@Mamapolo2016 I think I have a legitimate hereditary adjacent phobia. I was the youngest of three children 1, 3,5. The rest came later.
We were sitting on the porch swing with Mom in a lawn chair nearby. We were eating ice cream cones. The porch was just a concrete slab. We all looked around when Mom let out a scream. I was told it was a copperhead that slithered past all of us and in through the not -quite-closed screen door.
My dad, part preacher, part carpenter/brick-layer, was helping a neighbor down the road put down a sidewalk and looked up when my mom, dragging two small sons and carrying me, screaming SNAKE SNAKE, raced up to him sobbing convulsively. They had a consultation.
The result was four other country men in bib overalls plus dad and mom left us, the kids, on the snake-free porch of a neighbor, while they went back to our house to search for a copperhead.
They carried the furniture out in the yard, removed bedding and slipcovers, emptied every closet, cupboard and drawer, shook out every pair of footie pj’s - but they never found the snake.
The next year or so Mom sent Dad into the house for a thorough search.
