Good Memories of Octobers Past....

I was just telling J.F. on his most recent blog post, that I am a big chicken. I am not in to being scared.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a big chicken about a lot of things. I'm not really afraid of heights, I once had my picture taken with a 10 foot long boa constrictor around my neck, and I'm the one watching nature shows saying, "I'd hold that tarantula. No big deal."

But I am a big chicken where scary movies are concerned. Especially ones about serial killers. Certain scary movies I can watch and say, "that wasn't scary at all!" Like "Secret Window." I didn't find that scary, just interesting. I would watch it again and again. But other movies haunt me and give me nightmares for weeks.

Take for example "Silence of the Lambs." When it first came out, I was a new mom. Josh was only like six weeks old. Rob's friend, Russ, and his wife, Nicky, asked us to go to the movies with them. I was happy to get out for the night, so we had Robert's mom watch Josh, and we went.

We were standing around the theatre lobby, trying to decide what to watch. Russ and Nicky wanted to watch "Silence of the Lambs." I didn't want to appear to be a big chicken, so I said, "Sure!" Rob pulls me aside and says, "Kris, are you sure about this? You know how freaked out you get by scary movies." I was determined not to be a spoil sport. "No problem! It's just a movie!" I insisted.

So, we went in and watched the movie. I should have listened to Rob! That movie freaked me out so bad that I didn't want to leave the house for a week! Every single middle aged white guy around me I had pegged as a serial killer! I was totally paranoid! I looked over my shoulder constantly, was ready to poke someone's eyes out with my keys, and I parked as far away from vans as I could. So, I'm not really into horror movies. Suspense, okay, maybe. Horror: no.

Even as a kid, I don't remember ever going trick or treating as anything scary. One year I was a hot dog! ;) My grandmother was an accomplished seamstress. She made me look like a real hot dog....kind of like the costumed people you see standing outside of food establishments, holding up ads for the business. It had wires inside and the whole nine yards. It had mustard and ketchup on it that looked real! ;) I couldn't sit down in it, but that was just a minor logistical snafoo.

Another year, I was a clown, and one of my last years I went as Boy George. Oh boy! So I was a girl dressed up as a man who dressed like a woman. HA! Only in the 80's. ;)

One time I was down the road at my friend's house, watching one of the "Freddy" movies. Again, trying not to be the spoil sport. It was me, my brother, my friend, and her brother. The movie was almost over and my friend's brother yawned and said, "Boy, am I tired. I'm sorry, but I have to hit the hay." So, we barely even looked up, and kept watching the movie. We just assumed he went to bed.

It was late, and dark, and time for us to be home. So my brother and I set out to walk the country road back to our house. It was only about 8-9 houses down, maybe 1/4 of a mile. However, it was pitch dark and spooky. Every owl in North America was hooting away, I think. We swore we could hear wolves howling in the distance.

Right across from my friend's house was a deep ditch, then a big open field, which was used as a neighborhood ball field. (The one my dad was playing in when he tore up his leg.)

Anyway, we were just passing that field when my friend's brother jumped out of the ditch with a hockey mask on and bellowed something incoherent at the top of his lungs.

I swear to you, we ran home so fast we probably couldn't have been detected on radar! I think it took me an hour for my heart to stop racing. I know our friend the prankster was probably still laughing in the ditch long after we were home.

So, that's it for now. More later.