Shadow Void

Grandparent Memories

Grandparent Memories

This post is going to be a bit weird in that it contains couple stories in one post. It will lack any binding element to connect them. I just wanted to share a bit of my past with you.

Blueberry Bat

My dad’s parents lived in the country in a county south of where we live. My grandparents owned several acres. They farmed several of the acres. On two of those acres, they had several large, fertile blueberry bushes. Each year, we went out to pick blueberries. Sadly, we haven’t been out since I was in 4^th grade. Any way, back to the story.

I don’t remember all the different events leading up to the story. I do remember being at my grandparent’s house. Their house was a on a hill and you had to walk down the hill to get the bushes. I remember walking down with my family and my grandma. My dad might have stayed up in the house with my grandpa. See, grandpa had suffered from a stroke and didn’t get around very good. Any way, we each had our container to place the ripe berries into as we picked them. As I was picking and snacking on the berries, I came to one section of the bush. When I looked at one clump of very fat ripe berries, I noticed a bat hanging upside down. My actions must have disturbed the bat. He was screaming his little lungs at me. He must have been scared silly. I screamed out "bat".

In a heart beat, my family gathered up around me. My older brother was the "critter guy" a the time. My grandma told him to go up to the house and grab an empty Pringle’s container. My grandma always had Pringle’s in the house. Very carefully, the bat was transferred from the bush into the can. After being put into the container, the bat and my brother headed to this old storage shed. I guess, the bat was released there. I went on gathering berries.

SageBrush and Dunes

We were in Utah one year. My grandparents drove us out to this state park. I don’t remember the name of the park. We were actually on the edge of this state park. The area, we were in was filled with sand dunes and sagebrush. There must have been other plants, but I remember there being sagebrush. When we arrived, I started talking about there being rattlesnakes. Since there were rattlesnakes, I refused to get out of the car. I wouldn’t budge. I am not even sure how my grandparents and my parents managed to get me out of the car. Once they did, I enjoyed myself big time. We, my brothers and my sister, spent a good part of the time running and leaping from the top of dunes. What is completely amazing to me was that we never went back. Funny, how things something happen.

Keep in mind, that my mom's mom is my only living grandparent.

Horror

There seems to be a never ending supply of horror movies lately.  Most of them feature gore.    What I see when the trailers appear on television is a never ending supply of gore films.  Blood and guts just aren't scary to me.  It's gross.  Anymore, it seems that these movies consist of gore surrounded by plot.   I don't see the point in most of it.  I'd rather watch the old black and white horror films with all their silly special effects.  Movies like Saw, Saw 2, and Hostel seem to focus on torture and death.  Then again, these movies sell.  The question is where did we jump from the implied gore of the older horror films to the graphic horror films of today?  We've become desensitived to violence on the big screen.  It comes down to our own personal tastes.  I for one will not be seeing the gore horror flicks presently out.