Had to choose between a snake and a fish in a crawl space

Nora Hall · 2026-04-10T03:10:06.464273+00:00

Got a call for a new drop in an old house in Portland. Crawl space access was a tiny hole. Saw a rat snake skin, maybe five feet long, right by the entry. Also saw a dead goldfish, dried out, on a piece of wood. No idea how it got there. Had to pick which creepy thing to work next to. Chose the fish. Figured it wouldn't move. Wrong. My knee hit the wood and the fish flipped into my boot. Spent the next ten minutes trying to shake it out while the homeowner's dog barked at the vent. Got the line run, but my sock was crunchy. Anyone ever find something truly bizarre that just made you stop and laugh?

skyler_adams4mo ago

Used to think crawl spaces were just dirt and spider webs. Then @michael_bennett11 reminded me about the pickle jar thing. That's next level weird. But the fish flipping into the boot changed my whole view. Now I see crawl spaces as time capsules full of random junk from past lives. That dried goldfish had a story. Just wish it hadn't ended up in my sock.

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michael_bennett115mo ago

Man, the fish flipping into the boot is the perfect end to that story. I found a perfectly clean, single baby shoe on a joist once. Like, why? The weirdest was a whole, sealed jar of pickles. Not even opened. Just sitting there in the dirt. Makes you wonder about the history of a place, you know? The previous owners just left their pickle jar in the crawl space for me to find.

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the_margaret5mo ago

Portland crawl spaces always have the weirdest stuff, like that time I found a whole bowling ball.

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