My sister is 8 years younger than me so before she was born my parents had a room built in the attic, well half of the attic. My new room was off of the kitchen. The stairs to the attic is what we used as a pantry to store canned goods but now it would be the entrance to my room.
Prior to being my room, the attic was an interesting adventure to enjoy in daytime only because there was an endless amount of interesting stuff stored up there. My Dad was a WWII veteran and a member of the VFW honor guard so he had an MI rifle stored up there when he did parades along with a other military clothing and helmets. He also had a German luger he brought back from the war but that was kept somewhere else. The attic wasn't a place to go when it was dark because as all 8 year olds know that 's when the ghost, headless men and other creepy things prowled the premises.
I moved in to my room in the attic when I was 8 years old. It was both cool and scary. The room was enormous. I had a bed, full size couch, desk, my own window air conditioner and a large closet. It was almost like an apartment. To my parents I was the big brother and that's true I was 8 and my sister (Rose) was Zero. I was thrilled and excited about my new room except for the sleeping part. Your imagination can really mess with you. There were 2 large doors that opened to the closet on either side and in the back of the closet there were 2 other large doors that lead to dark dingy attic, which was equally as large as my room and I'm sure would be sufficient space to hide 6 to 8 boogymen. I was sure it was a place that they gathered nightly to make plans for future attacks on helpless children. The steps to downstairs (freedom) in case I needed to scurry away were unfortunately near the closet, which would make an uncomfortable and tricky escape if being chased by unearthly creature, so I devised an alternate escape route through the window since it had access to the porch roof. I made all these plans at night while I lay in bed not sleeping because I had to be ready in case the closet door opened.
Have you ever laid awake in bed at night and just listen to the sounds? There are all sorts of peculiar sounds that go unnoticed during the day. Try lying awake at night in an attic room and you will hear more creepy sounds than you can imagine. You hear wind swirling, doors, windows and floors creaking and what seems like animals screeching. An 8 year old imagination will multiply the number of sounds threefold.
In the morning when I would get dressed so I could go to school or out to play I would have to go to the closet to get my clothes but I would always look to make sure the doors to the attic were closed, as well as carefully look through the closet to make sure everything was as expected. I never found anything out of the ordinary but if I had I'm sure my fleet feet would have carried me down the steps to safety at such speed that the Olympic track team would bow in my presence.
We went to the movies frequently (Rio Show) and there was quiet a number of scary movies that showed there some of which I went to but they weren't my favorite movies to see after all I had all the scary stuff I needed in my attic room. I remember one movie in particular that I refused to go see, I made up some excuse for not going but I remember the advertisement for the movie. It stating that this movie was so scary that anyone that died of a heart attack while at the movie they would be given $10,000. I mean what I'm I going to do with $10,000 if I'm dead, loved my parents but that was a risk I wasn't taking.
Have you ever watched a scary movie when the victim decides to enter a spooky dark and obviously dangerous room? You hear yourself yell at the person to run, get out as fast as they can. Well for some reason scary things are also enticing and in a way inviting, they draw you in I guess because of the imaginary danger.
I became more and more comfortable with my attic room the older I got, so much so that some nights I would go to the closet with my flashlight that I acquired shortly after moving in the room because everyone knows that shining a light on a night monster will freeze him or chase him away, anyway I would shine the light into the attic abyss and search for but not wanting to find Ghosts. I eventually would go into the attic at night again with my flashlight (the attic light had a pull chain but it was at least 6 feet away so without a flashlight I would have had to do that in total darkness), that wasn't gonna happen. We all know unimaginable things could happen while walking in 6 feet in total darkness in an attic abyss.
After I was in the attic with the lights on I would search all the crevasses including the triangular tunnel down the wall on both sides of my room in search of paranormal things and found nothing. However at the time this did not convince me that weren't hiding somewhere after all they are cagy enough to hide from adults.
I did a few more searches and came to the conclusion that we had reached some unspoken agreement to leave each other alone. After that my attic room became a haven for escape, which I spent many enjoyable hours.
My parents never understood until I was much older that my room in the attic was a scary place to an 8 year old. We all learn by our experiences even parents. Experiences can be good or bad but if I could go back today and change the experience in my attic room, I wouldn't change a thing. Experiences can expand your imagination and build character and without challenging experiences life would not be as interesting.
I'm still not all that interested in going to scary movies, but I don't mind going down to my dark and dingy wine cellar, hmm, maybe they should serve some wine at the movies.
