One tasty bite of rattlesnake deeply impacted my life.
Mr. Jewell was my seventh-grade homeroom Science teacher in 1976. He was enthusiastic and encouraging and seemed too young for the streaks of gray hair that kept a few of the junior high girls from obsessing over him.
On the first day of class, he explained he was a Vietnam Veteran and didn’t want us to ask questions about his time overseas, it was too painful. He promised he would share a few stories when he was ready.
Once he told the story of his group of American soldiers arriving at a remote village very hungry. A group of townspeople approached with a platter of food, signaling their willingness to share.
When they got closer Mr. Jewell saw that the tray was filled with live caterpillars, standing on end and waving like a field of grain in the wind.
The soldiers went hungry.
The rare stories he told proved how he earned his silver.
He wasn’t the only one. When he arrived home to Montana he was surprised to see that during his time of service his mom’s hair had turned white from shock.
Mr. Jewell found the strength to leave the jungles where he carried a gun and enter the halls of Helena Junior High as a Science teacher. We were too young to understand his inner turmoil, we just knew he made Science fun.
It was a challenge considering his students were more concerned if they could afford HASH jeans or if they would be asked to slow dance during the first school dance.
The Pet Rattlesnake
One Saturday in September, he foraged into the Montana wilderness with a friend, a snake pole, and a cage. He returned with our new classroom pet.
A rattlesnake.
The snake lived in the corner of the room and was constantly watched by kids who absorbed his identity.
We were cool because we were the only homeroom with a rattlesnake in their classroom. They call that street cred now, but it was more like hallway cred in the 70’s.
Snake was fed various creatures, but usually not during class time.
If you grew up in Montana you were taught to watch for rattlesnakes, the original settlers. You observed the sunny rocks while hiking and listened for the rattle in the bushes. In the olden days, we were told to cut an X over an accidental bite, suck out the blood and venom, and spit it out. We were taught to identify snake head shape and body pattern to discern friend from foe.
Mr. Jewell taught us the foe could also be a friend.
After a year of being the cool kids with the rattlesnake in their homeroom, we took one step further into the adventure.
Snacking on Rattlesnake
We ate our pet rattlesnake.
Although this sounds like a macabre scene from Lord of the Flies, there wasn’t anything ritualistic or sadistic about it. Mr. Jewell cooked it at home and brought in a snake-shaped aluminum foil package to the classroom the next morning.
Then the coolest-teacher-in-the-world presented a challenge we couldn’t resist. A chance to do something unusual. A chance to face what we feared.
He promised us, “You can brag about this the rest of your life.”
I listened to his urging and like the majority of my classmates, timidly took a bite.
It tasted like chicken.
That summer my parents moved from my beloved Montana to North Dakota. In trying to impress the flat-landers, on more than one occasion I was able to work into the conversation, “One time I ate rattlesnake.”
In college, when much bragging was done inside and outside of classrooms, I casually mentioned, “Well, I’ve eaten rattlesnake.”
As an adult, I moved to the West Coast. When people share their love for exotic and ethnic foods, I still can assert, “I’ve eaten rattlesnake.”
But, it wasn’t just about the rattlesnake. It was about confidence and conquering. Taking chances. Having no regrets. (I’ve never been offered rattlesnake again.) Overcoming fear. Listening to an adult who knew more than you.
It was a life-changing experience.
Cuz’, you know what?
I’ve eaten rattlesnake.
I was thrilled to receive WordPress honor for my tribute post written on March 8, 2013.
But, I give all the honor to Mr. Bob Jewell, the man who fed me rattlesnake.
Update October 21, 2019
I was grieved when I found out my beloved teacher passed away on December 18, 2017. You can read his obituary here.
The Helena Independent Record posted an amazing tribute about Mr. Jewell’s military service during the Vietnam War. Read the article by Curt Synness posted October 21, 2019, by clicking on the title below.
