Tocky on 9/10/2010 at 06:52
It's that time of year. The first frost will crisp the grass, the leaves will turn, the moon ride high in a clouded sky over a chilled landscape of stubbled fields. You smell it in the air and feel it in the bones. Autumn. The days of sleepy hollows where leaves sweep across bridges and lodge in the hair of lone strangers out for a walk, strange to the land and strange to themselves this time of year. A sweet time of last gasps and longing remembrances before the hard cold death of winter.
Okay, Ray Bradbury I aint. But I suggest you read October Game and any other that will give you the taste of this ripe nearing rot time of year when the fruit of it is sweetest. Soon we carve the flickering faces for porches and give thought to what decorations or costumes or parties we will throw on or about to poke light of those things we left in the night terrors of childhood.
But here lets speak of them. Lets roll in the pile of leaves and leavings of the year and our lives because when knowledge turns its head and science blinks some odd things blow in under the door. Tell some stories. Post your pumpkins. Name your favorite frights and Friday fright flicks. For me it was Hammer films hosted by count Sivad (Davis backwards) and Night Gallery, the music alone struck me wide awake with fear. Name your personal fears, breath sucking claustrophobia, or the fact that right now a spider is looking at you thinking alien arachnid thoughts and no more than ten feet away. Be a part of this wonderful time of year and share it.
I've told near everything by now. Not always coherently. Some things disturbing in a disjointed way, if you paid attention, but you didn't. You were busy. Everyone is. Life passes in just such a way. But this is a sweet story I've not. I drive a lot at my job. It's not uncommon to see the carcasses of the furry unlucky squashed about but this one tiny rabbit hunkered down I swerved around I had to go back for. My little girl would love a rabbit.
He fit in the palm of my hand. Some accident of birth or road had left him devoid of balance, a critical element of survival for things that run away. The only way he could stay up was to hop along the wall. Anywhere else and it was tump over city. We named him Thumper because of the noise he made going along the base board behind couch and end table. We gave him free reign too much of the time and I spent many hours scooping pellets and Lysoling trimwork. But he was so cute and helpless and my daughter loved him so.
We had to bottle feed him first with a little clover for weening. I wondered did his mother leave him roadbound to die and weed the weak. We got used to him thumping about. Too used to it. At about a year old we forgot to cage him while we were busy unloading groceries. The cat was quick and merciless coming in among our feet. We buried him in the little pet cemetery out back and missed his little fuzzy butt.
But he didn't go away. For about a year we still heard the thumps and scratches he made going around the darkened places of the living room. Truth. I accused my son of making them to mess with me at first but while alone in the house reading I became aware that I was hearing them. We would make a joke of it saying "go into the light Thumper" and laughing but that was strange when you think about it. We rarely do. They eventually stopped. I only thought of it now because I wanted something I haven't told.
Now it's your turn. Post a pertanent pic or let slip sepulcheral scares. I won't make it to a haunted house this year as my daughter is pregnant. No wonder when she lets ghouls grope her.
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http://s681.photobucket.com/albums/vv174/NGCalfee/?action=view¤t=Gatlingoulgrope.jpg)
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http://i681.photobucket.com/albums/vv174/NGCalfee/th_Gatlingoulgrope.jpgHere is one my daughter inlaw was so frightened by she bit my shoulder. SHE BIT MY SHOULDER WTF. It's at Virginia Beach.
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http://s681.photobucket.com/albums/vv174/NGCalfee/?action=view¤t=Nightmaremanse.jpg)
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http://i681.photobucket.com/albums/vv174/NGCalfee/th_Nightmaremanse.jpgtheBlackman on 9/10/2010 at 07:35
Thank you Tocky. You made my day. :thumb: :thumb:
Enchantermon on 26/10/2010 at 04:31
Quote Posted by Tocky
It's at Virginia Beach.
O hai. I live about an hour and a half south of there. I didn't realize there was a well-known TTLGer so close.
theBlackman on 26/10/2010 at 04:42
I enjoy Halloween with all its pagan rituals. All Saints Day as the Christians bastardized the old traditions has always been a fun time for me.
True I don't run around in costume anymore, but do makeup for the trick or treaters at the door. Along with candy for the kiddies, I keep two bottles of wine ready for the parents. One white and one red.
The kiddies get the candy the parents a Dixie cup of liquid happiness to imbibe as they wend thier weary way.
My favorite reading about Halloween is The Halloween Tree By Ray Bradbury. A novella type dissertation about the whys and wherefores of Halloween with its permutations over the years into the shallow celebration it has become.
"On a Halloween night, eight boys are led on an incredible journey into the past by the mysterious "spirit" Moundshroud. Riding a dark autumn wind from ancient Egypt to the land of the Celtic druids, from Mexico to a cathedral in Paris, they will witness the haunting beginnings of the holiday called Halloween."
demagogue on 26/10/2010 at 15:19
Around this time of the year we always used to like hiking in the Wichita mountains... Rather small now, but million of years ago they were the highest peaks in North America, long before the Rockies were even the glimmer of a possibility.
Camping one cool night in its foothills, one of my friends swore he heard shouting in the distance. I didn't hear anything, but when he said he wanted to investigate I didn't think he should go alone. No one else in our group seemed to share this logic, so the two of us left in the direction he heard the noise, illuminated by the blue tint of a full moon.
After about 10 minutes of walking, the faint shouting became unmistakable, and was growing louder as we approached. Finally we reached a clearing, and saw an incredible sight. In the distance was a classmate of ours, Rick, half-naked, and shouting at something in the rocks,
not in fear but in what looked like defiance.
My friend looked at me and whispered "Should we help him? What's going on?"
A voice emerged from the darkness behind us.
"Leave him. This boy is not for you to help."
A large figure emerged. He was easily over 6 foot high, robed in full Native American regalia.
"He is on his vision quest, searching for the animal spirit that will lead him into adulthood. It's important that we don't interfere."
"Do people normally start shouting like this?" I asked him.
"Many are silent. But this boy is troubled by dark spirits, and he is confronting them in his own way. It happens sometimes when they are left alone in the wilderness to reflect. My role is only to ensure that he is left undisturbed. He must go on his quest alone."
With that the tall man motioned for us to return the way we came.
We looked back at our friend yelling into the rocks and went back to the camp, the shouts receding into the distance, until at some point they stopped entirely and the rest of the night went on in silence. Presumably he had tamed the spirit, or it had tamed him. Or maybe they had reached a point of attrition.
When we reached the camp our other friends asked what we saw. Both of us knew that if they heard the truth some of them would be merciless to Rick, so we lied and said we didn't find anything and just came back.
The next Monday at school I saw Rick in the hallway. I was curious to know what
his experience had been like, but I didn't know how to ask. Instead I went up to him and asked if he had another name, aside from Rick; a Native American name. He looked at me with some kind of fierce intensity which faded after a second, and then said, "Yeah, I do. Serpent in the Rocks." I didn't have any reply, so I just nodded.
It made me wonder, though, how the same spirit that was tormenting him would also be the one that guides him into adulthood. But then I thought maybe that's how it is for all of us. The rest of us just can't see it as clearly as he does.
Turtle on 26/10/2010 at 17:31
I spend the entire month playing as Xavier in Eternal Champions.
Queue on 26/10/2010 at 22:15
Great call, dt. I'd forgotten about this one, and after reading your post, found a copy at my local Barnes and Noble.
...just got done watching it. A true gem of a film!
Mingan on 26/10/2010 at 22:27
I fully expected a thread about sausages. I am disappointed somewhat. Carry on.
