I never had a fear of snakes because at a very young age, I would see Dad pickup the occasional black snake, racer, or garten by the tail and give it a couple whirls and pitch it out into the weeds if they got up by the house.
The large black snake was very benificial to have around for rodent control. We had a large one out by the gas pump & another in the barn which were to be left alone. We would not see them all the time or on an everyday basis but knew they were there, I think we even named them
The Women (to include the Aunts) were quite different and would get out a hoe right now for even a small garter snake. Watched my Mom chop a garter into at least a dozen pieces once...I figured that it was dead when she was done
Please note that these are the non venomous or poisonous variety...we do have the so called Timber Rattlers around here but they are very spotty and I have only seen them but on a few occasions.
If we did have the venomous variety around I would either be dead by now or perhaps be The Snake Whisperer!