Psycho

In September of 1960 Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Psycho was released in the US. It played in Beaumont at the Jefferson Theater (aside: check out the renovated theater where plays are now staged. Stephen Thomas’s widow, Gladys, works there).

There was a bunch of hype about how scary the movie was, but Patrick Sullivan and I were determined to overcome our fear and go. Mom and dad gave me permission and Pat’s mom dropped us off at the theater.text

It was a very well done movie and scared me intensely. Hitchcock was the master of suspense and made several scary movies (the Birds is another landmark movie of his). I don’t know why humans are so fascinated by scary movies but this one is way up there on the scary scale. It is a classic and references from the movie still abound: Bates Motel, shower scene, Norman Bates… The rest of the story:

We survived the movie and Pat’s mom picked us up. They dropped me off at home around 9 PM. I got ready for bed and tried to go to sleep.

It was still hot so the attic fan was on to provide what cooling it could. In order to get the cooling I had to have my window open 4” or so (refer to the Idylwood House post). The room I shared with Terry was on the southwest side of the house and my window was on the south side looking into our neighbor’s front yard.

Their house was built pretty far back on their lot and their front porch was opposite my window. They loved to have their front porch light on at night and it shined through my open window and tended to make it hard for me to go to sleep. I could have blocked it out by closing my window and blinds, but then I would be deprived of cooling air. I hated that porch light and often fantasized about using my bb gun and deadeye shooting skills to put it out of its misery.

This night, of all nights, the light was off! It was mighty dark in their front yard and our side yard.

Their front yard was full of oak trees and the oak trees were dropping leaves and acorns. I could hear every leaf and every acorn and could envision Norman Bates (the bad guy from the movie) skulking around out there with evil on his mind. Sleep eluded me. My heart was pounding. I could not turn the light on because Terry would wake up. I felt around in the dark for my trusty Daisy pump bb gun and my Bowie knife. Equipped for self defense I got back into bed with the knife and bb gun and finally dropped off to sleep. This movie still frightens me today.