The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
There are some moments in a person's childhood that had such a profound effect on you at the time that you carry them into adulthood. You can remember every emotion as if it happened yesterday; instantly you are five or seven or ten again.
Something happened when I was six that I can never, ever forget.
It was right around Halloween. My elementary school was decked out in cardboard skeletons and witches, the pieces held together with grommets so they could be posed in all sorts of spooky ways. Teachers had tacked orange and black paper up over the bulletin boards and covered them with drawings made by the kids of pumpkins and ghosts. Everyone was abuzz with what they were going to dress up as for Halloween (I was going to be Annie, my hero.).
One day, a couple of teachers combined the second grade classes and led us all into a room that was empty with the exception of a television that was holding court at the front. Nothing is more exciting when your a kid than walking into a classroom that has a television. That usually means no math! No phonix! No nothing educational! Sure enough the teachers had us sit on the floor and told us they had a surprise. They were going to show us Disney's cartoon "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". Great! I'd never heard of it before but it sounded cool and everyone else was excited. The film started to roll. There went Ichabod Crane's unfortunate nose followed by the rest of him, and boy, that sure is a gloomy path he's on...
Then, the horror. I watched the rest of the movie through my fingers and by the end I had to remind myself to breathe. I've never been so glad to have a movie end in my entire life. The rest of the kids, however, loved it. They loved it so much in fact, the teachers decided to play it again.
I don't think I slept for two weeks after that, and I haven't seen it since.
That was 25 years ago. I told this story to Dave on the ride home from Boston. I also told him I've been trying hard to face some of my fears lately so I can let them go, and so perhaps it was time for me to watch Walt Disney's "Legend of Sleepy Hollow". So tonight, at approximately 9 PM, Dave and I will be sitting on the couch, firing up the VCR, unless it's available on DVD.
And I have no doubt I will be clutching Dave for dear life the entire 35 minutes.