When I was little I used to feel sorry for the monsters in horror movies.
If people weren’t trying to shoot them, they were burning them or pushing them off of cliffs.
So every Christmas Eve I would sneak treats and food into my room, put them on a plate and shove it under my bed because duh, that’s where monsters hide.
We used to have this little dog Blackie and one Christmas my Mom found him in my room halfway under the bed and from the sounds of it he was busy chewing on something.
She pulled him out and his face was smeared with gravy and frosting. He was chewing on a roll of Lifesavers candies from my Lifesavers Christmas Storybook.
He got loose and dove back under the bed.
She pulled him out again and this time he was dragging the plate with him.
I think most of the turkey was gone, but there was still a lot of goodies on the goodie plate.
Too bad Mom took it, there was still enough on that plate for a couple of monsters and a dog.
My Dad saw my Mom carrying the goodie plate to the garbage bin under the sink and he asked, ” What the hell was that mess.”
My Mom told him where she found it.
I was right behind her giving her the evil eye the entire time.
” Are you crazy?” He asked my six year old self ” what did you do that for?”
I glared at him too and stomped off.
They wouldn’t understand I thought. But had I told them I was leaving food for the Wolfman and the Mummy they probably would have understood.
This is why:
One Christmas I saw my Mom in the kitchen cutting up Turkey and Ham that she had just taken off of the serving platter. She cut it up and mixed in with our dog’s regular dried food.
When I saw her doing that I was surprised.
She wasn’t a pet person for the most part.
I asked her outright why was she giving the dog so much turkey and ham and she said, ” Because it’s their Christmas too.”
We’ve had several dogs over the years and she still does that.
Now days I’m willing to I will bet the Wolfman would have benefitted from her generosity too.
Apparently this dog named Moose, who played the wolf that bites Lawrence Talbot, totally became buddies with Lon Chaney Jr. on the set of The Wolf Man and followed him around wherever he went.
So now I’m 51, I still love my Monsters and at Christmas I have this little plate of treats that I will set up on a high shelf where the dog can’t get it.
I’m a little disappointed when the treats are there the next day, because I was sure, I was positive that the creatures were stirring in my house.
Maybe next Christmas I think as I take the treats down from the shelf.
And then I say what I’ve been saying since I was five years old:
Maybe next year.
