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Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Family Stories Part 2 All About Spiders

Sticking with hubby's side of the family to start with, my gorgeous father in law told me the story about how once when he was working night shift at Heinz in Melbourne, he got in his car to drive home and the sun was just rising and was very bright in his eyes.  So he popped the sun visor down, to be greeted by the biggest and hairiest huntsman spider he had ever seen!!!  It slid down onto the seat between his legs, so rather than stop he just drove on home without sitting on the seat!!  True story.  Apparently when he got home he just couldn't find that spider anywhere!


Which brings me to a story from my Dad's side of the family.  His Aunty Min (another beautiful person I had in my life) once put on her woollen dressing gown and walked around for quite a while with a scratchy armpit.  She kept thinking it was just a piece of thread, and eventually took off the dressing gown to find a nice huntsman spider nestled there.


My mother has an unreasonable fear (well it might even be a phobia!!) about spiders.  I remember one night leaving my Grandma's place at night and my brother (always the prankster) cried out 'look out Mum, there's a spider above your head'.  Mum, who I think was carrying something at the time, threw her arm up and nearly took my Dad's (or was it my step-dad's) head off.


My middle daughter A (and my eldest daughter C too actually) share my mother's fear.  I remember visiting my daughter A up in Port Hedland.  I found an amazing amount of dead spider's covered in what looked like a can of fly-spray for each of them, they were white with the stuff.  She still kills them that way!!


Daughter C and I were once driving down the freeway, she was driving, and a huge huntsman crawled up the windscreen.  My daughter nearly jumped out of the door, seriously I thought she was going to.  She pulled over to the emergency stopping lane, shaking and crying until I convinced her that the spider couldn't get inside (we closed all the vents and windows to be sure) and eventually she calmed down and we drove on to our destination.  Again we never found the spider.


Then there was the time, A and I drove to Gosnells in my car, with her daughter C, just a baby asleep in the car seat in the back.  When we arrived and I opened the back door to get C out, there was a huntsman in the door well.  Gave both of a us a little bit of a shock, even me, who is okay with spiders as long as they stay away from my body (I can look at them without any issue, but don't like the thought of them on me).  We got baby C out and then managed to knock the spider out with a stick.


Which brings me to two red-back spider stories, both which involve me.  The first was when I was heavily pregnant with my first child.  At that time my step-father was a part time student at the University of WA.  Mum and I popped down there to pick him up one afternoon and got there a little early.  We went to sit down on a garden seat, my bottom was almost on the seat when my mother grabbed my arm and launched me across the garden.  In shock I looked at her with a 'What The' look on my face.  She just pointed to the red-back web (with red-back) that I almost sat on!  Somehow she saw it there.

Then there was the time when I was pregnant with my third child and we were visiting Mum's and I was sitting on a stool in her kitchen, when a red-back crawled up my leg.  Mum, even with her phobia, calmly swatted it off my leg before she stepped on it.   Mother's can overcome even their biggest fears if there children are at risk.


Now I went searching for huntsman and red-back spider images and decided I wouldn't use any, cause even I got a little freaked when they all came up on Google - lol.  

Thanks for popping by xxxx

8 comments:

  1. I don't mind spiders - it is snakes which do my head in. My partner likes snakes and has a phobia about spiders. If I am not around to get them outside he drowns them in fly-spray. And jumps on the corpse.
    The irony? I am the one who has been bitten by spiders. Twice now.

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    1. I love snakes, except for the time I was away with work in the Kimberley and went to the loo in the middle of the night, torch in hand, and when I went to leave the loo, I opened the door to a baby King Brown slithering down the walkway. Quickly closed the door counted to 20 and then cautiously opened it and the snake was gone. Gave me a little fright, but otherwise happy to handle pythons and the like. Thanks for popping by xxxx

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  2. I had to laugh at all of these stories even though the thought of spiders does not sit well with me.
    The one where we were leaving grandma's....she had given me a bottle of cool drink to take home. There was a huge web from the lamp post outside her gate and it was when Steve said 'look out' that I swung round and collected him with the bottle (not your Dad). I thought it served him right and fortunately he wasn't badly hurt.
    Re red backs (I don't blame you for not posting pictures lol) ... I have a sixth sense about them. I just know there's one there.
    There's also the story of Grandma G noticing something shiny in one of her shoes where she kept them in a neat row under her wardrobe. It was a web complete with redback. Lucky find that one.
    There is another story. You S and I had been out and when we got home (Walcott St) there was a huge web right across the verandah (remember that bridge we had to cross from the street?). I wouldn't go under it but you said you would, and you did, so we knew we could walk under it OK. I probably ran. I think you were about 10 a the time.
    Hope you don't mine my adding a few bits and pieces to make the series complete. I look forward to more anecdotes. You have an excellent memory of things past and it's fun remembering isn't it? xxxx

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    1. I was trying to remember the walkway incident, I knew something had happened with a spider on night there too, but just couldn't remember what until you reminded me. I also forgot it was actually Steve you bopped with the bottle lol, knew it was someone though.

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  3. Well now I'm going to have to look them up because I'm curious.

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    1. Did you managed to find our deadly red-back Delores, fortunately in most incidents people just get sick and don't die unlike our funnel-web spider which lucky for us West Aussies, lives on the other side of Australia and only in a small area I believe. Thanks for popping by xxx

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  4. I'm not afraid of spiders and don't kill most of them, but if I find a redback, I kill it so dead even it's soul expires. Really, I swat it, step on it, smoosh it into the ground until there is nothing left. Most of the spiders around here are daddy long legs, any inside my home get moved out to join the rest of the coolny. My older daughter used to be afraid of spiders, then when her kids were born, she got over it, because she had to be the one to kill or remove them.

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    1. You're a bit like me River, although I must admit hubby is normally the one that takes the huntsmen outside if and when they venture inside. Thanks for popping by xxxx

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