The Day the Music Died

Monsters in my Closet!

There were always monsters around when I was young.

What was lurking under the bed.

What dark things were in my closet.

And something was always waiting outside in the dark.

Cinematic beasts drove my young fears into imaginary trauma as a young 70s kid.

My Mom loved Dracula vampire movies. She watched every vampire film she could find, including the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows.

Unfortunately for me, my mother was also a sleepwalker.

Nothing prepares a child for waking up in the middle of the night to find a pale woman with long dark hair drifting through the room in a flowing black nightgown. She would stare straight ahead as if under a spell, open drawers, move things around for no apparent reason, then slowly glide back out of the room.

That was normal at our house.

We always had to make sure the front door was locked.

Not to keep monsters out.

To keep Mama in.

We let her escape a few times.

In my glorious youth, Creature from the Black Lagoon convinced me to avoid every swamp, pond, creek, and suspicious puddle in Mississippi. The Gill Monster was one of those walking, looming monsters that made women suddenly trip, stumble, fall, twist an ankle, or become temporarily incapable of running whenever he appeared.

Did the creature possess a terrifying, innate power?

The ability to make people clumsy.

Then came the movies of Charles B. Pierce. The Legend of Boggy Creek and The Town That Dreaded Sundown gave me plenty of reasons to avoid looking out the window after dark.

A mysterious Bigfoot-like creature roaming the woods and a masked killer stalking the night were all the proof my imagination needed that danger was lurking just beyond the porch light.

Of course, they never caught the Phantom.

And as far as I know, the Fouke Monster is probably still out there somewhere, terrorizing rednecks and leaving suspicious footprints.

Revisiting those older films now, I can't help but smile at how quaint and harmless they feel. It's funny how those once-terrifying scenes used to keep me up at night!

Other horror films didn't help matters. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark featured tiny, ugly creatures peering from dark corners whenever the lights went out.

Despite the title, the movie accomplished exactly the opposite. I was afraid of the dark!

And then there was Jaws.

That shark managed to keep an entire generation out of the ocean.

Some folks avoided bathtubs.

As I grew older, the sophistication of monsters grew.

As I got older, monsters changed. Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, and increasingly graphic horror films took over the genre. Eventually, the gore outweighed the fun, and I lost interest.

Today's monsters arrive with stunning special effects, CGI, artificial intelligence, and enough surround sound to launch you out of your seat.

I watched one of the A Quiet Place movies where silence kept you alive cause one sound could bring a giant, violent alien creature ending your life. I became so tense that I let out a blood-curdling scream at exactly the wrong moment. In a VERY quiet theater.

I embarrassed my son!

The older I get, the less interested I am in fictional horrors. Maybe it's because real life supplies enough monsters of its own. Turn on the news, scroll social media, or spend a few minutes on YouTube and you'll discover that reality can be far more disturbing than anything Hollywood creates.

Maybe, as I have grown much older, I am not so entertained by the scary, vileness of society or imagination. Maybe, my Christian Walk has changed my taste in stories.

The scripture says what is good for your minds and souls. Philippians 4:8. “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about these things.”

I think we often feed our fears.

Negative influences are easily entertained creating the birth of anxiety. It seems like our younger generation have an overwhelming load of that.

Still, I enjoy revisiting those old monster movies. Nostalgia has a way of softening the rough edges of the past. The things that once terrified us somehow become cherished memories.

The monsters under my bed are gone.

Nothing hides in my closet. (There really isn't any room for nefarious monsters)

And the shadows outside no longer worry me.

I've finally beaten those childhood fears.

Which is a good thing.

Because if the Gill Man ever does come back, I'm pretty sure he can outrun me now.