We lived in Palatka (sp) Fla. when I was young, my younger brother and sister were born there.
Mom said my older brother was playing with a coral snake when we lived there. She made him put it down, later found out what it was. Fortunately he didn’t get bit.
I have three brothers, two of which loved to play with snakes when they were kids. My brother, one year younger than me, had one in our storage room (attached to the house) when I was a kid (don’t know what kind, he didn’t tell anybody he had it). I picked up a (supposedly empty) canning jar Mom had there, moved it to look for something, and there was that snake in it. I dropped the jar, which shattered (got out of there quick), and the snake was never found.
That brother was always doing stuff like that. It was pretty harrowing being his sister.
What part of Tennessee are you from?
East Tennessee :)