Have you ever been scared? Have you ever been so scared, you were afraid you were going to pee your pants? I think Heroes are the people who do things that make you stand back and say "Man I don't think I could have done that". Or maybe someone who faces his fears and does what he is most afraid of. I do know one thing. There was a night that I got scared. I got pee your pants scared. No I wasn't a hero that night.
There were a couple of times in my life I have been scared. The first comes to mind when I remember a movie I went to see. My Aunt must have liked Quaker Oats a lot because one summer they had a special deal going. If you bought a large box of Quaker Oats you would get a ticket to see one of two movies that were playing that summer. Like I said she must have liked Oats because she was able to supply me with the tickets and also her own son. The way I figure it. That meant 4 large boxes of Quaker Oats were consumed that summer. My least favorite time to eat Oatmeal.
The first movie I went to see free was the one with Lucille Ball and her Husband Desie Arnez They were vacationing or moving a house trailer and had all kinds of trouble. I can't remember the name of that movie, but it wasn't the one that scared me anyway.
The second free movie was the one that got to me. I had nightmares because of that movie from the time I first seen it until right up to the time I was in the Navy. I can't remember any of the Actors in the movie today. As a matter of fact the actors were not important to me at that age, just the story line.
The name of the movie that scared me was Forbidden Planet. This was a movie about a group of space travelers going to a planet and discovering that all the people who were working at a site of some sort were missing. At some point in that movie, something was coming closer and closer to the people there. Something was going to get them. Like the movie Jaws, the music was building and building the suspense. I won't tell you what was coming at the people because someday you might get a chance to see the movie for yourself. Needless to say I had a hard time walking home alone that night. There were a couple of streets with the lights out that I didn't want to walk along. I never did tell my mom why I was later than usual getting home that night. It was kind of like traveling a maze, making sure there were lights overhead all the way home.
Over the following years I had dreams where something was coming to get me. I would be lying right where I went to asleep and it felt like I was awake and something was approaching me. I didn't know what it was but it was like I was actually awake and could not move. Could not yell or cry out. This usually occurred when I was wrapped up in the blankets too tight or was lying in an uncomfortable position. The last occurrence was one day when I was taking a nap in my bunk while in the Navy. I haven't had the dream since then so I guess I am over it.
But that wasn't the night I almost got pee your pants scared. That night came around the same time as the Movie night. Age wise but at a different location and different circumstances
This night took place in the late summer. This night took place at the Pike County Fair. I was about 9 or 10. I was at the fair walking around the circle of rides and games and other exciting things to look at. I had already been to the Animal barn and to the 4-H exhibits. I had already had my shake up lemonade and Corn Dog. I had already ridden the Roller Coaster, the Tilt-A-Whirl and the Ferris Wheel. I didn't ride the merry-go-round. I was too old for that.
There was one attraction that was at the Fair that year. This attraction had been to the Fair every year for as long as I could remember. And every year I had talked myself out of going there. The attraction was a Trailer of some sort that had a big Clowns head moving up and town and a hideous laughter coming from it. There was always some man standing on a platform behind a ticket booth with a microphone yelling at me. Every time I would go by there and he was always trying to talk me into going into the place. Something kept me from going into the attraction. I knew something would happen to me if I went through the trailer. It was scary. There was an opening in front and one in the side and I would watch kids going in there and later they would come out the side and be treated to a huge display of mirrors they had to work their way through in order to get off the platform. The mirror part looked fun but I didn't want to have to go through that Spook house in order to get to the mirrors.
Well this year was going to be different. This year I was going to grow up and be a man. This year I was going to face my fears and be a hero. I was going to go through the Spook House. As I said before I did all the things that were important to me at that Fair except go through the Spook house. That was the only thing left to do before meeting my Mom and Grandmother at the Bingo stand and going home. I walked by that place at least a couple dozen times working up the courage to pay my quarter and going in. It was getting later and later and my time limit for walking around by myself was coming to an end.
Well I did it. I took a deep breath and paid that feller my quarter and walked up the ramp and entered the trailer. It was totally dark in there. I couldn't see a thing. Did I keep going? Did I face my fears and overcome them? I didn't remember reading the Petersburg Press about the kid that entered that place and never came back, but I didn't want to be the first to have that happen to. I didn't want to be there. I had made a mistake and knew it. People were pushing on my back trying to get me to move along because the hallway or what ever it was, was very narrow. I had to squeeze myself to the side to get them to pass me. They did and I was left along again in the dark.
What I did then was start to get real scared. Just before I got pee your pants scared I turned around and went back out the entrance and walked back down the ramp and headed for the bingo tent.
I didn't manage to get 10 feet away from there before I heard this voice yelling, "Hey Kid". I turned around and saw the ticket fella waving his hand for me to come talk to him. I thought I had made it away from there without anyone noticing me. But no such luck. This guy had spotted me and he was not going to let me get away with it. I had been called Chicken before, mainly because I deserved it, and I just knew that was what was coming. I also thought he might be going to give me my quarter back. So I went back to him to see what he wanted. He just looked at me for a couple of seconds and reached under his ticket stand and brought out a flashlight and handed it to me. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder as if to say. Go back in. So armed with the Flashlight I re-entered the Spook House and proceeded to find out there wasn't anything to be afraid of. I found out the snakes I was afraid of walking on was ropes nailed to the floor. Also the floor was build with hinges on the ends to make them go up and down as I put my weight on the upper end making it go down. There were air hoses to blow mist in my face, and Wigs hanging down in front of me to make me think I had walked into spider webs. All in all it was pretty lame stuff, but that lame stuff are what nightmares are made of. I think that the thing I was most afraid of was the trap door I thought would open up under me and drop me into who knows where when I stepped on it. Needless to say the trap door wasn't there. I knew that had that trap door had been there I would have broken a leg or something and I think that was what I was really afraid of.
After finding my way out through the mirrors, which was a disappointment because you could just look down at the bottom of the mirrors to see your way out. No molding, no mirror. I took the flashlight back to the barker and headed for the bingo tent with one more of life's mysteries solved.
I thought that the first trip through the Spook house was scary. Well it wasn't near as scary as the thought that when I started to school that fall one of the kids was going to announce to everyone about my needing a flashlight.
Rod Smith