There may not be any such thing as a B-O-O-G-E-R, man but I believe there is. I know most of you have been told, “If you don’t behave or are not good the booger man will get you.” Now, I know most people just don’t think there is such a thing as a booger man, but I know for a fact there is such a thing and one almost got me. The bad thing is that I was being very good.
My one and only precious sister, Frances, and I were playing on the front porch at our Granny McAfee’s house. I’m sure we were probably deeply involved in a game of make believe. In the early 1940s, imagination was about all that rural children had to play with.
Granny McAfee was our grandmother on my mother’s side of the family and not to be confused with Granny Tidwell, who is my wife. Granny Tidwell has five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, and we love them all. Now that I have identified all, back to my story.
This is the earliest and most vivid thing in my life that I can remember. As Frances and I were playing, we heard someone say “Boo.” We looked to the end of the porch and there he was, the BOOGER MAN. His face was flame red, his eyes were glaring at us, and he had two big red horns on his head.
This scared the living daylights out of us. In fact, we were so scared, we could not move. All we could do was sit there and scream and scream.
After mother had enough fun scaring us half to death, she took off the devil’s hood and laughed at us. Our younger brother, Dale, was laughing also. I don’t know where mother got that old hood and it hasn’t been seen since. And I hope to never see it again.
Do you think, possibly, I might have inherited this desire to scare folks? Surely not. Did you have a scary Halloween?
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