I Was a Frightful Child

by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer

It’s always the quiet ones, right? If you saw me in school as a kid, you may not even notice me. I was that good student always quietly concentrating on her work and getting straight A’s. But at home I was completely different and completely frightful. I’m not referring to bad behavior here. Although, I’m sure my mom has stories. I just conveniently don’t remember those. No, here I’m talking about horror.

What?! Yes, the loving, caring momtrepreneur also ventures into the dark side sometimes – at least when it comes to reading, writing, and film. I loved a good scare as a kid. Though, it took a lot to scare me and I’m not sure if anyone’s been successful at it to this day.

I’m not sure how old I was when I stumbled upon it, but “IT” was my absolute favorite book and movie. I actually still own it to this day. The VHS is quite worn but I don’t care. I still watch it when I get the urge and yes, I have succeeded in “torturing” two of my children with it already. Okay, so they were willing participants. But I did get them to watch and enjoy it. And darn if they didn’t prove they were my kids by not getting scared. Like, not at all. Not even a smidgeon.

My other two kids are afraid of clowns, which is kind of awkward since the two who did watch it are very into them and are professional clowns. Not to mention that my soon-to-be husband is just as obsessed with clowns and "IT" as me. We somehow manage to deal with that well and keep our clown stash away from the ones who shudder from it.

Back to my frightful childhood, clowns were not my only thing when it came to horror. I would watch just about any scary movie. I watched unwavering as Freddy entered the nightmares of his teenage victims (and my friends). I watched Jason stalk people, Damien follow omens, and so on.  Stephen King was my favorite author. Some of my earliest childhood writing was based in the horror genre. Yeah, I told you I was a bit frightful for  a kid.

For as far back as I can remember, I was always reading or watching something “scary”. It started with things geared toward kids of course – because I WAS a kid. However, it didn’t take long before I started sneaking things off the shelves of the adults around me and sneaking them back when I was finished. I’m not sure if I was slick or if the grownups knew what I was doing all along. I mean, who discourages a child from reading? I was reading and understanding adult-level books from a very early age.

Yes, I know none of this is technically meant for children. But as kids are often inventive, I found my way to it anyhow and I’m still very into it to this day. Obviously, adults weren’t just handing it to me. They’d of course hand me the occasional children’s variety mystery. But although I’d enjoy that too, I preferred higher level books and movies to match my reading and thinking skills. Therefore, as mentioned, someone always had some I could “borrow” for a bit and sneak back.

Were you into horror as a child?

*I originally published this on Bubblews

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