Writer's Block: Too scary!!

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The school bus. I had a ton of wacky superstitions regarding them. First of all, I couldn't ever sit on the left side of the bus because I believed that when the bus made a right turn I would fall out of my seat, roll down the aisle, and fall out the door. (And lol, now I think about it that might not have been too outrageous; at my kindergarten weight, they probably should have legally been required to give me a safety harness). I also believed that only only could you not "stand forward of the yellow line while the bus is in motion," but you couldn't stand on the yellow line itself. The yellow line was actually a trap door that you would fall through into a net which would drag you along the street as the bus drove onward.

It probably didn't help things that my first bus driver was really mean. She had a reputation for being mean amongst everyone, but she didn't even have a fighting chance with me when on the very first day of kindergarten she refused to drop me off in front of my house. Our kindergarten bus was supposed to be door-to-door service, but she stopped at the corner of the main street in my subdivision and my street and asked if I was supposed to get off there. Maybe she was referring to the entire street (asking if she should turn down the street in order to get to my house?), but where she had stopped was not my house and that sent me into a panic. That may sound silly, but at five years old I literally did not know my way around my own neighborhood. I could recognize this corner was a landmark I usually saw on the way to my house, but I didn't know how to get from that point to my house itself. I said this wasn't the right place, this wasn't my house-- but she and a couple other kids kept insisting it was my stop. I was in tears by the time they finally convinced me to get off the bus.

I guess since it was the first time her firstborn was riding the school bus my mom was extra vigilant and thought to check out possible alternate bus stops just in case there was some confusion, because within a matter of minutes she found me. I hadn't wandered too far from the corner. She called the bus garage that night and I was always dropped off at my house after that, but I remember being really upset about that first day.

Edit (4:50 pm): And speaking of bizarre childhood beliefs, when I was too young to understand the concept of history and past vs. present (maybe age 4?), I thought that "history" happened at night-- that is, when we went to sleep, all the cowboys, Indians, dinosaurs, etc, came out and lived out their stories. (Kind of like Night at the Museum, only all over the world, and with no relationship to wax figures or dioramas). One night my mom was hosting a dinner party and had put my sister and me to bed. However, I kept sneaking out of my room to the stair landing to watch the guests come in, wondering what they were going to do when the cowboys and Indians came out and needed to use our house. One of them finally alerted my mom, who came upstairs to put me back to bed, and I had trouble explaining to my mom just why I was so concerned. She probably thought I was making things up just to get attention and delay going to bed, lol.

Edit (10:53): Ack I can't believe I forgot this one! Ever since I saw Darby O'Gill and the Little People I have been terrified to walk through my family's dining room at night because the way the light shines through the window on the wall takes an eerie similarly-colored shape to the banshee in the film. Not everyone has seen this film, but if you were someone who saw it as a kid tell me if that fucking banshee did not scare the living shit out of you.

It was hilarious when Robert showed me this Top 11 Scariest Nostalgic Kids' Film moments and was like "Unfortunately it's lame because I don't even know what the #1 is." So then we watched it and I was like OH MY FUCKING GOD NO HE IS RIGHT. HE IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. AND THAT CREATURE RUINED MY DINING ROOM.

Writer's Block: Too scary!!

[Error: unknown template qotd]

The school bus. I had a ton of wacky superstitions regarding them. First of all, I couldn't ever sit on the left side of the bus because I believed that when the bus made a right turn I would fall out of my seat, roll down the aisle, and fall out the door. (And lol, now I think about it that might not have been too outrageous; at my kindergarten weight, they probably should have legally been required to give me a safety harness). I also believed that only only could you not "stand forward of the yellow line while the bus is in motion," but you couldn't stand on the yellow line itself. The yellow line was actually a trap door that you would fall through into a net which would drag you along the street as the bus drove onward.

It probably didn't help things that my first bus driver was really mean. She had a reputation for being mean amongst everyone, but she didn't even have a fighting chance with me when on the very first day of kindergarten she refused to drop me off in front of my house. Our kindergarten bus was supposed to be door-to-door service, but she stopped at the corner of the main street in my subdivision and my street and asked if I was supposed to get off there. Maybe she was referring to the entire street (asking if she should turn down the street in order to get to my house?), but where she had stopped was not my house and that sent me into a panic. That may sound silly, but at five years old I literally did not know my way around my own neighborhood. I could recognize this corner was a landmark I usually saw on the way to my house, but I didn't know how to get from that point to my house itself. I said this wasn't the right place, this wasn't my house-- but she and a couple other kids kept insisting it was my stop. I was in tears by the time they finally convinced me to get off the bus.

I guess since it was the first time her firstborn was riding the school bus my mom was extra vigilant and thought to check out possible alternate bus stops just in case there was some confusion, because within a matter of minutes she found me. I hadn't wandered too far from the corner. She called the bus garage that night and I was always dropped off at my house after that, but I remember being really upset about that first day.

Edit (4:50 pm): And speaking of bizarre childhood beliefs, when I was too young to understand the concept of history and past vs. present (maybe age 4?), I thought that "history" happened at night-- that is, when we went to sleep, all the cowboys, Indians, dinosaurs, etc, came out and lived out their stories. (Kind of like Night at the Museum, only all over the world, and with no relationship to wax figures or dioramas). One night my mom was hosting a dinner party and had put my sister and me to bed. However, I kept sneaking out of my room to the stair landing to watch the guests come in, wondering what they were going to do when the cowboys and Indians came out and needed to use our house. One of them finally alerted my mom, who came upstairs to put me back to bed, and I had trouble explaining to my mom just why I was so concerned. She probably thought I was making things up just to get attention and delay going to bed, lol.

Edit (10:53): Ack I can't believe I forgot this one! Ever since I saw Darby O'Gill and the Little People I have been terrified to walk through my family's dining room at night because the way the light shines through the window on the wall takes an eerie similarly-colored shape to the banshee in the film. Not everyone has seen this film, but if you were someone who saw it as a kid tell me if that fucking banshee did not scare the living shit out of you.

It was hilarious when Robert showed me this Top 11 Scariest Nostalgic Kids' Film moments and was like "Unfortunately it's lame because I don't even know what the #1 is." So then we watched it and I was like OH MY FUCKING GOD NO HE IS RIGHT. HE IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. AND THAT CREATURE RUINED MY DINING ROOM.