TIcK tACk (thE scARY tOOl, NOT The caNDy)

I was listening to a podcast recently where the hosts got to talking about scary movies and movies that scared them when they were younger. It made me think of an experience I had when I was an early teenager. My two best friends growing up, Duane Park and Darin Bair and I had all decided to sleep down to my grandma’s on one Friday night. Now, this is something we did pretty regularly. My grandma and grandpa owned a preschool and it was fun to sleep out in the school all by ourselves, play games, and just goof off as early teens do. This night was going to be fun for us because there was a show on television that we all wanted to see. The late night movie was showing the movie “Alligator.” This is a movie about a giant alligator living in the sewers, in case the title did not give it away. One thing that we always enjoyed was getting scared. It didn't matter whether was slasher movies or psychological thrillers, as long as it scared us. (though it was usually the slashers) This was a very early in our scary movie watching careers. We were laying on the hide-a-bed watching a small black and white TV which we put on a table at the end of the bed. Behind this was a giant window. Now, when I say behind us, I don't mean behind us and above us I mean directly behind us. What we also didn't know what's up behind that window was my grandfather. My grandfather, bless his heart, I decided to teach his young grandson and his friends a lesson. He fashioned what he called a “TickTack.” (No idea why he called it that) He had taken an old wooden thread spool and cut notches in the edge of it so that it looked very similar to a gear. He then put a nail through the middle and wound string around the spool. When you place the spool against a window and yank on the thread, the edged of the spool make a terrible racket against the glass. Back inside the school, Brian, Duane and Darin were fully engrossed in Alligator. As a commercial came up, I looked over at Duane and said, “What would you do if you looked up in the window behind us and saw a giant alligator?” His reply was, “you mean that window right there?” and then all three of us leaned our heads backwards toward the window. I have no idea how my grandfather did this, but he chose that exact moment as three young teenagers turned and looked up at the window to pull the string thereby making the spool make it tick-tock racket. This particular window had the added effect of being a little loose so it rattled even more than normal. The next thing I remember was being in a different place. I was under the bed.  I'm sure I moved there under my own power, though to this day I have no memory of how I did it. Another friend was in another room and still moving, and I believe bed the third friend had also dove off the hide-a-bed and was cowering underneath it with me.  I don’t remember anything else about that night.  I don’t remember what we ate.  I don’t remember what games we played. I don’t even remember the end of the movie. All I remember is being scared. Probably more scared than I had ever been in my life to that point. Strangely, it’s a very fond memory. I have been scared much more on other occasions, but this one always brings a smile to my face.