I was 9 and my little sister 7 years old, when we both received the permission from my parents allowing us to stay late up and watch the second feature of Chiller Theater. My younger sister and I had been watching the first movie, which started at 11:30 and were usually in bed around 1:00 BUT the second feature of Chiller Theater did not start until 1:00 and that movie would not end until 2:00am. A double Chiller Theater horror feast, not for the faint of heart, but for the true believer in everything monster. However, as brave as my sister and I might have pretended to be, the two of us also understood that many a precaution had to take place just to be sure. My father sometimes would offer us his words of advice, “just be prepared, you know monsters are more active after 1:00am.” My sister and I heard his cautionary tale and realized he must know of what he speaks since every other week he was on the night shift at the police station, and we could only imagine what kind of monsters he met patrolling the neighborhoods. So, we DID, indeed take precautions from making sure the latch to the basement door was solidly locked…the scary window in the dining room looking out at the alley way had the shades and curtains drawn, so tightly, that not even a finger tip of a monster could appear, and of course the shield of total protection, the two afghans which had been knitted by our grandmother. Nothing said save me from the monster than a quick swipe of the afghan over our heads right before anything could creep into the living and eventually upon the sofa from which we were sitting.
Even if the second Chiller Theater movie had once upon a time been the first Chiller Theater movie, somehow if it was on the television after 1:00 it had immediately become more frightening. Common sense could back that up, because anything at 1:00 in the morning when you were 9 or 7 was strange and spooky! I remember times when my little sister and would have the afghan over our faces almost the entire length of the second Chiller Theater, so much so, that we either had to die of suffocation or let the monster grab us. Usually our breath gave out first and we had to face our fear and remove the afghans from our faces. We tried to cover up from the evil as long as we could, but realized breathing was much more freeing and smothering a lot more scarier!
I think of watching the Double Chiller Theater and always trying to cover up pretending that the monster will not get us if we did so. But the monster was out there anyway and the only way we could be safe was to face it. The GOP is now in full cover up mode regarding Trump. Placing Party over Country, Party before the People, almost to the man and woman the Republican elected officials are denying the Democratic process and instead letting the monster known as Trump devour/divide/and destroy the government of this nation. Covering up any attempt to find the truth…covering up any fact that might matter…covering up the inappropriate, ineffectual and ignorant plans, policies and plots designed by Trump, the GOP has decided the monster will survive while all else is lost. My little sister and I were terrified of the monsters on TV, but once we removed the cover from our mouths we could breath, and knew we had beat the creature! How life should be!