Stories of Honor: Bob Jewell served 14 months of combat in Vietnam
Update May 2022
As part of Robert Jewell’s counseling for PTSD, his therapist urged him to write down his memories. Unfortunately, he passed before his book was published. His friend, Tom Gannon, another Vietnam Veteran, ensured it was published.
Bleeding Spirits: A Combat Soldier’s Memoir of the Vietnam War, 1968-1969
Hi Mindy! I know it’s been a while since you made this post, but I was just telling my son about eating rattlesnake in my 7th grade science class and I thought, I should google Mr. Jewell and see if he’s still around because what a class that was! I think I was just a year behind you – the 1978/1979 school year was my year with him. I laughed so hard when I saw your post come up at the top of my google search. He was truly an amazing teacher. (We didn’t have a class pet snake though. He caught one for us to eat . . .)
Helene, so fun to have you stop by and share your story. Yes, Mr. Jewell was an amazing teacher that impacted many lives. Isn’t it fun sharing stories of how he impacted our lives? Blessings to you, friend.
I just wanted to let you know Mr. Jewell passed away on the 18th. There’s a lovely memorial page on the funeral home website where a lot of his former students are posting memories. http://helenafuneralhome.com/obituaries/robert-e-jewell-age-71-of-helena-2/#comment-446188
Thank you for letting me know, Helene. I was so sad to hear of his passing. I had planned on looking him up during the holidays. He was certainly a well-loved man.
I’ve eaten rattlesnake too. I was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on a winter trip and they served rattlesnake at a restaurant as an appetizer. It did taste like chicken. I’m a vegetarian and I wasn’t quite sure if that would be considered meat, or not?
I’m smiling as I try to ponder the dilemna is deciding your taste adventure would violate your food preferences. I don’t have an answer, but I applaud your willingness to branch out!
Well you have one up on me… We had a bull snake in Our class over 9ft long… I hate snakes… And I sure would NOT eat one!
I loved this story…I have a rattlesnake story on my blog as well under the heading British Columbia 1life196countries.wordpress.com
Wow that’s amazing :). I have never tried rattle snake before. The most interesting thing I’ve ever eaten is octopuss – and that’s not interesting 🙂
Did it taste like Chicken?
O gosh this is exactly like lord of the flies! No not really haha but wow seems a bit morbid to eat a class pet :/
Reblogged this on Oyia Brown.
Thanks for sharing your story. Facing and overcoming your fear through your experience was definitely a life changing experience especially when you have someone whose enthusiastic and encouraging teacher like Mr. Jewel! Great Post! I was entertained so much. Congratulations for being in FP!
Thanks for the congratulations! One life changing experience led to a blog changing experience…the power of his influence is continuing on…
What a great way to introduce kids to push boundaries and try something new ! 🙂 I wonder though, if such ideas would be allowed today in classrooms.
You know they wouldn’t! 🙂 The 70’s were a different time – no babysitters, helmuts, knee pads, wrist guards, teeth guards or any of those things we’re guilted in to use with our kids today. We ran free, took chances and learned from consequences. You have to find “safe” ways to push boundaries.
This is wonderful! When I grow up, I wanna write like you!
Thank you for the compliment! I am grown up but I don’t feel like a grown-up. Maybe that’s why I keep writing about junior high…
Interesting!
Thanks for stopping by! I appreciated your word of encouragement. 🙂
We are so often taught little of nothing rather than a little of something useful. Much insight inside this blog article that stands out for this teacher and his love for sharing the insight to better ways of facing challenges of life and fearing less.
His insight into many things has followed me through life, probably more than any other teacher I had.
That really is a good story.
Thanks! It was fun to relive a great year with a man who was able to put his horrific experiences overseas aside and pour into his students.
Those two things may very well have been related.
I like in Arizona and several restaurants serve it around here–I suppose I have bragging rights to something I didn’t even realize was brag-worthy until you pointed it out. I agree entire that trying something new is about the novelty, the confidence, and the conquering or some fear or new situation.
OK, you just made me feel a little bit better about my parents selling their home in Montana and moving to Arizona. I can eat rattlesnake that wasn’t the classroom pet. Yes, Erin, BRAG AWAY!
