One night in East Tennessee, a snake-handling preacher came up to us and
said, "You boys got any snakes in that car?"

We told him we didn't.

"What?" You mean to tell me you don't have any rattlesnakes in your car?"

"No, sir."

His eyes widened. "What's the matter with you boys?" he said. "Are you
crazy?"


>From Dennis Covington's _Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and
Redemption in Southern Appalachia_(1995)


>Reply:

"I would guess that the 'snake-handl'en preacherman' was originally from 
North Georgia. Hav'en been borned and raised in East Tennessee, I can 
tell you that the only snakes we kept in our cars was copperheads."