Overcoming My Fears

When I was a young child, I was afraid of some really odd things. For example, I would be very scared when Law and Order would come on because the voice over at the beginning would scare me to death! Also, if I was watching Snow White, I seriously could not watch any part with the witch because I would be terrified. Whenever this part was approaching, I would demand that Whinnie the Pooh would be put into the VCR. Also, I used to be afraid of going in the basement by myself after watching an episode of Rugrats where there were "monsters" in the Pickles' garage. While all of these things provoked illogical fear in me when I was young, the thing that scared me the most was Grant Wood's American Gothic. For some reason, I always saw this painting on TV when I was little and it really creeped me out. I have recently come to a conclusion why this is so. When I was 3 or 4, my sister would play Fester's Quest (a game about the Addams Family) on our Nintendo. Right when Uncle Fester was about to battle the scariest boss in the whole game, Wednesday Addams would be in house and you had to visit her to gain some violent item used to destroy the boss. So anyway, I decided to dust off Fester's Quest yesterday. After I got over how stupid and pointless running around and breaking your thumb button mashing is, I really got into this pointless 1980's game. Finally I came to the part where Wednesday has to give you your item. I open the door and said to myself: "Holy Cow! Now I know why I hated American Gothic!" Wednesday Addams looks just like the woman in the painting! I would always be scared when my sister would have Fester battle this boss and Wednesday Addams was a sure sign this part of the game was coming. Therefore, I associated a timeless piece of American artwork with very corny video game violence. So, the point of this is that it took me about 11 years of my life to realize that it was not the painting, but Wednesday Addams and her assistance to her Uncle Fester that scared me!