Jersey Shore Magazine

J e r s e y s h o r e • F A L L / H O L I D A Y 2 0 1 7 98 HOME PORT Not Scary At All by Frank Finale W ith pumpkin picking, haunted hayrides, Jack-o'- lanterns, scarecrow contests, fright fests, and the sec- ond largest parade in the country, Halloween has become almost as popular as Christmas at the Jersey Shore. People decorate for this special day with skeletons, witches, ghosts hanging from trees, mock graveyards, and black and orange lights. The shelves at supermarkets plump up with Halloween candy, and Halloween stores that sell masks, from Frankenstein to Trump, and full costumes of all types spring up at strip malls like a jack-in-the box. Halloween, for me, drags back a recurring child- hood nightmare of fall- ing through a floor-door into our cellar, which was shrouded in cobwebs and spiders that rushed out of their homes to check what disturbed their webs. When my Nonna told me, "Frankie, go down to the cellar and bring up a jar of my tomatoes so I can make the sauce," I shud- dered, "Do I have to?" "Yes," she said, "if you want to eat supper tonight. My old knees don't do those stairs. What are you afraid of?" Armed with a heavy flashlight, I descended those creaky wooden stairs. A damp musty odor filled my nostrils, and I tried not to breathe too deeply. The cellar had three rooms, each with a bare light bulb and pull- down chain that I could barely reach. For one, I needed to stand on a wooden milk crate. Even though I could hear footsteps on the floor above me, it did little to comfort my anxiety. Eventually, I would find the shelf with the Mason jars filled with tomatoes and bring one upstairs to my Nonna. "Grazie! Now was that so bad?" At night, the dream would come. Inexplicably, I would find myself in the cellar where a witch, veiled in black, would emerge from the smallest and darkest room in the back of the cellar where my Nonno made his wine. The witch would chase me to the stairs, which I could never reach. I attempted to run as fast as I could, but would go nowhere. Even though the witch didn't come down the chimney like Santa Clause, she was as black as soot in the fireplace. Long, yellow fingernails on bony fingers of skeletal hands reached out for me. She was those spiders rushing out to see what disturbed their third room domain with noise and light. Just a few feet before she could reach out and grab me, my fright grew unbearable. I screamed and woke up in my secure, moon-lit room. I breathed a sigh of relief, sat up, and waited until the dream dissipated. Before I plopped back down on my damp pillow, I turned it over to its cool side and fell asleep. Had my child-self known what my adult-self discovered, he would have realized it was a dream (no floor-door to cellar and no witch). While dreaming, he would have turned around and fought the witch, forcing her to give him a gift—a song, a story, a poem, or a paint- ing—something he could carry back to his waking state. "A father tells his son whose dream was about a tiger chasing him. 'You must turn around and face the tiger. If it continues to attack, you must attack it. Never let something attack you in a dream and run from it.' Always confront the danger." This is a small piece of wisdom about dreams from a primitive tribe living in the moun- tainous jungles of Malaysia given to their children. 1 My recurring dream disappeared decades ago when I moved from the house with the cellar. I now live in a house that has no basement, and the witch that appears, my little Jersey Shore neighbor dressed in her Halloween costume, is not scary at all. u Frank Finale is the author of the coffee table book "To The Shore Once More, Volume III" as well as "To The Shore Once More, Volumes I & II" and "A Gull's Story, Parts 1, 2, and 3." He is also coeditor of the anthologies "Under A Gull's Wing" and "The Poets of New Jersey." Mr. Finale will be giving readings, meeting readers, and signing books at numerous events this season. Please refer to pages 79-96 for more information about his books and appearances as well as www.jerseyshorebooks.com. 1 Creative Dreaming by Patricia Garfield, PH.D., Simon & Schuster, 1974 Max2611

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