Comments on: PMC 58: Fred Dekker

By: Heather

Heather — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 05:47:03 +0000

The first memory I have of being truly scared is when I was about 9. A friend and I were playing on a rocky lake shore near my house. At once point, I realized my dog (who was hanging out with us) was on top of a rock, staring down into a crevice where I could hear a weird noise echoing, kind of like a maraca. My friend saw the rattlesnake first. We instantly panicked. She started running up the big hill to my house, while I screamed at my dog to get away from the snake. Luckily, she decided to leave it alone and we all ran home as fast as we could in the summer heat.

I breathlessly told my mom “Tasha almost got killed by a rattlesnake! Tasha almost got killed by a rattlesnake!” (perhaps a bit of an exaggeration), she called a neighbor with a hunting license, and he went down there and killed it within 15 minutes. My mom made me go look at the chunks of snake that remained after being blasted with a shotgun. The snake was about 7 feet long, a good 8 or 10 inches in diameter, and had a pretty fresh-looking rat in its gut.

The real tragedy of the story is that the neighbor’s total bitch of a daughter got to keep the rattle, even though I was the one that stared death in the face! (also a slight exaggeration) She wasn’t even home at the time- she was away at some fancy East Coast equestrian camp for the summer. It’s been almost 20 years and I’m still pissed about that, actually.

By: Rob S.

Rob S. — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:49:27 +0000

My mom took me to see Gremlins in the theater. I saw more of the lobby than the show.

By: corinne

corinne — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 22:33:18 +0000

Vanessa should definitely not feel bad about that Borge/Borgnine thing – I only a few months ago sorted out for sure that Mel Gibson and Mel Brooks aren’t the same people. Everything makes soooo much more sense now!

Um, and, I don’t really remember being scared very badly of anything until I went to a camp that had foot-long leeches in the lake. If you got one on you, once you got it off they made you put it back in the lake! People were so freaked out by the end of the summer that on parents day, some kid managed to pull a leech out onto the dock, and just started punching it over and over. It was nuts.
Still leery swimming…

By: teresa

teresa — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:52:46 +0000

i care for this interview with fred dekker. it’s smart and spooky. good work you two.

By: Brett D.

Brett D. — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:02:07 +0000

I remember when I was real little my brother would trap me in my blankets and that would freak me out tremendously. Ever since those times I suffer from clausterphobia. Heck, I freak out if I can’t get my jacket off.