I hope my son one day has a teacher like that 🙂 true gem
Yes, I was totally blessed to have Mr. Jewell. Most of my great life lessons were learned that year in his classroom. But, your son does have a true gem of a teacher already, Ashley, YOU! Blessings to you as you raise that sweet little man cub.
Yikes it is kinda like eating a pet. I know it’s not like you can cuddle a rattlesnake but hmmm…definitely interesting.
Since I only had about a 1/25th ownership of the snake, it wasn’t QUITE like eating my very own pet, but, yes, hmmmm…..just to give you a little peace, I haven’t eaten a pet since. 🙂
LOL…my day is complete.
Funny you should mention this. I remember eating rattlesnake at my grandmother’s house one time when I was little. Can’t remember what it tasted like, but I remember the event. 🙂
Now, I’ve eaten some strange things but you got me there! I’ve never had snake before 🙂 Funny post.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Other than crawdad (crayfish) this is the wierdest thing I’ve eaten. I won’t even try sushi!
I love crayfish! It’s yummy and sushi too 🙂 haha. But snake is really something else!
My human is ten days older than dirt so he knew a lot of folks who are multi-generations removed from today’s Florida folk. Rattlesnake was a frequent visitor to the plate for the hardy Crackers who pioneered the Florida wilderness starting in the early 1800’s and continued through depression days (Called “Crawling Steak” then) well into the 1940’s.
His used to kill and clean them occasionally, but his missus couldn’t even stand to have the carcass in the frig. He tells me they are delicious.
Sandy
I love this story about your human’s family history and the Crawling Steaks. Thanks for sharing, Sandy! Yea, pioneers had to eat what was around. When I moved to the West Coast and people are all uppity about eating animals and snakes and stuff, I realized they’ve never been poor and they don’t have pioneer roots.
I’ve held snakes before, but that’s not as interesting in comparison. What a cool story to tell.
OK, Melissa, you are WAY braver than I am. I was only hear the snake when he was in a thick, glass home and when he was dead. And, if you tell the story just right, you can make it interesting…..
I was really hoping you were going to say it DIDN’T taste like chicken. More, say, like turkey or even duck or lobster. Alas, you and several of the comments stuck to the stereotype.
Still, we have to wonder about the first person to try many of the foods we take for granted … and those who tried things that proved fatal.
I’m still trying to figure out what that bit of alligator tasted like, a few years back. It wasn’t quite chicken …
Brave you to try alligator! When my dad came to visit us last year he was thrilled to try ostrich at a fancy restaurant. I guess we all have a food story to tell…
That’s a great story! I am in my 50’s and there are still things my grade school teachers did that stuck with me. The power of a good teacher is huge.
So true! Since my first grade teacher scared me and scarred me, I was always thankful for those other amazing teachers that impacted my journey.
Well there’s a first time for everything I suppose, this definitely qualifies for that 😀
Ya’ got that right, first and last. Then I was onto bigger adventures in life…
Any idea what’s next?? 😀
Reblogged this on zainulanwari.
Great post. It says exactly what life is all about – taking chances, never regretting. 🙂 You almost make me want to eat rattlesnake! Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed!
Thanks for the congrats! I’m excited and encouraged. After 1,000 blog posts, I finally did something right! 🙂 Yep, all into taking chances, especially now that I am…..gulp…..middle-aged. Did I just admit that?
But why did he cook the rattlesnake? Was it dying or going to die? Or just that he thought it looked yummy so cooked it for breakfast/lunch?
Good question. Never really thought about the WHY other than he was trying to give us a life experience we’d never forget.
haha, well I love the way you write it. but seriously? rattlesnake? cool?!
AHHH!!!!!! Eating a pet! I would feel bad. I would have eaten a piece though.
I know, right?!?! But, having a rattlesnake for a pet isn’t as bonding as having a dog. It’s not like we could hold him, or scratch him behind the eyes. Not too many other “pets” that I could eat. 🙂
There was an annual rattlesnake festival in the county adjacent to the one I went to college in. Intimidating creatures but they do, as you mentioned, taste like chicken. Good read and congrats on being pressed! 🙂
This is wonderful!
