Around town, not many
folks recognize the name
H.D. Russell. Snake,
however, they do know.
John Wood, who once worked
alongside Snake at the paper mill,
explained as he was told by Snake’s
schoolmates, that he was always “tall
and skinny.”
So slender, that in the dead of winter,
when there was nothing else better
to do, Snake was the only one who
could crawl through the tiny crack of
the school gymnasium window. When
he slithered in, Snake would unlock the
door so that he and all of the neighboring
kids could play basketball.
Still lean at the age of 67, Snake’s
physique matches the attributes of
the nickname he earned so long ago.
It’s a name Snake says he’s trying to
shed, but that’s tough to do in a town
where even his pastor calls him Brother
Snake.
Today the former welder and millwright,
who by their chuckles seem to
play as hard as they work, carry out
a tradition also begun by Snake long
before it was fashionable.
“I was walking around the Loop
before the concrete was there, before the
trees were planted,” Snake says, speaking
of what gets his morning going better than
a cup of Joe.
Back in the 70s, Snake, a Seagater at
the time, said he noticed he was gaining a
little weight, so he started running.
“I ran every day for one year,” he says,
“never missed a day — rain, sleet, snow,
whatever it did — it didn’t matter.”
But after that year, realizing how lucky
46
WBM january 2012
he was not to have knee problems, Snake
decided to walk. After Wood retired, he
joined him and every day of the year to
this day, no matter the conditions, the
pair, one in a red truck, one in a white
one, arrive at 5 a.m. at the Wrightsville
The Loop Duo
John Wood and H.D. “Snake” Russell
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