Kitchen Costuming

Strange occurrences at the places I live have become the norm in the last thirty years.  I recently came across a book that I hadn’t seen in twenty-five years.  It was one of those things I should have gotten rid of years ago, but yet here it was thrown in a forgotten box collecting layers of dust.

In September 1977, there was a book published called “The Amityville Horror.” I wanted to read this book, but with daily care of a young child, that seemed impossible so I passed on buying it. By 1981, my oldest son was two years old and I was pregnant with the second one. I found myself often tired and not wanting to get out of bed much, but it was around the holidays so I eventually needed to go shopping for Christmas items.  It was now a couple of years since the book was published in paperback and it was no longer prevalent on the store shelves, so I had quite forgotten about it. As I was standing in line at the cash register, I caught a glimpse of the book on a bottom shelf and decided to buy it.

George and Kathy Lutz moved into the house in Amityville on December 23, 1975.  This was close to the time I had actually bought the book…just a coincidence perhaps.

With my son playing quietly beside me in the bed, I was able to find some time to read.  As I was making my way through the chapters, I thought about the unusual stuff that had happened to us in our own house.  I kept thinking that if this Amityville story was true, then these people went through some weird experiences. One chapter talked about the house being plagued by flies despite the winter weather; another, about the Lutz’s five year old daughter who developed an imaginary friend, a demonic pig-like creature with glowing red eyes; and then, the priest who blessed the house would run a high fever whenever he would think about the house.

Naturally, these incidences made for an interesting story, but they didn’t really make an impression on me until the crisp December morning when I walked into my kitchen and found dozens of flies congregating on the inside patio doors.  It freaked me out to say the least as I managed to swat to death the last fly, only to come back an hour later to more flies.  A week or so later, my two year old told me he saw a pig looking in his bedroom window. I never talked about this book to my young son.  By now, all I could think about were the strange demonic happenings in the Amityville house.  I began to run a fever and got very sick with flu-like symptoms.  This lasted about 24 hours and no one else in the house got sick.  I wasn’t sure at this point whether I wanted to finish reading the book, but continued on.

One of the last lines of the book read, “On January 14, 1976 George and Kathy Lutz, with their three children and their dog Harry, left 112 Ocean Avenue leaving most of their possessions behind.” As I closed the book, I realized that the day’s date was January 14, 1982.

As this is Memorial Day, I wanted to write a tribute to my Dad because he passed away three weeks before I was born and I never got to know him.

James Marion Winter was in the Army during World War II and the Korean War.  The only stories I have of him were through my mother and I’m sure her memories became sweeter with time, painting him bigger than life for me. I know he was a captain and at one point used to run cable lines ahead of the troops for communication purposes.  There was a time during WWII that he was doing his job high above the ground when a mortar shell exploded nearby knocking him down.  He managed to live through that but sustained injuries from vertebrate crammed into his brain.  He either had a benign tumor already or developed one from his injuries.  He lived for years until the headaches became so severe that doctors at Fort Simmons Army Hospital in Colorado decided to operate.  Unfortunately, the doctors in 1953 did not have the skills and resources for delicate brain surgery like they do today.  My mother was nearly nine months pregnant with me and had an eighteen month old child back in Arizona.  It did not surprise me that she wanted to keep his memory alive as her knight in shining armor.

I had no real emotional connection with my Dad until Saving Private Ryan came out.  The opening scene took place at a military cemetery.  My thoughts were flooded by a similar memory of my sister and I in our twenties roaming the cemetery in Denver looking for my Dad’s grave.  From that moment in the movie, I began to cry.  Tom Hank’s character became the image of my Dad and the tears were non-stop as I held my son, Shaun’s hand, through the entire movie.  I found the emotional connection with my Dad that day as I literally sobbed for another two hours when I got home.  I have never been able to see Saving Private Ryan again.

The horrors of war take a toll on everyone.  Please be grateful for all of the men and women who serve this country so we can live the lives we have.  Savor your memories of those who have fallen and never forget that they did this out of love for this country and their families.

I have spent quite a bit of time working on one of the pages to this blog.  Please take some time to check out “My Family” page as it has lots of interesting information about my two sons (and a couple of their small video projects).  Thanks!

Ugly witches, bed-sheeted ghosts, and ghoulish zombies are on the prowl again.  There is a chill in the air and…wait a minute, wasn’t it in the low nineties today approaching 100 degrees by this coming weekend?  It’s not Halloween?  Oh! I know!  There are lords and ladies, gypsies and pirates swinging swords and turkey legs. The Renaissance Festival is commencing!  But of course… now that I think of it… Ren faire just ended about a month ago.  Let’s see…the stormtroopers are out in force along with the X-men and Ghostbusters.  It must be Comicon! No…hmmm…we already did that… or, are we going to do that?  Now I know I saw Batman, Catwoman, Scarecrow, and the Joker.  I guess that means it could only be one thing…

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY

www.freecomicbookday.com

AZspidey and friends are really trying to get some mileage out of their Halloween costumes this year. (continue reading…)

My Twitter friend, Sarah, likes to put together haunted attractions.  This year she would like to have some clowns that resemble the ones in the Chiodo Brothers production of Killer Klowns from Outer Space.  The film is a 1988 American comedy horror movie, made by The Chiodo Brothers ( www.chiodobros.com ). The film is about aliens (who look like clowns) that arrive on Earth to capture and harvest people in order to use them as sustenance…mmmm…yummy (More info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_Klowns_from_Outer_Space).

These clowns are pretty creepy, so I could see how they would work in a haunted attraction. Although I have been known to make a clown costume, it was never as scary as a killer clown.       

The closest I have come to a spooky costume was when I made Frank the Rabbit from the Donnie Darko movie (another cult classic) for AZspidey’s friend, Ron.

Of course the part I was sewing was the fluffy bunny body, which if worn separately from the mask, couldn’t scare a bunch of carrots (Hey, I live in a world around animators; of course carrots can be afraid. They can even scream!).  The mask was purchased online, but was not painted.  AZspidey completed the final touches on it for that special ‘don’t even think you’re gonna to make it home’ look.

How could Ron see (or pee) you may ask?  Let’s just say somehow he found a way!  See you in an another universe, Frank!