We lived in a row of houses ours being the end home with an attached wall to the Cohen family on one side and an alley which led from the front of the row houses to the BACK YARD. During the day the ALLEY was a great place to play tag, ride roller skates or hear your voice echo from one end to the other. At night the ALLEY transformed into the entry to some kind of hellish, horror ridden chamber where any boggy man, any Dracula vampire, any ghost lived and waited to claim the souls of innocent Denniston Avenue kids. The ALLEY was never spoken of once night fell, and even tests of bravery, dares of adulthood were never performed in the ALLEY at night.
When my sister and I watched Chiller Theater, we would always be happy when the fake monster movies would appear, the ones from the 1950's with the creature from the lagoon, or three eyed monsters from Mars, but we were weary and nervous when the horror movies shown were about the creature you never saw who lived in the attic, the deranged neighbor who called you into their home to cut your throat, the thing that lived under the bed. We were scared when what we saw on television could be real, could be out there, could be lurking in the ALLEY.
I am an adult of 60 and I still live in fear of real horror, the kind that possibly could torture you, ruin your life and worse end a life of freedom and justice. I am scared when I listen to the ranting and raving of possible elected candidates who cater to the loathing, lamenting, bigotries and biases of the Tea Bagger Brigade. The monsters who claim to understand the Constitution, but who in fact, if they get elected will change the Constitution into a form of governance that denies rights instead of sustaining them. I am afraid of the boggy men and women who hate and blame and divide. The monsters who who insist that difference is NOT how this country was formed. The creatures who believe that the Constitution is another chapter in the New Testament written not just by Jesus, but the particular Jesus they pray to. I am terrified by the ghosts, vampires, chain saw killers, who look like every day Americans but once they open up their vile and venomous tongues surely come from under neath the bed or the basement the dark dank attic or from the ALLEY on Denniston Avenue at night.
We had Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, the Blob, the THING, Vincent Price, all prancing and performing their evil, mysterious, machinations and mayhem, but all who would fade into the white light of the television tubes once the set was turned off. They, would and could be put safely away once Chiller Theater was over and once my sister and I ran up the stairs to the safety of the second floor bedrooms and the permeating safety and protection of our parents. It was only a movie we would shout as each of us tried to be the first up the stairs just in case one of the monsters did not escape into the television set and wanted to pull us into his lair in the ALLEY.
But now the monsters are real (or as real as their handlers, PR firms, agents allow them to be) and do not just fade away once the TV is off. Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Pat Robertson, James Dobson actually live on any TV station or radio channel in this country 24 hours a day, spreading their fear, their hate, their decided distaste for Democracy to self victimized, uneducated, scapegoat seeking citizens who need validation for their own biases and bigotries. These monsters do not fade but fester.
My house on Denniston Avenue was sold a long time ago, and I have moved from Pittsburgh. But I remember one wonderful summer evening when my sister and I were in the city to visit my mother. Night had fallen and the two of us wanted to visit our old house. We came upon the house, reminisced about all the silly and profound that happened in that row house and suddenly came to the ALLEY. We nervously laughed did not say a word held hands and in the dark of an August night ran from the front to the back. We stayed in the back yard for a few moments, laughed and sighed. No boggy man, no vampire, no serial killer was waiting for us, and one more childhood fantasy flew up in the air like smoke. We slayed that beast.
It is an August night as I write this blog and sadly the scary, beasts from the Tea Bagger Brigade are still roaming free, and I am soooooooooo scared. No matter how brave I want to be I still shake with worry, and wonder when they will all go away.
No comments :
Post a Comment