I love snake stories . . . I'll share one of my experiences.
I used to sell furniture off the back of a pickup truck, then collect payments from the customers over the following months. Lots of fun, and a few interesting tales. Favorite one was when I had to be at a certain house at lunch time so I could pick up Ella's monthly payment. She came back from "chopping cotton" as usual, carrying her hoe into the house. I was on the porch waiting like she asked while she went inside to retrieve her money.
It was dark because most of the porch was enclosed with tin and plywood pieces. Suddenly there was a lot of noise coming from inside the house and I was afraid her husband may have caught her getting money from her stash. One of the most important things I learned doing that job is that there is no such thing as a woman who has absolutely no money because they all squirrel some away for emergencies. Anyhow, I was about to see if she needed any help when the front door flew open and I saw her pointing what looked like a 12 guage shotgun at me. She yelled, "GET OFF THE PORCH!" All I could say was, "Yes Ma'am!" as I navigated the steps backwards. I kept backing up towards my truck.
After she was satisfied I was far enough away, she came out the house and then out the door of the porch. What had looked like a shotgun barrel was actually the handle of her hoe --- Hmm, no hole in the end of the barrel should have been a clue. Draped over the barrel was a BIG rattlesnake --- the cause of all the commotion I had heard.
She later told me that she had reached up into the attic over her kitchen table to retrieve her stash when she instead pulled down this big old snake. The racket I had heard was her beating it to death and chopping it up with her freshly sharpened hoe.
Did this happen in Arkansas? Sounds so Arkansas\Missouri. My mom was born in Northern Arkansas and those old homes were easy for snakes to get in. One time a big old black snake dropped on their kitchen table. 
