To Scare or NOT to Scare?
October 26th, 2007 by John Mixon
As a child, Halloween was always one of my favorite times of year! I would help my Mother decorate our front windows with cardboard ghosts, pumpkins, skeletons and more with such care and precision you would think I was in charge of sculpting a scale model of the Eiffel Tower out of stone. My goal was to frighten the younger kids who would be sure to stop at our home for treats on the 31st.
The older I got, the more sophisticated my attempts to strike fear in all who passed 1524 Market Street. One year I created and built a flying ghost effect. I would sit in the window of our attic, waiting for some unsuspecting person to walk past our home. At just the right moment I would activate a motorized pulley which would send the white-sheeted ghost down the line as a ghoulish sound effect completed the illusion. This would keep me busy for hours.
Today, most of the Halloween decorations are smiling pumpkins and goofy, green Frankensteins which are so cartoonish they make Scooby and Shaggy look like masterpiece artwork.
Now who is THIS depiction of Frankenstein going to scare? And Oooooooh, what a scary ghost! NOT!
Well, whaddya gonna do? I understand that kids today are often shielded from the evils of a witch on a broom by over-protective parents. My question is; Why bother protecting them from such an obvious night of Tom-foolery then turn around and buy them First-Person Shooter games for their Playstation? Which is more dangerous to your child’s well-being, Grand Theft Auto or The Mummy?
Oh, well.. Just thinking out loud, I suppose.