Just the Facts #31

 “Gnome and elf and fairy,
Witch and ghost make merry
On this last of dear October’s days.”
(Lettie C. Van Derveer)

 

Hello, my lovely friends!  

 

 The air is getting crisp, the leaves are turning that perfect shade of sinister orange, and you know what that means: We are officially immersed in the glorious, spooky season of Halloween!

 

To celebrate our arrival in the most ghoulish time of the year, we're dedicating this Friday Funday to all things that go bump in the night.

 

1.  My 5th-grade Halloween was all about Pippi Longstocking, and let me tell you, it took a village! My amazing sister and her BFF snuck into school to perform some serious hair engineering. They literally used a coat hanger to wire my braids so they'd stick straight out, perfectly defying gravity. That elaborate setup totally clinched it—I won the contest for my grade and earned a spot at the huge all-city showdown downtown! I might not have brought home the grand prize, but getting ready and rocking those wild pigtails was tons of fun from start to finish.

 

2.  Here's my odd little quirk: I get the serious creeps from huge things with faces. Think colossal statues. I'm perfectly happy being one of those people who appreciates the Statue of Liberty from a safe, distant shoreline, but you won't catch me anywhere near her pedestal. The memory that sealed the deal was a childhood trip to Mount Rushmore. The mountain was fine, honestly. But then we hit the museum, and they had a life-size finished piece of one of the faces... it was right there. That terrifyingly enormous chunk of a head absolutely sent me running!

 

3.  Speaking of enormous things with unsettling faces... when I was a kid, our local mall had this toy shop that was, for me, less a paradise and more a psychological torture chamber. And it was all thanks to a massive, floor-to-ceiling stuffed mouse standing guard right by the entrance.

 

    I mean, this wasn't some friendly, little cartoon critter. This thing was gargantuan. It had the perpetually unsettling gaze of something that knew all your secrets, and I hated it with the white-hot passion only a terrified child can muster.

 

    Every single time we passed that shop, it was a major life event. I'd either close my eyes and clutch my dad's jacket like a barnacle, or if I was having a particularly bad day, I'd dissolve into tears and make him carry me like a sack of potatoes just to bypass the beast. The fear was real, the shame was minimal, and my dad was basically my personal, mouse-dodging chauffeur. To this day, I can't look at a giant stuffed animal without feeling a slight urge to run.

 

4. I'm the worst (or best!) person to watch a horror movie with, because as soon as the opening credits roll, the lights are out. I mean, if you're going for thrills, why watch in the daytime? People complain, but there's just something about sinking into a pitch-black room, especially for those amazing classic horror films. 

 

5.  Bring on the bloody, elaborate kills and impossible monsters—I can handle all the horror movie mayhem you throw at me. My only true cinematic weakness? A simple knife cutting skin. The instant that blade makes contact, all my cool disappears, and I get completely grossed out. I can handle a thousand ways a bad guy does his work, but that one specific, skin-level detail just turns my stomach!

 

6.  I’m a total Stephen King fanatic—I'll reread his books until the pages fall out! But here's the kicker: I've developed a serious 'book snob' filter, and I usually hate the movie if I've already read the source material. This all started back in middle school when I first dove into "Pet Sematary," which quickly became a lifelong favorite.

 

    When the movie adaptation hit theaters in high school, a group of us went to see it, but only three of us had read the book. When the credits rolled, the three of us who knew the real story were livid! They butchered the plot and left out crucial characters! It was a total cinematic betrayal. Even though I rarely like his movie adaptations, I'm a complete completionist and still own a massive collection of them, including all the great old TV mini-series on DVD.

 

 So glad you stopped by! Wishing you the coziest morning/afternoon/evening ahead. Can't wait for our paths to cross again!