too scary

When I was young, Pittsburgh in the summer thunderstorms were scary. When the sky turned bluish gray with the winds beginning to huff and puff my sisters and I would run into our house. My mother would tell us not to stand near a window and she reminded us to very quickly unplug all the appliances from the wall sockets. She would hand out candles to place on the tables and usually curse at my dad for never replacing the worn out batteries for the two flashlights we owned. The lights would flicker at first then instantly go dark. Our modest compact home suddenly became this ominous haunted mansion dark and dreary filled with potential creatures lurking everywhere. It was scary!

When my little sister and I were kids we would find ourselves in front of the TV set on a Saturday night while our parents were asleep on the second floor. We both thought we were brave enough to watch a Double Chiller Theater hosted by Chilly Billy Cardilly. From Frankenstein, Dracula, to aliens and blobs the Chiller Theater showcased the best horror flicks around. My sister and I would each take one of my mothers home made afghans, cover ourselves with them (even in the sweltering heat of a Pittsburgh summers eve) to protect us from any stray monsters and watch in beautiful black and white the movies. We both swore ahead of time that we would stay up until the very end. Even though we were alone on the first floor, sitting just a few feet away from the door leading to the basement where most monsters lived at night, we both swore that nothing would deter us from watching Chiller Theater. But then the second movie ended the programming for the station finished and all we had was a bunch of snow on the screen and a very dark living room. Suddenly it was every brother and sister for themselves and a mad dash to make it upstairs alive was the only goal. it was very scary.

My dad loved any Vincent Price movie made. When my sister and I were in elementary school my  father would take us to the movies. No matter how much my mother complained and much to her chagrin off to the theater we would go. It was the Liberty Theater, a gothic palace with two balconies, nooks and crannies in the strangest places and tiny alcoves bathed in a dark red light which always seemed to be a hiding place for not of this Earth creatures. It was the night we went to see 13 Ghosts (the original version) that sticks out the most. In the lobby was woman dressed as a nurse, she said if anyone need smelling salts, she had them, she reminded us that some people might faint from fear.. We were handed special find the ghost glasses before entering the seating area. The usher bent down to face my sister and I and said that one of the 13 ghosts seemed to disappear at the last screening, just be on the look out. I was scared, very, very scared!

Ted Cruz and his dad Rafael Cruz a recently turned evangelical preacher have been making the news recently. The Pastor Cruz has often stated that The United States is a "Christian nation." The septuagenarian businessman turned evangelical pastor did not choose to use the more inclusive formulation "Judeo-Christian nation." Insisting that the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution "were signed on the knees of the framers" and were a "divine revelation from God," he went on to say, "yet our president has the gall to tell us that this is not a Christian nation…(Mother Jones) Ted Cruz wants to be president, Pastor Cruz wants Ted Cruz to be a God. Ted Cruz often times quotes his dad and states very clearly that his father is an inspiration and the motivation for the Senator’s actions and thoughts. This scares me, a lot.

When I was young, the monsters were either on the screen or flying in the midst of thunder and lightning. When I was young the monsters went away when the credits were rolling or the sky turned from grey to blue. When I was young all that was scary disappeared the next day. I am not young anymore and it seems monsters like Ted Cruz and his dad Pastor Cruz are not going way, but rather getting stronger and scarier. I used to enjoy being scared, now the fear is way to hard to fathom. Now Halloween does not seem so happy.