Now most of you know I pride myself on my Horror-dentials and love the fact that I am the head of my very own (self-created) #zombiesurvivalcrew
(yes, I’m serious … and yeah, go ahead and laugh …. Just don’t come crying when the zombie apocalypse begins!).
… but I wasn’t always the brave, uber-organized, escape-plan-packed-in-boxes-in-the-garage zombiephone …
And so I shall kick off my Halloween week observance with a tip of my hat to the man who first scared me silly, … the one, the only ….
George Romero
It was, of course, a night or two before Halloween … one of those years where most of the leaves on the towering Buffalo trees had changed colors and fallen to leave the ground crunching under your feet. The kind of night that would send every gust of wind sneaking in through the seams of my jacket to tickle the hairs on my arms. In other words, a perfect atmospheric storm of spooky!
I was at the house of friend whose mother was less strict than my own – and absolutely delighted that we were allowed to watch the original Night of the Living Dead. The bowls of popcorn sat untouched as the film progressed and the specter of a three and a half block walk home in the dark filled my stomach with cement.
I’d like to say I was 7 or 10 or even 12, …. but the truth is I was 15 and there was just no way I was going to ask my friend’s mother to drive me home! I was a child in the time before cellular telephones. So I tip-toed down my friend’s driveway whispering a prayer for safe passage to the universe … and then ran down the middle of the streets for three blocks to get home.
The result?
My father had to drop off and pick me up from school for a week. My friends had to come to my house to play. And I fell in love with George Romero and the shambling hordes.
******************************
I’d love to hear your horromantic love stories …. Scary, funny, embarrassing or otherwise. When did you first know you would be a card-carrying member of the Zombination?
******************************