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I might have written about either or both of these things before. Both happened so long ago I barely remember them. Both things - one a play, one something I saw on television - I wish I knew what they were.
First the play. I would've been four years old, tops. My mom took me to see a student play at Miami University, I believe in Oxford, Ohio, although it might've been the Middletown Campus. My memory is that we went to Oxford though. Large theater. The play was probably meant to be comical or outrageous. Trippy in some early '70s way. What I remember of it is that these yellow cylinders, which were actors inside of cloth ringed with hoops, were menacing people. I think - I took it that, anyway - they were some kind of alien invaders. They were featureless though, just tall yellow cylinder shapes, with flexible points here and there where there were rings inside the cloth. I remember one of the actors opening a door and there one was; I think they 'transformed' the actors into things like themselves, by the actor or actress stepping into one of the yellow costumes. As I say I think maybe it was meant to be comical or silly, to me it was terrifying.
Then, something on television. This happened at school. I may've been in kindergarten, but I think it was third grade. A TV was brought into the classroom mid-morning for some reason, PBS put on. I don't know why they decided to show us this. I don't remember the name of the show, I wish I did. I've tried to find it online to no avail. The show was completely boring to me at first, I barely paid attention. Some Victorian era, not that I would've known the term then, gentleman talking. One may've been doing a voiceover. The lights in the classroom were off, and I've never been a morning person, much less so when school or work is involved. Too much talking in the show. It didn't make sense. My attention wandered. Then the two men in the program went to a zoo, and suddenly something shocking happened: a crocodile swallowed one of the men whole. I remember it being shocking to all of us who were watching or half watching. This guy is suddenly attacked and swallowed up. It didn't make any sense. The guy didn't die though. In fact he spent some long amount of time, years is my sense, alive inside this crocodile, which was taken back to the guy's home. I have some vague memory, the guy writing inside the crocodile. I think his friend got it to swallow other things, let the man live some kind of life inside the stomach of the thing. I think he got out eventually. Was it a crocodile? Could it have been a snake or even hippopotamus? I just remember being bored and confused, then shocked and freaked out, but kind of amused. Why'd they show us that? I think it was supposed to be funny. I wonder what it was called.
There are other things I was exposed to as a youngster that I've not been able to identify as an adult, that nag at me. A book I read in fourth grade that involved a boy being taken in as a foster child by a dangerous man. A song I would hear on the radio in eighth grade or so whose name I've never been able to determine. I am not sure how well I recall the song now, but in my sophomore year of college I heard a band cover it. I went up and talked to one of them afterward and they told me the name of the song and who it was by. I was pretty drunk though, and forgot the information quickly. Maybe hypnosis would help recover it? That I can't find the song now with Google at my disposal makes me think it was either a regional hit or that I now badly misremember the lyrics.
There was another TV show too, vaguely remembered, something in the vein of Night Gallery, seen in the early '70s. Horror anthology. Hippie artists mixed up with some kind of creepy-voiced entity. A man with an axe chasing a woman through a mansion. I've mentioned this before. Also the song. Some things I could find, or remember, but there are things that are mostly lost. Oh well. It's midnight now but I'm thinking about embarking on a big reorganization of my bookshelves. We'll see.
First the play. I would've been four years old, tops. My mom took me to see a student play at Miami University, I believe in Oxford, Ohio, although it might've been the Middletown Campus. My memory is that we went to Oxford though. Large theater. The play was probably meant to be comical or outrageous. Trippy in some early '70s way. What I remember of it is that these yellow cylinders, which were actors inside of cloth ringed with hoops, were menacing people. I think - I took it that, anyway - they were some kind of alien invaders. They were featureless though, just tall yellow cylinder shapes, with flexible points here and there where there were rings inside the cloth. I remember one of the actors opening a door and there one was; I think they 'transformed' the actors into things like themselves, by the actor or actress stepping into one of the yellow costumes. As I say I think maybe it was meant to be comical or silly, to me it was terrifying.
Then, something on television. This happened at school. I may've been in kindergarten, but I think it was third grade. A TV was brought into the classroom mid-morning for some reason, PBS put on. I don't know why they decided to show us this. I don't remember the name of the show, I wish I did. I've tried to find it online to no avail. The show was completely boring to me at first, I barely paid attention. Some Victorian era, not that I would've known the term then, gentleman talking. One may've been doing a voiceover. The lights in the classroom were off, and I've never been a morning person, much less so when school or work is involved. Too much talking in the show. It didn't make sense. My attention wandered. Then the two men in the program went to a zoo, and suddenly something shocking happened: a crocodile swallowed one of the men whole. I remember it being shocking to all of us who were watching or half watching. This guy is suddenly attacked and swallowed up. It didn't make any sense. The guy didn't die though. In fact he spent some long amount of time, years is my sense, alive inside this crocodile, which was taken back to the guy's home. I have some vague memory, the guy writing inside the crocodile. I think his friend got it to swallow other things, let the man live some kind of life inside the stomach of the thing. I think he got out eventually. Was it a crocodile? Could it have been a snake or even hippopotamus? I just remember being bored and confused, then shocked and freaked out, but kind of amused. Why'd they show us that? I think it was supposed to be funny. I wonder what it was called.
There are other things I was exposed to as a youngster that I've not been able to identify as an adult, that nag at me. A book I read in fourth grade that involved a boy being taken in as a foster child by a dangerous man. A song I would hear on the radio in eighth grade or so whose name I've never been able to determine. I am not sure how well I recall the song now, but in my sophomore year of college I heard a band cover it. I went up and talked to one of them afterward and they told me the name of the song and who it was by. I was pretty drunk though, and forgot the information quickly. Maybe hypnosis would help recover it? That I can't find the song now with Google at my disposal makes me think it was either a regional hit or that I now badly misremember the lyrics.
There was another TV show too, vaguely remembered, something in the vein of Night Gallery, seen in the early '70s. Horror anthology. Hippie artists mixed up with some kind of creepy-voiced entity. A man with an axe chasing a woman through a mansion. I've mentioned this before. Also the song. Some things I could find, or remember, but there are things that are mostly lost. Oh well. It's midnight now but I'm thinking about embarking on a big reorganization of my bookshelves. We'll see.
