They’re here.
If you recognize those two words uttered by a sweet little blond girl in front of a television set full of static as a defining moment from Poltergeist, I probably don’t need to recap my last two articles on Patch for you. In the first installment of a trilogy I began an explanation of growing up loving spooky stuff.
You know I have a hard time staying on track when I write, so forgive me as I careen around the corners. One thought tumbles over another, jarred loose by an image, a word or a phrase. For example: Did you ever see Trilogy of Terror with Karen Black? (Some authors transition into a new paragraph, some segue seamlessly into a related idea…I just yank you along with me.)
Amelia is much closer to my heart than Carol Anne from Poltergeist. Amelia was my kind of heroine. She was shy and timid and easily bullied by her overbearing mother, yet found courage to battle terrifying circumstances and emerge…well, not unscathed, but certainly with satisfying results. If you’ve never seen Amelia in action with the Zuni Warrior, you should stop right here and watch it. Go ahead!
My husband and I were living in Oxon Hill, Maryland, with two small children not long after Trilogy premiered. It was my first home outside of Indiana and I found THAT pretty terrifying! Anyway, we had no family nearby or money, so our entertainment options were rather limited. One thing we did for fun was play Hide and Seek with our children. That game is just a more advanced version of Peek-a-boo.
Bill and I played the Hide and Seek game a little differently, as our children, at ages two and three, were not so great at the game. They played more like these kids. So, in the interest of making the game more challenging, Bill and I helped our children hide. Small children are remarkably flexible and pliant! We tucked them into places like the cabinet over the refrigerator. We stuffed them into the storage cabinet of our old gas range.( I added a picture if you don’t know what one of those beasts looked like.) One memorable moment in our early married life was when Bill was hiding in a closet while I was doing the seeking. I held the door closed so he couldn’t get out. (Were the kids still playing?) He grabbed a flyswatter and started poking it under the door, jabbing at my feet. If you didn’t watch Amelia up there where I told you to do so, you are not going to know the effect this had on me!
We graduated from that stage of life when we were ordered to Scott AFB. There we made lots of friends and became involved in service to our community as well as our country. As a fund raising project for the NCO Wives Club, we built our first Haunt with items, costumes and props that we begged, borrowed or built. It was wildly successful! Well, I don’t really remember how much money we raised, but we had so much fun and so did all of our visitors.
We are still friends with some of those good folk, thanks to Face book. The memories of that Haunt led to many more and further adventures, right up to this very day. We no longer build Haunts, but we do visit them. I thought I might outgrow that. I thought perhaps visiting Haunts might seem to me like Elvis: Still loved, but sort of sad and more a memory of former glory than current force of excitement. I’m just delighted to tell you those Haunts are just as scary as when I was a kid or when I was a teen or when I was a young parent.
If you’re willing to drive to Winchester, you still have time to visit one of the best Haunts I have ever seen: Haunted Nightmares This attraction at High Hill Farms is absolutely nerve jangling and well worth the drive.
I hope I see you there!
