Friday Flotsam

Frrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrieeeedieeeeee.

Let’s play a game! This is called: Tell Me What Movie Moment Traumatized You as a Kid.

I’ll go first because we all know the obvious, if you’re a Gen X kid. The moment that changed everything. And that was Artax in the quick sand in NeverEnding Story. Hands down, saddest thing ever. “ARTAAAAAAX”. Awful! Scarred for life! By the way, what ever happened to quick sand? We were all sooo terrified of it in the ’80s and I feel like that was probably unnecessary.

But listen, I have another one. And this one is going to knock your fragile emotions right out of your rib cage. Sorry to do this to you, but it was in Man in the Moon when young Jason London (swoon) fell off his tractor when he tried to grab his hat off that limb and the tractor RAN OVER HIM. And his mom found him. And then baby Reese Witherspoon found her hugging and crying over him and he was all bloody and it was just terrible! Remember that? Traumatized forever! We all thought our teen boyfriends were going to get chopped up by a tractor in the middle of a field. Don’t tell me you didn’t think that, too. Horrible.

I have one more. If you can rightly take it.

And that was the moment in Slugs (1988) when the man puts on his gardening glove in the greenhouse (which was incredible and I wanted it) and there’s a nasty poisonous (venomous?) SLUG in it and it’s eating his hand and he has to chop off his own hand!!! Do you remember this? Horrific! This is why Gen X is so messed up slash super tough. We witnessed these movie moments as children to prepare us for today.

Okay your turn. Tell me what movie moment completely effed you up as a youngin.

Speaking of childhood, I put pet milk in my coffee this morning and I was immediately back in 1982.

To clarify, not my pet’s milk. But Pet Milk. Like, evaporated milk. Not condensed milk, but evaporated. Ivory in color, sweet in taste. Don’t ask me what makes it evaporated, but if you don’t take the little can and poke a tiny hole with a paring knife in one side of the lid, wiggle it, and then another one of the opposite side of the lid for airflow, you’re not a true child of the eighties. This is what my mom did, and did I question it? Nope.

Really though, quick sand. Like where did we think we were going to encounter it?

Did you see Sarah McLachlan’s putting out a new album? Just going to let that soak in.

Weekend plans?

We get the kids tomorrow morning! It’s been a wildly productive week, but oh man do I ache for those little shits. Already can’t wait to hear them fight on the drive home over who gets to tell what stories first.

Today I plan to hit a couple of estate sales (and maybe make it a reel?) and hunt down two more books for my summer pile. Meeting up with a friend tonight to visit another friend who had major surgery and is bidridden for a while. We’ll cheer her up! Finishing One Golden Summer and that’s truly about it. Wrap up Dave Barry’s book on Turning 50 for Aaron on Father’s Day. Bahahahaha. (he’s not 50, but close enough.)

I do have a mixtape for you! Give it some ear love, will ya?

Okay, traumatic movie moments. Spill it!

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11 Responses to Friday Flotsam

  1. Beverly June 13, 2025 at 9:57 am #
    There was a movie that involved a serial killer being dressed as a scarecrow on a farm and then involved a corn bin that people were trapped in - and the corn starting piling in. It was horrifying. We lived near several farms when I was younger and even though I never set foot on any of them (and none of them had scarecrows), I was scared to get near a farm for years! Every time I drive by a farm, this movie is what I think about. And I can't even recall the name of the movie!
  2. Caryn June 13, 2025 at 9:58 am #
    Poseidon Adventure. I wasn’t even allowed to watch Care Bears growing up, but Poseidon Adventure my parents were happy with. I can’t hear Auld Lang Syne without thinking about all the drowning people. Trau-matic.
  3. Diane June 13, 2025 at 10:04 am #
    Amityville Horror…when the family is FINALLY fleeing the house and they forgot their dog in the basement!! I was a wreck (my poor Dad). Spoiler alert…the dad ran back in and grabbed the dog. The relief I felt…I can still feel it 45 years later. 🫠
  4. Erica June 13, 2025 at 10:34 am #
    A made for TV movie in 1997. I looked it up it was called Final Descent. A commercial airlplane gets a tiny hole in it after they collide with a jet. A little boy notices it and tells the crew. It proceeds to get bigger and it was burned into my memory of a flight attendant getting sucked out of the whole! TERRIFYING!! I use to fly out by myself to see my grandma in the summer when I was a kid and I thought of this incident EVERY time.
  5. Nancy June 13, 2025 at 10:52 am #
    Let me begin by saying I'm of a certain age so you have probably never heard of Vincent Price but he was in some movies based on Edgar Allan Poe's books. One of them (either The Pit and The Pendulum or The Fall of the House of Usher) ended with a scene where they opened a casket and the body of a woman was inside and when rigor mortis had set in, her hands were up like she was trying to claw her way out. So basically she was buried alive and between that and the kidnapping of a girl IRL back in the 60's who was buried alive, that became my biggest fear for years and years. Kinda still is but I'm hoping no one wants a 65+ yo woman! Enjoy your weekend!
  6. Gisele June 13, 2025 at 11:02 am #
    The flying monkeys in Wizard of Oz. Hundreds (and hundreds!) Flying thru the air, in the dark, then landing on the ground chasung Dorothy, and scooping her up with their talons... and flying away with her. OMGaaaaawwwwwd! I know, I know... you're laughing! This is not a horror film. I'm 65yrs old and have never watched a horror film! The musical arrangement behind that scene makes it feel WAY worse! Music is everything! I still mute the volume when that scene is about to take place. :o( Speaking of music... I love the June mix tape. Sah-weeeeeet!
  7. Cynthia Robinson June 13, 2025 at 11:20 am #
    The opening scene (ok, maybe more than just that one scene) from Jaws. Need I say more? To this day, 50 years later, I still look over my shoulder, or look under me, during those very infrequent times when I'm swimming the ocean. I am definitely scarred for life.
  8. Kristin June 13, 2025 at 11:27 am #
    Just one? Ditto to the flying monkeys in Wizard of Oz. I hid behind an ottoman. Ditto to Man in the Moon. So sad! I made my dad leave the theater when the boys turned into donkeys in Pinocchio, and I was terrified of the Oompa Loompas in the original Willie Wonka. I'm kind of pathetic. Also, did you read Dave Barry's piece about his first colonoscopy before you had yours?
  9. Nicole June 13, 2025 at 11:39 am #
    Carrie… a bucket of blood says it all. The '70s—what a wild time.
  10. Tish June 13, 2025 at 12:59 pm #
    Cracking knuckles; going in: The show Life Goes On---Corky's sister was dating a guy who passed from AIDS and it GUTTED me. THE scene from Steel Magnolias when she yells "Whyyyyyyyyy" My Girl ... "where are his glasses?! He can't see without his glasses!" The Land Before Time Fire in the Sky My So-Called Life "So-Called Angeles" episode...Rickie being homeless...the girl with a hole in her boot. Now I need to go cry.
  11. Kristy June 14, 2025 at 1:00 am #
    Poltergeist! Pretty much the entire movie. From the skeletons in the pool, the tree eating the son, the terrifying clowns (which I still HATE because of this movie), the guy ripping off half his face to the end final boss ghost that screamed when the mom opened the door! And so many other scenes! Scarred for life. If the tv ever goes to static, I'm out of there. 😄

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