Hello, my name is Rodger, and I'm a moviehalic. Ā It's been 8 hours since my last...
Well, I sometimes feel that way. Ā I've been enamored with visual media since before I can remember. Ā All my life I have just loved to get away someplace dark and cool and just drift off into my oblivious alter-reality. In fact, rather then tell you what I am now, here is a tidbit of what I was so very early in my life. Ā I've posted this a couple times at various places on the net, so it's a cut & paste. Ā Still, hope you enjoy it.
What Some Little Boys Do!
The Screaming Skull (1958) was the scariest movie for me. I was 8 years old when this came out and I wanted to see it so bad but my mom said, "you know you will have nightmares if you see this movie, so no you can't go". Well, I put up with this until the second weekend matinee came around. Mom and Dad left early that Saturday morning to do some estimating (Dad was a contractor) and Grandma was watching me for the day. I was such a sneaky kid, I decided I would trick Grandma and tell her I was tired, pretend to go to bed, then sneak out of the house to see this movie.
Well I did. My bedroom was on the 2nd floor so I had to slide down the antenna mast to the ground from my upstairs window. Went down to the corner where the bus stop was, where I got on the first bus. I asked the bus driver if this bus went by the Roxy Theater in downtown Inglewood. He said "ya, but aren't you a little young to be going there by yourself"? Having gone this far I thought for a minute and said "my Grandma is watching me today so I'll be fine". Guess he took it that she would be there (as I had hoped), so off we went. Got there fine, got in fine, even had 15 cents for popcorn and a nickel for the bus ride home so I was all set. Got down to the 3rd row (where every smart kid liked to sit ) and watched the movie.
Now I don't know if it was because I was all alone by myself (first time alone in a picture show), or that I was feeling a bit guilty about sneaking out, or if it was just this scary of a movie, but throughout the movie I become more and more afraid. Still, not wanting to miss anything, it comes to the part of the movie where this lady is doing some gardening with her back to the camera. All you see is her dress and the back of this straw bonnet. As the camera zooms closer to this hat as it very quickly completes the turn and in it is the skull with RED EVIL EYES and a BIG OPEN MOUTH SCREAMING! I tell you what, I got so scared I wet my pants, jumped up (spilling my popcorn everywhere) and ran out of that movie. It just terrified me so much I just kept running until I got to the bus stop.
When the bus pulled up I was so embarrassed with my wet pants fully showing, I just dropped the nickel into the collector and ran and sat down way in the back of the bus. Still shivering from fear (and most likely cold ), I wasn't watching things very well and before too long I was all turned around. Nothing looked familiar to me so after about 15 minutes more, I got up enough courage to go up and ask the bus driver when we would come up to Gay Street (Yeah, I lived on Gay Street in Inglewood, CA ). He said, "this bus is going the opposite direction from Gay Street"! Well, obviously this didn't sound too good to me. I had already given my last nickel into his coin catcher thing and now I'm going the wrong way and no money for another bus. After explaining, and owning up to my mischief, between his grinning, I think he kinda felt sorry for me and said "just go sit down back there and after I drop the last passenger off, I'm off duty and will drive you to the Gay Street bus stop on the way in.
Well, got home after another hour or so. Getting off the bus, I ran up the block to my house and shimmed up the antenna mast. I was so fearful and still scared, I just jumped in my bed (more or less dried out now) and pulled the covers up over my head. I don't remember falling asleep, but must have as I awoke with a start and was shivering cold and shaking. It was pretty dark outside and no lights were on in the room. My covers were pulled halfway down and as I reached down and tried to pull them up, they wouldn't move. Pulling harder, I begin to focus my eyes a bit in the darkened room and then I SEEN IT!!! It was sitting on the foot of my bed, facing away from me, just a dress and the back of a straw hat!!! I open my mouth to scream, but nothing came out, as this hat slowly at first, then quickly turn toward me. At the same moment I seen it, with it's RED EVIL EYES and a BIG OPEN MOUTH SCREAMING!, I was up and running down the stairs with that awful screaming piercing in my ears. I got down stairs and Grandma shouts out to me "Stop that screaming, Boyka". Turns out when I shut my mouth the screaming ended, but not the terror. After some time, I calmed down and as she comforted me, I had to tell Grandma what I did.
She was a loving woman, my Grandma, and didn't spank me. But she did talk to me and explain what I did was very wrong and dangerous, but thought I already received enough punishment from God.
To this day, I think she was more right than she ever new.
-Rodger