All others must pay cash // When you do not know what you are doing, do it neatly »
Witch parking – Violators will be toad
You are a bold and courageous person. Afraid of nothing. High on a hilltop near your home there stands a dilapidated old mansion. Some say the place is haunted, but you don’t believe in such myths. One dark and stormy night a light appears in the topmost window in the tower of the old house. You decide to investigate. …And you never return!
Due to some past brain wreck, I can’t reliably recall the word for the place where we store our noodles and soup (the pantry), but I can flawlessly recite the opening oratory from track one of Disney’s Chilling Thrilling Sounds of The Haunted House.
In fact, I can clearly recall a day some 31 years past. For some inexplicable reason the scent of marshmallows filled the air as a nine-year-old me happily copied the above album cover with poster paints onto the huge picture windows on the front of our house. It was spitting rain, but I was dry on the wide front porch. My fingers were freezing!
Lots of downtown businesses had their windows painted by school kids for the Harvest Homecoming street fair/carnival, and I wanted in on it. I never got to paint those windows, but mom and dad let me completely cover our front windows with pictures of ghosts and graveyards and the best picture of a haunted house I had ever seen; that on the cover of my worn out Chilling Thrilling Sounds LP.
I can’t begin to count the number of times I listened to that old record, scrunched down in front of the stereo in the corner of the living room next to the big green vinyl recliner, the continuous hiss and pop now so familiar that it was practically part of the soundtrack. Intellectually I knew that the ghost in the hallway was just a sheet that I myself draped over the coat rack. But when that horrible Disney banshee howled “oohoo – oowaaAAAAaaaahhruu! Oohoo – oowaaAAAaaahhrrrruuuuhhhhh!!!”, you bet I was hiding under whatever was handy. Terrifying. Wonderful!
You still hear bits of “cat fight” and “thunder lightning and rain” on the radio and tv even today. Usually as a backdrop for a spot about the local Jaycee’s haunted house. Some things really do never change, and for that I think I’ll always be grateful.
Incidentally, the alternate word for pantry in our house is the “food garage”.
Haunted Dimensions – Tribute to Chilling Thrilling Sounds
MP3s – I figure it’s fair use if you have the album already
Here’s a special treat – 1979 Chilling Thrilling Sounds
Ahhh the memories. I remember as a kid, when Halloween came around, my dad would pull this record from the shelf, along with another (I can’t remember the name of it right now). We would dim the the lights and all huddle around the speakers. It used to get me so worked up, I couldn’t fall asleep for hours afterwards. Left me looking in closets and under beds. Those were the days. I almost forgot about this record, untill you brought it up. Thanks.
I love that album too. I am going to be putting up some links on my blog of the album. That is if I can figure out how to put them up.