remembering sam

i saw this little guy on panama road tonight as i made my way back to lincoln. it reminded me of the baby bullsnake that my brother john found while out fishing one time when we were kids . he brought it home and kept it as a pet for a few years. he named him sam, and man he loved that snake. no one else could hold him except john. sam would curl up in his hair and hang on his shoulders like it was nothing. sam grew to be pretty big and it'd freak my mom out everytime he got out of his cage. we'd turn the house upside down looking for him. finally mom said enough and john had to let him go. we took him out to the scottsbluff monument nearby because we figured it'd be a good place for him, and we would go up there a lot so we thought maybe we'd see him again. a year or two later the park rangers at the station there said from time to time they'd hear a loud scream from the women's restroom and they'd have to go in and remove the same huge bullsnake that seemingly was not afraid of humans. we'd like to think it was sam.