Aw, thanks! It was fun to recall a life defining moment.
Thank you for sharing a treasured story from your life. Yes, rattlesnake is part of your history as well as having a Vietnam veteran for a homeroom teacher. I had a 7th grade history teacher whose husband was a surgeon. she drove a corvette convertible (new every two years) and her history class was with slides she had taken on trips with her husband. Very cool. I am also a Vietnam veteran but I don’t mess with snakes, sorry, not my macho. Your teacher instilled character in his students and it shows in reading just one post. Again, thank you.
Thank you for leaving a comment. Since you mentioned you are a Viet Nam Vet, I wanted to share my tribute to this same teacher and how he impacted my life concerning this war.
http://mommamindy.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/viet-nam-vets-traveling-wall/
Thanks for serving our country in a time when it was so hard to be a soldier.
It is common to eat snakes here in Asia but definitely not anywhere else, especially as a kid in a classroom. I give credit to your teacher to open the minds of his students at a young age. And it does taste like chicken. I love eating snake. We also like snake soup here!
Thanks for sharing. I hadn’t thought about what other countries would eat. In America we’re very divided over “food.” Some people would give me rattlesnake recipes, others would be horrified.
Great post!! Keep up the good work!!
Thanks for the encouragement, Coach!
Reblogged this on cftc10.
What a bizarre teacher, not necessarily in a bad way
I love teachers who give you a real opportunity to push your boundaries and do something new! I also love trying new foods, everyone should try everything once. Great post, made me smile and reminisce over some great teachers of mine! Thanks 🙂
Glad I could make you smile today. Especially on a Monday. That’s quite the compliment, thanks!
Sounds like he was an awesome teacher, and Im glad you stepped out of your comfort zone and challenged yourself. Bragging rights for life!
I think that’s the biggest lesson I learned – how to earn bragging rights. I use this line on daughter when I was coaxing her to ride an elephant at a petting zoo. Pretty sure she’ll be bragging about that someday…
Its really important to learn to be yourself and not a member of a herd of sameness. Good for you, wish I could say something similar.
I have also tried rattlesnake and agree, it tastes like chicken! It wasn’t at school though. I wish my teachers were this cool!
Yep, I had a few gems in those awkward years when I needed them. When my husband was a teacher, he had a piranha in his classroom. I wonder if any of his former students are blogging about him…
I wish I was brave enough to try new things, I did try calamari rings once but that was because I mistook them for onion rings, found that I didn’t like them and also found that I now am very mistrusting of onion rings.
On a visit to Canada I did try seal sausage and beavers tail… The seal sausage was revolting and the beavers tails were a disappointment as they turned out to be waffles in the shape of beavers tails, a disappointment that rivals turkey dinosaurs.
Oh and I’ve probably unwittingly tried horse meat too?
Thanks for sharing your food adventures. I giggled about the waffles. What a disappointment. Of course, it was probably in the days when you didn’t carry a camera everywhere and blog through life…
I am going to bet the dish is not so tasty after all. 😐
It tasted more like ADVENTURE than CHICKEN….
My friend and I ate rattlesnake in about 1974. We were on a hike and almost got bitten by one sitting in a semi dry creek bed. We barbecued it and it wasn’t bad, 😉 We also ate sand shark tails since we seem to catch a lot of them and they were abundant. The things we do when we’re kids…I like your post.
“The things we do when we’re kids” made me smile. I still think of myself as a “kid” then remind myself that when you’re approaching 50, you’re not quite a kid anymore. Shark tail, ooh, great adventure. Thanks for sharing!
Many of my friends from working at resident summer camp would be jealous of you, both for the pet and the food. I’ve seen several of them wrangle a rattlesnake into a bucket, but I’ve never seen one as a pet.
It sure helped me overcome a fear of snakes, understanding how to identify them, how to avoid them and how to eat them!
