New Story...and passing on the talent of scaring people...
I have a new story up at Chop Shop Horror for the next month. You can read it for free here:
http://www.chopshophorrorshow.blogspot.com
Enjoy!
****
Friday was Hallowe'en. Probably my favorite holiday, bar none.
This year it was special to me for a very specific reason.
When I was eleven years old I dressed up as a corpse for Hallowe'en and, along with my friends, went trick-or-treating. My costume was elaborate and I acted the part by shambling around the neighborhood, dragging my left foot behind me, doing a combination Boris Karloff Frankenstein's monster and George A. Romero zombie walk.
Long story short: at one particular house we were greeted by an eight year old girl who took one look at me and let out a blood-curdling shriek. She slammed the door and ran into the house sobbing in fright. Her mother later came out, apologized, and as she handed us candy she frowned in disapproval at me (I was made up more gruesome than any of my friends that night). That look didn't affect me much. I thought it was cool that I'd actually scared somebody, even if it was a younger kid.
Flash forward thirty-three years later to this past Hallowe'en. My daughter is nine and dressed as a vampire. Her friend dressed as the devil. The two of them, along with a handful of other kids, trick-or-treated around the neighborhood for an hour and then returned home where we hosted a slumber party. Five girls between the ages of eight and nine, which would normally keep me in the basement for most of the night. Not this night, though.
About an hour into the festivities, one of the girls came down the stairs crying in fear. She wanted to go home right now! Why? My daughter told the other girls that old slumber party chestnut -- the legend of Bloody Mary (you know that one...you go into a dark room, look into a mirror and say Bloody Mary three times and a woman appears in the mirror and reaches out at you, through the mirror and scratches your face).
I'd never told my daughter the Bloody Mary story before, so how she heard it I have no idea. When it comes to the scary stuff we don't hide it, but we're responsible enough that we don't expose her to material that is not age-appropriate (she's a big fan of old monster movies, though...wonder where she gets that from?). We've never steered her toward horror fiction in viewing or reading but have allowed her to seek different genres on her own and develop her own tastes. As a result, like many girls her age, she loves the Jonas Brothers and the Goosebumps series and is equally at ease watching the latest Disney movie or the 1950's classic Them!
It didn't appear to phase my daughter that she's scared the crap out of one of her friends (in fact, in trying to calm her hysterical friend down my daughter exclaimed that "it was only a story!"). Regardless, the slumber party was now less one other kid.
That was fine by me. The girls stayed upstairs and told each other scary stories the rest of the night (my daughter told most of them, of course). They shrieked in fright during some of the stories, laughed during others, and had a good time.
How was your Hallowe'en?
JFG
I have a new story up at Chop Shop Horror for the next month. You can read it for free here:
http://www.chopshophorrorshow.blogspot.com
Enjoy!
****
Friday was Hallowe'en. Probably my favorite holiday, bar none.
This year it was special to me for a very specific reason.
When I was eleven years old I dressed up as a corpse for Hallowe'en and, along with my friends, went trick-or-treating. My costume was elaborate and I acted the part by shambling around the neighborhood, dragging my left foot behind me, doing a combination Boris Karloff Frankenstein's monster and George A. Romero zombie walk.
Long story short: at one particular house we were greeted by an eight year old girl who took one look at me and let out a blood-curdling shriek. She slammed the door and ran into the house sobbing in fright. Her mother later came out, apologized, and as she handed us candy she frowned in disapproval at me (I was made up more gruesome than any of my friends that night). That look didn't affect me much. I thought it was cool that I'd actually scared somebody, even if it was a younger kid.
Flash forward thirty-three years later to this past Hallowe'en. My daughter is nine and dressed as a vampire. Her friend dressed as the devil. The two of them, along with a handful of other kids, trick-or-treated around the neighborhood for an hour and then returned home where we hosted a slumber party. Five girls between the ages of eight and nine, which would normally keep me in the basement for most of the night. Not this night, though.
About an hour into the festivities, one of the girls came down the stairs crying in fear. She wanted to go home right now! Why? My daughter told the other girls that old slumber party chestnut -- the legend of Bloody Mary (you know that one...you go into a dark room, look into a mirror and say Bloody Mary three times and a woman appears in the mirror and reaches out at you, through the mirror and scratches your face).
I'd never told my daughter the Bloody Mary story before, so how she heard it I have no idea. When it comes to the scary stuff we don't hide it, but we're responsible enough that we don't expose her to material that is not age-appropriate (she's a big fan of old monster movies, though...wonder where she gets that from?). We've never steered her toward horror fiction in viewing or reading but have allowed her to seek different genres on her own and develop her own tastes. As a result, like many girls her age, she loves the Jonas Brothers and the Goosebumps series and is equally at ease watching the latest Disney movie or the 1950's classic Them!
It didn't appear to phase my daughter that she's scared the crap out of one of her friends (in fact, in trying to calm her hysterical friend down my daughter exclaimed that "it was only a story!"). Regardless, the slumber party was now less one other kid.
That was fine by me. The girls stayed upstairs and told each other scary stories the rest of the night (my daughter told most of them, of course). They shrieked in fright during some of the stories, laughed during others, and had a good time.
How was your Hallowe'en?
JFG
posted by JFG at 11/02/2008
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