Weekly Halloween: Vampires at the Park

 

I've mentioned the Satanic Panic that was running rampant during my childhood before... and that's why I can't hear this song without strongly thinking about it. Add in the particular dramatic nature of teenagers and you've got probably one of the most ridiculous things one could be afraid of. Everyone is accustomed to the goth kids in high school, but they're a little bit of an oddity still when you're only in elementary. Headbangers? Oh yeah, you knew about those. Punks and Goths? That took a little growing to understand more. So there I was in the era of Satan around every corner and everything being a satanic message. For the record, I also had a teen-aged brother and his friends filling me about things. 

I knew about the cult that sacrificed people in the woods behind school (that one may have been real), and how Dio stood for Devil Inside Out (no really). Those kids in all black at the park? They were vampires. They worshiped the devil and drank blood. The guy who worked at the Circle K who was really into Ozzy Osbourne also worshiped the devil and drank blood, however wasn't a vampire. Just really evil. So here I was, a kid (those aren't easily scared, are they?) being told the honest truth about all these horrors going on all around me. 

Then the Lost Boys came out and that teen-aged brother and his friends? They might have been into the new hot movie for teenagers that just came out. With a popular song and music video! Lou Gramm may look fancy with his poofy man perm, but that's pure terror in that music video. Scenes of that movie with vampires that look like those kids at the park. Lou Gramm and ... whoever that kid is... stuck on the trailer from King of the Road with a bunch of ... are they vampires?

My point is that it terrified me for a few weeks there. I'd like to say it left me traumatized... but I was a kid and moved onto other things that was apparently also satanic. Before I went through my own all black clothing phase, I was also apparently satanic. This though was because I was a weird kid and liked scary stuff. Why the hell do I look back fondly on my childhood again?