... George Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead' premiered October 1, 1968... at the time, along with two buddies, we caught the following Saturday night late show at the (now long gone) local movie theater... liked it so much that we again sat thru the late, late show viewing - our recognition for a "two thumbs up" movie rating...
... filmed on location here in SWPA, the filmmakers include a lot of references to local places and communities, scripted in part in a sort of "breaking news" format, lending further credence to the doings - one news "bulletin" even included our own home town with instructions for local shelter against the zombie menace, however, if it had been actual circumstance, about everybody we knew at the time would have said "Shelter Hell! We're goin' zombie huntin'!!... they even included a cameo appearance by local TV spook show and news media personality "Chilly Billy" Cardille, who then hosted a Saturday late night twin bill of classic horror and SciFi flicks interspersed with campy schtick throughout the commercial breaks - we were faithful followers...
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... 'Chilly Billy' and Chiller Theater cast...
... was a little after 1am when the show let out - couldn't have been a more perfect night - a bright October full 'Harvest' Moon with just the right amount of intermittent cloud cover adding a bit of atmosphere for the late night walk home... the two buddies lived a bit closer to town, so bid them farewell with about another mile walk home alone, for the most part through several blocks of familiar residential neighborhood, well lit with corner street lamps and the occasional porch light - nothing to fear while walking the deserted streets alone with images of all the ghouls and zombies we had just witnessed thru two late show viewings replaying in our mind - nothin' scares us anyway...
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... the final half mile tread home involved a long steep hill - the final block a football field length of dark and deserted encroaching dense woods between street lamps... we hesitated below the final street lamp before the deserted, dark woods, surveying the trek ahead, illuminated by only a bright full moon beaming thru the trees, in turn casting a black widows web of long shadows across the path - dead silence - all of a sudden all those images of ghouls and zombies leapt from our thoughts and took position behind every tree on...
... standing below that final corner street lamp, watching overhead like one great cycloptic eye, we took one final deep breath and bolted up that hill like a rocket... duckin', dodgin' and hurdlin' every shadow zombie stepping into path - don't think our feet ever touched the ground... around the final turn, up a short alleyway, thru the back yard and finally bursting in thru the rear kitchen door - with a full high step wind-up, we 100mph fast balled that door shut with a f*k'n SLAM!! - shook the whole house like a bomb just went off! - shocked the sh*t out of the ol' pop too, who had shortly before gotten home from work and was at the kitchen table butterin' a ham sandwich - he must have jumped three feet into the air - eliciting his favorite line with exclamation...
... "What the Hell's wrong with you boy?!!"...
... not a fresh breath to be had, we're thinkin' but not sayin'...
... "F*k you man!!! - there's zombies snappin' at our ass!!!"...
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