Haunted 70s

 

Is there an English word for fun and terror? A word that contains elements of both, yet transcends the pair? Something like the German schadenfreude, I guess, though funterror (pronounced with the accent on the last syllable, i.e., fun-ter-ROR!) doesn’t seem to pack the same punch as what it’s meant to convey.

 

I write this because a few days ago I was comparing childhoods with my not-so-little Little Ones, trying to convince them that my childhood had this degree of funterror (fun-ter-ROR!) that I hoped I was able to institute into their lives. Now, I realize this sounds downright, well, insane, but, trust me, for a kid when the fun in funterror slightly outweighs the terror, then it’s completely a thousand times worth it.

 

But I don’t think the degree of funterror I experienced in the late-70s as a tween compares to what our kids experience nowadays. Haven’t really thought deep about it, but I think social media has something to do with it. Removing the fun, that is, and jacking up the terror. Closely followed by the Internet, where with a few clicks in a few minutes any exciting and fascinating unexplained mysterious phenomenon can be swiped away of all fascination.

 

These musings prompted me to write up a list of all the terrifying fun I had from 1977 to 1980. I called it “Haunted 70s”, and here is an edited list:

 

The creepy woods behind my house …

The rumor at school of that chopped up body found in a cardboard box behind the woods in my house …

Snippets from the news: Love Canal, 

Three Mile Island, Jonestown …

The death of John Lennon and first hearing “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” …

The “lonely tree” in the neighbor’s yard, leafless in the fall moonlight, right outside my bedroom window …

UFOs everywhere …

Sasquatch everywhere …

Will Skylab fall on me or my house? …

Building models of monsters … Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, the wolfman …

Movies: The Blob, The Fly, The Omen, The Exorcist, The Legend of Boggy Creek …

Certain Star Trek episodes – the Horta, Landru, 

the flying pizzas …

The 001.94 section of the library where my mother worked …

The Hammer horror films shown on the ABC 4:30 movie after school …

Chariots of the Gods and The Man Who Saw Tomorrow …

The Son of Sam killings in the news …

The Salem’s Lot miniseries watched right before we slept alone in the basement …

The Jesus Tree at Fordham University …

The Night Stalker watched late at night on our little black-and-white TV …

In Search Of with Leonard Nimoy, especially the bigfoot and flying saucer episodes …

The episode of the original Superman where the little bald aliens look in the open window of the boy’s window (a personal nightmare for single-digit me) …

 

There, those’re just the ones I feel comfortable posting semi-anonymously. One day I hope my not-so-little ones will come up with lists of their own. And we can all share together outside at night around a roaring campfire …