When I was little, I used to make sure I was back home in time to watch Dark Shadows

with my Mom and Grandma.

I was all about monsters and Halloween when I was a kid but in looking back my favorite character wasn’t Barnabus which surprised everyone who knew me as a kid – my favorite character was actually Carolyn Stoddard.

Carolyn was a bad girl, she gave her Mom a hard time she didn’t do what anyone told her to do PLUS she had pretty hair and wore pretty clothes and all of the boys on the show liked her.

For the most part she didn’t seem as frail or scared as Victoria or Maggie so I was on Team Carolyn all the way.

How much of a fan was I at age five?

I named all of my dolls Carolyn  and by that I mean every single one including my Barbies. I learned how to dance like Carolyn did and I had it in my head that one day I’d ride motorcycles because Carolyn’s boyfriend did ( and indeed I did ride for several years after I grew up ).

And when Carolyn joined team Barnabus and she and Doctor Hoffman went toe to toe I was beside myself…not only was Carolyn a bad girl- she was wicked mean too.

Now I am in my 50’s and with a trove of other TV shows to choose from I can now stream Dark Shadows.

So that means that now I rush home from work, walk my dog make dinner and then we both settle in and catch a few episodes of Dark Shadows.

Here I thought there was lots to watch on TV but it wasn’t so much fun.

I stand corrected.

Seeing Carolyn again probably has a lot to do with that.

SFC: Chocolate Box Notebook
Exploring the Brave New World of Childhood
Innocence

2006 ADVENTure Calendar: Portals

 

It always starts out- at least for me- with a house in the woods.

Sometimes it’s snowing, sometimes there’s  a roaring storm complete with lighting and bone rattling thunder and under this dark and roiling sky is the shadow of  a wolf splashed against  the almost visible world that you think, but cannot be completely sure is the real world.

Your world.

The world that you belong to.

Is it better to go to that house and get out of the storm?  Is it empty? If you knocked would someone open the door or would you hear your rapping echo through dark hallways and dusty rooms where nobody lives but someone or maybe a few people died-

on a night just like this

when it was snowing and the figure of a wolf trotted unconcerned under a roiling sky to the house with a light in one of it’s windows and it’s back door unlocked.

The wolf and it’s shadow trot to the door and noses the door open and makes it’s way through the kitchen stepping carefully across the aged and faded green linoleum  floor stopping every few steps with it’s ears pricked forward.

It’s dark orange eyes are focused not on what it can see but in a way on what it can smell, and what it knows will be coming any second now.

There. It hears it. The knock.

The wolf glides down the hall, through the unfamiliar and unlit rooms to the front door and the knocking.

It raises itself up on it’s hind legs and then…

” Oh, hey I’m really sorry but we were on a hike and this storm came out of nowhere and caught us. Look. If you could let us in for just a bit…it’s Hell out there.”

The man and his friends at the door are wearing brightly colored hiking jackets. They smell like coffee and sweat.

I pull the door open and I let the two men and the woman in and I try not to laugh so as to not show my teeth which no matter what form I take never change.

Hell out there indeed.

I push the door shut and the sound of it slamming closed is drowned out by the thunder and a few short  gasps and a scream.

 

For me, it always starts out with a house in the woods and sometimes there is a storm and sometimes there is snow

and this is

in case you have any doubt

my world.

 

2006 ADVENTure Calendar