The only thing interesting my 7th grade Science teacher did was read aloud the notes we passed back and forth in class. Eating rattlesnake would have been way better than getting called out and embarrassed for talking about Johnny or Susie or whoever the crush of week was for the one caught passing notes. My high school chemistry teacher, however, ran some pretty cool experiments. I guess we all have one who leaves their mark.
We never forget those moments of shame when a teacher humiliated us. I will be writing about that soon…. a teacher called me Queen @#$#@#$@. I’m very thankful we all have had those amazing teachers who impressed us with inspiration and knowledge.
Hi Mindy,
It is great to see that teachers can make school and science fun! You will certainly remember this snake story for ever right?
Absolutely. When I’m older and my great-grandchildren are gathered around, I will slide my dentures in and brag “I’ve Eaten Rattlesnake.”
You are too funny! http://www.segmation.wordpress.com
Love a good snake story. I did cover my ball python’s eyes when we got to the bit about eating snake, though. He can’t blink, so he couldn’t look away.
Glad you enjoyed. I’m especially glad you covered your snake’s eyes. I don’t need an enemy that size…
Sounds to me by the comments everything tastes like chicken!
so true, lexiesnana, but even the bland chicken flavor can’t take away the bragging rights! you should try it…:)
This reminds me of a time at the fair when people could wrap a huge boa constrictor around their necks to take a picture. My Dad and I bravely did it… felt pretty cool. 🙂 Living in SD we come across our fair share of rattlers, and I think I’ve tried one at the local game feed. Must have tasted like chicken for me, too.
Good for you! Can’t believe you could wear a boa boa! Are ya’ gunna’ blog about that? When we went to the Reptile Gardens in SD I was way too creeped out to touch that thing, but some of my kids did. They should have offered me a bite instead…
What a great post!!! You are such a creative writer.
I think this teacher had quite the impact on your life. You are a very similar teacher, it seems to me. You make learning fun and exciting even enchanting.
I learned something…. to cut and X at the bite site. I have never heard that before. I’ll try to keep it in the back of my mind in case we’re ever in MT and come across a rattler. Thanks. 🙂
Aw, thanks for the encouragement. Yer so nice.
You can only use the “X and spit” in writing novels….they debunked that theory. It just sounds so wildernessy, doesn’t it? Especially back in the day when we grew up carrying pocketknives. It just proves how old I am.
So I don’t lead my precious readers astray….
http://www.wildbackpacker.com/wilderness-survival/articles/treating-a-snake-bite/
I have to tell you that reading your post today has left me fairly rattled. I am trying to slowly wrap my mind around it, but I can’t. I can’t swallow it so I think I’ll just have to choke it down. I will try and keep my comments venom free, though, so as not to strike you when you’re not expecting it.
Seriously though, the only interesting thing I have eaten is calamari, which as you know is squid. That tasted like chicken too.
I wonder if every man-eating animal thinks that WE taste like chicken? I don’t know about you but I’m not waiting around to find out. I am not brave. I tried to help my son dissect a dead beetle (the insect, NOT the band) once and I ran the other way when the instrument accidentally sent it flying.
Sorry to hear my culinary taste has left you rattled. You know, if it’s still bugging you later, make sure you cut that spot with an X, suck out the nasty stuff and spit it out. You’ll feel better, I promise!
Well, I must say, this is something I have never tried. We have many poisonous snake “Down Under” but thankfully, no rattlers!
What I think it is interesting, as I look back, was that because we were taught by camp personal, park rangers, etc., about rattlers, they didn’t scare me. We just were careful. I do think it was very kind of the Lord to give them the rattles to warn us, though! 🙂
Just in case this post made you hungry…..http://angelaharris.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Prepare-a-Rattlesnake-for-Good-Eating….
You are definitely an entertaining writer! I’m glad you tried rattlesnake. 🙂 A new idea to add to my ideas for my students. 🙂
You just have to do a few things that will make your students remember you forever and ever. 🙂 You will never know what you have said or done that will impact their lives forever.