Punch and Judy and general fear!
As soon as I got out of the car at llandudno I heard a sound that made me at once want to run and hide “dats der way da do it”, I felt the hairs on my spine stand on end, the shiver went all the way to my head until I actually shuddered.
I am of course talking about a Punch and Judy show, supposedly a seaside treat for children of all ages. For me it spells out fear, I can remember being a very confused child watching this horror show it should have come with a warning like the films do now
May include scenes of a violent nature
Is it the stripy tent, where at least one maybe two people are behind conjuring the violence, sausages, the baby being thrown around, the crocodile or a combination of everything? I am catapulted back to my smaller self watching this show with horror and trying to make sense of it all.
There were other times I was puzzled and fearful growing up, I was at the scout huts annual bonfire and when they brought the “guy” out and threw him on the fire I was in complete shock, no one noticed as sparklers where whisked through the sky, children trying quickly to write their names in the darkness, the Smokey bonfire, the excitement of being out in the dark a little later than usual and me wondering what kind of a place Reddish really was to burn a human being (albeit a bad ‘en) I had a big brother who had told me that the guy they put on the bonfire is someone that the whole of reddish have decided is a bad man, so you see what I was seeing being burnt (in my ill informed mind) was a real person, not just two pairs of American tan tights fashioned into arms and legs and dressed in old clothes this was a real live person (I have not been able to watch the Wickerman as it brings back the same scary feelings). The worst of it was I remember keeping very quiet about the whole affair, self preservation kicked in and maybe I thought if I mentioned it, I could be cast out of this society..(and I am only 6 I still need my mum – no wonder I wet the bed with fright!)
There was another time that springs to mind, Reddish Carnival used to start off from station road, and we lived at 2 Buckley street, just off station road, so we saw all the excitement of the start of it, there was a riding school who decided to dress up as cowboys and another local riding school dressed up as Indians (there had only been cowboys in previous years) I was a little puzzled by the Indians and big brother again told me they were in town to kidnap children, I remember running all the way home and hiding behind the settee in complete terror, not coming out, when my mum got the story out of me, Michael was in big trouble, and even more after mum discovered he had purchased a pea shooter and had a bag of dried peas ready to shoot at the Morris Dancers legs (there were some chunky thighs on show). All this came back to me as I walked home from the met station on Monday night and spotted a stripey (Loreto Grammar) blazer…. That burgundy/gold/navy striped material gives me the same fear of a Punch and Judy show, I think a psychologist would conclude it was all a bit Pavlov and his dogs……. Hmnnn
And can I just say for the record that the person who said to me “imagine a punch and judy show, but run by clowns” is a very sick individual indeed……… and possibly needs some help
Mahoo
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