Spread that Jello
Movie Clip of Mr. Sardonicus
1965 was a good year. I was a happy 8-year old kid living in a small house in Kenmore New York just outside of Buffalo.It’s funny, when you’re eight years old, the world you know is big and small at the same time. It’s big enough that each day brings new wonders to experience but small enough to embrace those wonders unencumbered by the weight of any serious responsibilities.
The world of an 8-year old also has the potential to be filled with unimaginable terror!!
Today’s generation of desensitized 8-year olds would laugh out loud at this film. But in 1965 America, to an overly active and highly imaginative mind, this scene from the 1961 horror flick Mr. Sardonicus imprinted on my visual cortex an image so shocking that it literally prevented me from closing my eyes for days.
Now, in case you’re wondering, I wasn’t looking to torture myself with this image. It was a hot summer’s Friday night as I sleepily made my way downstairs to hit the one bathroom in our small home.
At the base of the stairs was located our family’s old Zenith console black and white television and my mom who along with The Dick Van Dyke Show liked to watch the Friday Fright Night Late Show.
Well, barely awake and still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, this cheaply made horror scene greeted my unsuspecting eyeballs as I turned to find out what the crescendo of Transylvanian gothic music was all about.
My 8-year old eyeballs bulged from their sockets as they sucked in every pixel our black and white Zenith could muster showing this creepy dude’s ridiculous sardonic grin.
If at that moment in my young life I had needed open-heart surgery the team of Doctors would have found my heart stopped completely and could have proceeded unimpeded to replace as many veins, arteries or whatever else was attached to that lifeless organ.
Like Medusa, my body had turned to stone!!!
This was serious terror!! We’re talking life changing stuff here. Anyone familiar with Bill Cosby and the Chicken Heart that ate New York City will know that I was spreading some serious jello that night to protect myself from the monster downstairs.
Why do I bring this up, because the mind can be a dangerous thing if left alone unattended. It’s gathering information from our five senses all day every day.
I’m very careful these days about what I feed my mind both visually and audibly. Very careful!
Each day I fill my workspace with the sound of audio books from our local library. I listen to inspirational biographies of people who overcame great obstacles and audio sermons of my favorite preacher Charles Spurgeon.
Right now I’m listening to Helen Keller’s autobiography “My Life”.
Talk about overcoming obstacles!! What a glorious example of applied human potential!!
My aim is to be continuously intentional about the personal growth I seek. Staying conscious and master of the moment takes total concentration and effort or we slip into subconscious habits and routines outside the parameters of our best intentions.
The constant bombardment of influences all around us both subtle and overt inevitably take their toll on our minds with the aim of leading us unconsciously back to the “herd”.
To stay alert and conscious of what I will and won’t allow into the “Main Frame” that is my mind is critical to the success of my ebay adventure and the “Life” I seek to live.
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