A physician’s assistant met us at the clinic. When he removed the band-aid, one of the puncture marks was gone. We explained what had happened and he told us that small children often heal faster than adults. Jimmy had no reaction the bite, but managed to convince me that an ice cream cone would help him to feel much better!