Mythical Mysteries

Two things used to scare the bejeepers out of me when I was the impressionable tender age of 6 (or thereabouts).   The first and probably the worst thing that scared me was Army Ants.  While I was over at a friends house, I saw a movie I would have never been alowed to see at home about gigantic, truck squashing, human eating ants.  My Mommy had to contend with all the nightmares I had after seeing these mammoth creatures ravage towns and villages, eating whatever was in their path.  I believe the movie may have been the one pictured on the right, but I'm not sure.  While I wouldn't condone seeing a movie titled thusly if it were made in the past few decades, I believe this one was made somewhere around the early 50s and so is less likely to be as revealing as the title suggests.  I can't recall seeing anything I wasn't supposed to see, but I was too busy hiding from the ants to worry about whether or not there were scantily clad people on the screen.   I just knew that these giant ants would seek out my house and my window to be their next target for pillaging and human flesh consumption.  I somehow managed to survive those years without these critters finding me.  I did develop a liking for killing as many ants as I could, regardless of the size of the ant or the size of their army.  

The second thing that gave me nightmares of the same ilk happened to be another movie; "Big-foot" which I saw in the theatre.  Oh, and don't you know that the big screen makes nightmares even bigger in your mind.  I'll not forget the scene where some girl was sitting in her living room watching tv.  There were a couple of windows behind her and a large shadowy figure kept moving about the porch outside.  It was when she heard a noise and went to check it out at one window that a gigantic arm broke through the other window and a frantic struggle for life and death ensued.  It was also at the moment of the window crash and the accompanying musical climax that I spilled a large movie soda all over myself.   During the sticky ride home my big sister did her level best to convince me that we had just seen a true story with live footage.  Aren't sisters wonderful.  Years later, I would finally put together that if there were camera men in the room filming the live footage of the monster crashing in the window, they would have surely warned the little girl about his presence.  

Last week, the inner child I am possessed of, was momentarily appeased.  Last week some guys in Georgia found Big-Foot dead.  They say they have him in a freezer there and are providing DNA and Photographic evidence of their story.  They also say the there were other Big-Foots (or is it Big-Feet) meandering about the area, so while I can take some solace in the passing of a terror, there is still the looming possibility of a Mrs. Foot and Junior Foot out there to give me pause.  

On a side note, they've also captured police footage of the Mexican legend Chupacabra.  What's next, Loch Ness?

Have a great day

Tom