Wednesday, June 11, 2008

The First Appearance of the Monster in the Closet

I never shut my closet door. Occasionally I will notice this, and close it on the way by, but for the most part it's generally open. I also rarely sleep with covers on- and tend to dangle my feet/hands over the side of the bed. For some reason I find this comfortable.

Let me tell you a little story to prove how our little princess has evolved.

Picture it.
Winnipeg.
1981.

Once upon a time there was a little wee princess whose mother enrolled her in Brownies.

The little princess has pretty much no clue what was going on, but every Monday at 6:00 she would walk half a block to the community club with a bunch of other little girls and do crafts and sing songs and generally be....well kinda bored.

Then Halloween happened. The little princess was 6 years old.
She walked into the community club for what was sure to be a lovely party filled with candy and music, and bobbing for apples. She doesn't really know for sure because she never made it to the end of the party.

At the beginning of the night the leaders told all the little girls to sit in a circle. Then they turned off all the lights to it was pitch black. They said that a vampire had died, and they were passing around it's body parts.

They passed around something that felt like spaghetti and called it the vampire's brains. They may have passed around more, but at this point the little princess demonstrated that being a delicate flower started early on for her.

She burst into tears, and was nearly hysterical. Needless to say, the game ended. One of the adults took her home, and the princess's mother was not impressed with the choice of game.

She was put to bed early that night, with soothing coos and kisses from her mother. However, before the Queen mother left, the little princess made a request she had never made before. Please shut the closet door. There are monsters hiding in there.

For years afterwards the princess could not sleep with the closet door open, nor could she dangle her feet over the edge of the bed because of what might be hiding underneath waiting to grab them. She had never thought about monsters before- but after that night, she never forgot about them.

xo

18 comments:

Rock Chef said...

Poor little Princess! How did you beat the monsters?

Reminds me of when I was young - I used to set up mirrors to shine light from the landing onto my bed.

Also there is an old spoof horror movie called "The Monster in the Closet". I love it.

the frog princess said...

Hahaha! Awwww...

We did similar things at my Girl Scout Halloween parties. Being the tomboy I was, I loved them :)

Too bad they ended the game before passing around peeled grapes and telling you they were eyeballs. That was always my favourite.

Glamourpuss said...

It was vampires for me. And to this day, I sleep with the covers up around my neck so they can't bite me.

Puss

Brunhilda said...

Aw! That's a horrible game to play with six year olds! I hope you're not still afraid of monsters.

MrsG said...

That 'Monster in the Closet' movie scared the crap out of me when I was a kid - having watched it as an adult I think I was just a scardy-cat kid, it's pretty tame.

The ghost-in-the-library scene in Ghostbusters, on the other hand, scared me so badly I left the room (friend's slumber party, age 6) in tears and refused to go back in until the film had finished.

I was also scared of a particular Muppet that was a vampire (bit like The Count from Sesame Street), and that the leeches from the Laura Ingalls Wilder book On the Shores of Silver Lake would crawl out from under my bed in the night and suck my blood.

More recently (high school) I hung a crucifix in my window after reading The Shining... you can never be too careful.

Jess said...

Aww, how sad! I used to be scared of my closet too.

Princess of the Universe said...

Chef- Not sure- just time I guess. But it was years before I got over it.

Froggy- well now I'm sorry that I didn't get to stay for the whole thing!

Puss- well the first fear was of that one vampire, but then it just became a generic "monster"

Seq- I can't imagine them getting away with it now! I'm OK with the monsters now- bring it on!

AmyT- Never saw the Monster movie- but the Shining still scares me!

Jess- I feel better! :)

Miss Britt said...

A SIX YEAR OLD?!!? Who the hell does that to a six year old?!?!?

Tryphyna said...

I was never a part of Brownies, but I did have big brothers who played 'games' like that with me as well. Though, being big brothers, they tended to take it a little futher than absolutely necessary...

suffice it to say, if I'm home alone the closet door is shut, the hall light is on, and my hands and feet don't dare stray near the edges of the bed

Princess of the Universe said...

Britt- well, I doubt they could get away with that sort of thing nowadays

Shana- It took me several years, but I'm now over it. A good thing too since I live alone!

Honey said...

i still tuck my toes in , but I used to lie with just the top of my head, eyes and nose showing. If it got too much I'd just cower under the covers completly.

PG said...

I still can't sleep with my closet or drawers open. Plus, I'm kind of afraid of basements. I have a similar story, but it involved being a day camp where they set up a haunted house that we were supposed to go through. I refused to go through and the counsellor yelled at me. He apologized the next day for yelling at me.

Prunella Jones said...

Well, it is a well known fact that monsters always love to hang out and hide in kids closets. You were right to worry!

phishez said...

I used to be in Brownies when I was a little kid. We're talking about 6 here. So a very little kid. The only thing I remember about it (apart from the hideous poo coloured uniform) was we had a sleep over for... something. My sister and I had a (single) sleeping bag. My sister hogged the bag, it was winter and they didn't have heating in the hall.

I hate brownies.

PinkPiddyPaws said...

I always think of the movie "Lost Boys" and Dianne Weiss when she has to shut Corey Haims closet door because he's afraid of "THE CLOSET MONSTER"...ha..ha.ha... :)

PinkPiddyPaws said...

ps -- mine was the "under the bed monster". ;)

the princess said...

i have overcome my own fear and leave my closet doors open all the time now. i used to jump from the door to my bed (about 3ft) and dive on because "bad ernie and grover" might be under the bed. i can't believe i just said that out loud! i was 5. bad, bad dreams

Nance said...

those people should have been taken out and shot!

 
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