Tonight I am watching “House on Haunted Hill”…. not the remake… but the original version. It was made in 1959. Stars Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, and Richard Long… to name a few. Ol’ Vinnie-boy is a gazillionaire… and he offers group of people $10,000 each if they’ll spend a night in spooky, creaky, gray old mansion. And, what a host! He even provides loaded guns as party favors. Now, while this scared my little knickers right off me when I was a kid… this evening it is just silly.  In a classical way.   Remarkably funny, really.

So somebody explain to me… why is it…. that certain likes, dislikes, fears, and mannerisms leave us as we get older… while others stick to us like glue?

When I was fairly young, I loved Bleu Cheese, Curious George, and Professional Football. I still enjoy all those things very much.  I also took great pleasure in eating paste right out of the jar, seek-n-find word puzzles, and tube socks. Hmmm. Not so much any more… two-thumbs down on any of the those items.

Another for instance. I was deathly afraid of spiders. These days, I think they are kind of neat (except when they bite me). On the other hand, those bald-headed-life-sized baby dolls used to frighten me. Guess what. I STILL think those things are extremely creepy, disturbing, sinister and possibly menacing. When I watch Toy Story 3, I have to cover my eyes every time the Baby comes on the screen.

I saw this Baby Doll lying on the sidewalk. I had to stay way on the other side of the street and shoot it with a zoom lens. I was terrified.

Maybe I am alone in this phenomenon. This keeping hold of certain childhood attributes and idiosyncrasies… while losing others.

But now that I think of it…. there is something a little wrong with the final scenario….

House on Haunted Hill = Hilarious
Toy Story 3 = Scary

To infinity and beyond.