Morlocks! I knew they had to be around here somewhere!
I’m 11 years old, The Time Machine is playing at the old Forum Theater, it’s Friday night–and by some miracle, my folks let me go to see the movie. I walked there with my friend Jimmy, from down the street. He’s 12.
Okay, we’ve seen the movie, time to walk home. We could’ve gone via Main Street, but I guess we were feeling kind of grown-up and adventurous so we went by way of the back streets instead. There was nowhere near as much street lighting then as there is now.
It didn’t take us long to get the creeps. The Morlocks, the baddies in the movie… what if there were Morlocks hiding in the darkness, getting ready to jump out on us? We picked up the pace a little. We laughed nervously at our fanciful idea–I mean, come on, really! That didn’t make the Morlocks go away. Happily, we made it home before they attacked us. Dawdling Morlocks.
I wonder if kids even have this experience anymore. All it did for us was to enhance the movie experience and provide me with a pleasant memory. I wonder about the state of their imaginations.
Gee, for some reason the daily nooze this month makes me think of Morlocks… a lot…
You don’t have to be a kid to react like that. In 1964, I was visiting a former college friend in her home town, and one evening we went to see the new film “Psycho” together. Just like you, we laughed nervously all the way back to her house, with our hearts hammering away like thunder — but that wasn’t the end of it. We were alone in her house because her parents were out of town. I was taking a shower before we went to bed. (You know what’s coming next.) She came howling into the bathroom, brandishing a comb like a knife. I almost had a heart attack. They must have heard my screams two blocks away. It’s a wonder they didn’t call the police. It’s also a wonder that we stayed friends after that. 🙂
I can see how a prank like that might strain a friendship.
My parents wanted to see Psycho when it came out, it was playing at a nearby drive-in (remember those?), and as they couldn’t find a babysitter, they took me along, probably expecting me to fall asleep in the back seat. Fat chance of that!
Boy, did I have a nightmare that night.