the fly: the original still has it

HELP ME!  HELP MEEEEE!

Halloween has just changed since we were kids.  The neighborhoods are not crowded with little kids out trick-or-treating like they used to do.  Schools no longer have Halloween Carnivals, but rather Fall Festivals and parents now take their kids to no spooky Trunk-or-Treats.  I'm not complaining, it's just not the same.

My girls like chili and so I decided to make the day a little special by teaching them how to make the stuff.  Gina wanted us to drive out to Glencoe and cook it over at her mother's house which is now vacant after she passed away last December.  We are about to lease the house, and Gina wanted to spend a little time there as a family.  We did.

Nothing much goes on in our neighborhood in Southside, so we were thinking that College Street in Glencoe might be teaming with children.  Katie wanted to give out candy this year.  Gina bought candy, the good stuff, for Katie to give away.  As the chili was simmering and the Mexican cornbread baking, Gina took Kelsey trick-or-treating the old fashioned way.

Even though I lit the house up with candles and lit plastic pumpkins, not a single visit from area children.  No one was out.  Maybe the shower kept the children in, but that kind of rain would not have kept me in when I was a kid. Katie and I killed time talking and cutting up, while waiting for Gina and Kelsey to return. The smell of the chili and cornbread was beckoning me.

Gina and Kelsey returned after a 45 minute walk around the neighborhood.  Most of the residents in the neighborhood seemed to not be participating. Those that did, kindly offered stuff they could dig up quickly from their kitchens.

Nevertheless, as different a Halloween night as it was, it was a good time together.  We ate the chili, talked and laughed together.  We cleaned up, took out the trash, locked up and came home.  Gina wanted to watch an old horror movie.  She wanted to show the girls THE FLY (1958).  I told her that I found it on Netflix and had it on my favorites list to watch this week.  That's how she wanted to spend the rest of the evening...watching a campy old horror classic.

The movie was made the same year I was born.  I was surprised that Katie and Kelsey were captivated by the story.  I had no idea how an old movie like that still maintained it's creepy factor.  I remember watching it as a boy, and it did it's job of creeping me out pretty good.  I didn't think it could still be as potent all these decades later with a young audience acclimated to the super realistic special f/x of today.  I can attest to the fact that THE FLY has still got it!

I made one mistake tonight. Right at the end of the movie, right as the spider neared the fly, I reached out and touched Kelsey as she was tensely crouched on the couch next to her mother.  She shot straight up off the couch...launched like a rocket she did.  I am afraid that scared the living daylights out of her.

Bad dad...bad-bad dad!