Memories. Ahhh Yes, Memories of My Life

Halloween, Circa 1988

Halloween, Circa 1988

         Tonight I'm going back in time, in fact, a long time ago. Let's go back almost 35 years. It was Halloween, I'm pretty sure it was 1988. I was still in the Navy and on my second shore tour. I was stationed at the Trident Training Facility, Bangor Washington. This was a base that I really loved, and for good reason. How many military bases can you think of where you might wake up one day and find a mountain lion sunning itself on a rock in your backyard? Or a base where you can get a pass and go down to a little used pier an either fish, or catch Dungeness Crab, or both? Or perhaps visit an old Apple Orchard in the fall and pick apples from the trees... Anyway, about this particular night.

         A I mentioned in the title, it was very close to Halloween. My command was running a Haunted House so I thought I'd take some of the kids to visit it. Only of the 3 wanted to go, and the baby couldn't go of course. So we walked to it because my command was less than a half mile from the house. When we arrived, we were shown to a door that wasn't normally used and entered the haunted house. It was a short walk down a hallway. A hallway that had spider webs dangling from the ceiling, low enough to brush across a child's face.

         I have to stop for a moment and tell you a little bit about my oldest son. He was 4 at the time, and nothing, I mean NOTHING scared him. Except Werewolves.

         So we walked down the hall, my son even commented that there wasn't anything scary so far. We came to a dimly lit open space that had a man lying in a coffin, or so it seemed. He would wave his arms weakly and beg us to help him. You see, his abdomen had been 'opened up', we could see stuff inside. A man in a long white jacket walked up and started explaining that this man had come in complaining that his stomach hurt, so they did a little surgery to open him up, and discovered what we were seeing. He even picked up some of the stuff in his abdomen and showed it to us as blood dripped from it. I guess my 6 year old daughter was looking on in horror, because the 'mad scientist' looked at her and said, "Is your stomach hurting you? You don't look so good, c'mere, we'll check your out." Needless to say, she was hiding as best she could behind me!

         Our next stop was in what was our Diesel Generator lab. Except it was empty! Not for long though, because we heard the unmistakable sounds of a chain saw being started. Then from behind the Diesel strode a tall man wearing a hockey mask. That's all my daughter could handle. She grabbed my hand and proceeded to pull my arm down, at the same time she used her leg to climb up the side of my body! I helped her a little bit, until she was sitting on my shoulders. Not satisfied with things yet, she proceeded to hit my head and yell, "Run Daddy, Run!" We left as fast as we could, but my son wanted to see more of the man wielding the chain saw.

         After leaving the Diesel Generator room we were in another hallway. Chained to the wall was a Werewolf! He kept pawing at us, trying to grab us, but we were too far away. Suddenly one of the chains broke and he could just about reach us! It was at that moment that my brave son had seen enough, and he took off running down the hallway.

         I have to tell you that the Werewolf was chained using plastic chains taped to the wall with Duct Tape. The Duct Tape came loose, allowing him to almost grab us. I related this story to all my children several times. I think I embellished it a little more each time too, but this version has not been embellished. At least not according to my memory. Of course, this did happen 35 years ago.


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Jim Dorrell