Dark Shadows

After going to the doctor for a physical,I decided to stay at home and not go back to work.After all....it was right smack dab in the middle of the day and I was feeling kind of puney anyway...so I popped a movie in .....actually it was the first DVD from the soap opera series:Dark Shadows.....oh man...talk about campy...this was done in 1968.....I guess all soap operas of the day had things like back lights showing when they aren't suppose to,actors messing up their lines and credits rolling slightly crooked.Oh but it was great to watch it.When I was 8, I watched Dark Shadows religiously.I would get so scared I had to sleep with a night light...but I would always go back for more vampires and zombies...I even had the Dark Shadows game.I never watched any other soap opera.

A greater revelation was made while watching these 40 year old soaps...For the last several years I have been reclaiming my childhood.After my dad had died in 1973,I forgot that life was good and I was a happy kid (who had an affinity for gothic soap operas)....All the focus had been on the loss and how unhappy my family was.....it was almost as if life started or maybe ended on March 13,1973 when he died....It took a stint of therapy to realize I needed to remember the good things that happened prior to my dad's death.I remember being told once to honor my story...well,I have finally realized that my story actually started 12 years before my dad died.....That it started when "I" started back in 1960.Maybe that is why I latch on to Halloween so much..It was a great family time for us with all the traditional goings on like carving pumpkins,decorating and my mother making our costumes.

Hmmmmm.....interesting how the darker shades of things tend to help me heal.....Dark Shadows helped me reclaim my childhood;I watched the whole series of 6 Feet Under the week after my mom died.My sister and nephew (who was 16 at the time) came to Charlotte to remember my mom's birthday (Oct.17) the first year after her death.We ended up going through all the vintage Halloween decorations I had found in the attic.We played with our 30 year old Green Ghost game. We also went to dinner with some of the neighbors.But instead of going to the cemetery to "visit" mom,we went to 3 different haunted house attractions in town. I think mom would have gone with us.....gee...maybe she did!