POY: Childhood Fear
I wasn't going to write a POY entry on this topic, but after reading chaos's and cosmic's, I had to chime in. I wonder how many other little children of our generation were terrified by Alfred Hitchcock and/or The Twilight Zone?
I don't think I've ever seen The Birds, even now, but I guess I saw enough of it on commercials and in clips for it to scare the bejeezus out of me. At that time, the Alfred Hitchcock show was popular on TV, and even little kids like me watched it, but I associated it with terror (not wrongly, perhaps) and couldn't go near it. It took years before I would watch any Hitchcock movies, and then I was pissed off at what I had missed because they are so so wonderful and generally suspenseful, but not scary. Rebecca, North by Northwest ... and on and on and on. I was never scared of birds at all (snakes had already taken hold of my main childhood/lifetime fears), but of Alfred Hitchcock, until I grew out of it.
The Twilight Zone is a whole other story. Cosmic, you'll like this one.
I did watch the TZ. I had no choice. My parents had put an old portable TV that someone had given them in the bedroom I shared with my sister, and against all orders, she would turn it on at night after we'd gone to bed, but with the sound down low, so we could watch. Or rather, so she could watch; I don't think I was an issue. I was six or seven, so she would have been ten or eleven, or twelve. Her classmates were all taking about the TZ, and she needed to watch it, to keep up. I was just there in the room, trying like hell not to watch it, glowing in the dark.
The episode that stands out for me was "The Hitchhiker." Oh. My. God. As if this wasn't terrifying enough on its own merit, my sister chose to use it against me, and told me that the un-dead hitchhiker was most likely hiding out these days in one of two places: in my closet, or under my bed. She was very clear on this point. There could be no doubt.
This one, however, did not translate into fear of the TZ, which I later came to enjoy a great deal, although I've never watched that episode again. It translated into a whole host of sleep and control issues. My bedtime every night was nothing more or less than a series of rituals designed to protect me from the hitchhiker, even -- or especially -- after I moved into my own bedroom.
My closet door and bedroom door had to be completely open, so that I knew nothing could hide anywhere and spring at me. The shades on my window had to be up. I needed to feel that I was not closed in with my enemy. But the goofiest thing is that I began to sleep with an army of dolls and stuffed animals. I would lay down in the dead center of the bed, straight, arms at my sides, and on either side of me there would be three of the things, in descending size, so that the biggest two were right next to me, and the smallest were at the outside edges of the bed. The blankets were tucked in under the mattress and I slid in from the top. I learned to sleep very neatly, so that I wouldn't disturb my protective army or envelope. My theory was, of course, that when the hitchhiker reached up from beneath the bed to get me, he would get one of my beloved creatures, which would distract him for a moment, during which I would wake up and be able to escape through the open door.
I have a soft spot in my heart for younger brothers and sisters everywhere. No need to wonder why that.
--------------------------------------------------
I'm watching Inside the Actor's Studio
--------------------------------------------------
last ::
next
Sweet Sorrow - 06.12.2007
So ... - 12.19.2006
Christmastime Is Near - 12.18.2006
Fifteen Years - 12.17.2006
A Message From Our Sponsor - 12.16.2006
|
