Welcome to another edition of This Nostalgic Life. We’ve got some tales of old horror-ish movies and a long-gone snack, along with We Got the Beat and Recommended Reading sections for your enjoyment this week. Check it out!
Three Movies That Scared The Hell Out of Me
by Eric Vardeman
When I was a teenager, I loved horror movies. Loved them. In high school, I had a friend that worked at a video store and we would go in when he was working and pull movies off the shelf and watch them in the store for free. But before I was a fan of horror movies, I saw three movies when I was WAY too young to see them and they scared the hell out of me. I actually saw four: I saw The Exorcist when I was ten but scared the hell out of everyone so I’m not counting that. Here are the three that scared the hell out of me and why.
The Mysterious Monsters (1975)
This came out in 1975 but I saw it on TV in 1979 when I was nine years old. Hosted by Peter Graves, it’s all about Bigfoot and searching for proof that he was real. Full of stories and re-enactments of supposed first hand accounts, I was freaked out by all of them. The one segment that freaked me out the most and stays with me TO THIS DAY was a re-enactment of a couple who lived in the country. The woman is sitting on her couch when she hears something on the porch. Suddenly a hairy arm smashes through a window and tries to grab her. She runs to get her husband who grabs his gun and opens the front door to check things out only to see Bigfoot standing there. The shot freezes on Bigfoot’s face and I saw that image in my head for years. YEARS. I would not sit or sleep next to a window for even longer (to be honest, that one may still be true). The entire movie can be found on YouTube and if you want to see the clip I mentioned you can fast forward to the 1:01 segment.
The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972)
I saw this roughly around the same time as the previous movie. I saw them both with my cousins because they were obsessed with Bigfoot. This is a docudrama about the Fouke Monster seen in and around Fouke Arkansas since the 1940s. It was just more re-enactments and stories about the monster and just added to the terror of the first movie. This one involved more attacks on humans by the creature and creepy scenes of the monster stalking people through the woods. My cousins lived out in the country and we would regularly go traipsing through the woods for hours. Those creepy scenes would manifest themselves anytime we saw shadows or heard noises in the woods. I can’t find it anywhere but the trailer can be found here.
The Day After (1983)
This movie came out in 1983 when I was thirteen years old. It postulates a full scale nuclear exchange between The United States and the Soviet Union. It was the height of the renewed cold war and the arms race between the US and the USSR. The possibility of nuclear war was an oft discussed topic. Several years before this movie came out, we were still having occasional drills at school on what to do if a nuclear attack happened.
More than 100 million people, in nearly 39 million households, watched the film during its initial broadcast. Including me. While, by today’s standards, it’s cheesy and unbelievable, in 1983 it was terrifying. And not just me. This movie scared a lot of people. It’s amazing how many people talked about it afterwards. There was a disclaimer just before the end credits, stating that the film is fictional and that the real-life outcome of a nuclear war would be much worse than the events portrayed onscreen. If I wasn’t worried about nuclear war before watching this movie (which I was) I was definitely terrified of nuclear war after. The entire movie plus an ABC News special discussing the movie can be found on YouTube here. Again, it’s cheesy by today’s standards but if you do watch any part of it…watch it from the perspective of a thirteen year old from the early 80’s.
When Pudding Came in a Can
by Mick Lee
You know how sometimes you find yourself sitting around doing whatever, and a random thought just pops into your head about some fast food item, or one of your favorite home-cooked dishes? And then right behind it comes the hunger pain, and then you walk around with this craving laying heavy on you until you make the run to that fast food place, or whip up that dish that’s been on your mind, and quench that craving.
Well, that’s what every waking moment of my life is like. But I get no relief from those cravings, ’cause the food that I crave doesn’t exist anymore in most cases. I continually carry the burden of a thirst that can’t be quenched. I’m like those cursed pirates in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
I can’t satisfy those cravings because what I crave just can’t be found. I’m talking about all those awesome fast food items, chips, candies, snacks, and drinks from years gone by, and they’re always on my mind and driving me crazy! And I don’t know if it helps, or just makes the cravings worse to talk about them, but I’m going to do it anyway. And today, I’m talking about one of my most missed foods…Del Monte pudding…in a can!
Kids who came along in the early ’90s and later can have their Hunt’s Snack Packs, or their Swiss Miss from the dairy aisle. For me, the king of the hill when it came to pre-packaged pudding was Del Monte’s Chocolate Pudding in the can. Not a plastic cup, but in the little metal can! Scientists can conduct all the experiments they want to determine what effects tin and plastic packaging have on the taste of packaged food, but I can save them a little time and sum it for them in one sentence. It just tasted better out of the can! Period. End of story.
Of course, fond memories, nostalgia, and many, many years of time can mislead the brain when it comes to reality. Maybe it wasn’t the metal can that made it taste better. It could have been the fact that I would get this fantastic little treat when visiting my grandmother. She always kept a large supply on hand, because she had 16 grandchildren, and every one of us were fans of these little cans of chocolate heaven. More times than I can even start to remember, my cousins and I would sit on her front porch indulging in the magic of those little cans of pudding while talking about important subjects of the day like He-Man, Transformers, and the latest issue of Batman.
When I was sick and out of school, that meant a day at Grandma’s to recuperate. And on those days, you were treated to not one, but TWO cans of Del Monte Chocolate pudding. One with lunch, and an extra one “just because” later in the afternoon. You pair those cans of pudding with some Tropicana orange juice out of its glass bottle, and a can of Chicken Noodle soup, you had a remedy for sickness better than anything a doctor could prescribe.
Nowadays, you can always run to the store to pick up a 4-pack of pudding in cheap plastic cups, but you’ll not find that incredible taste that you could enjoy when you popped a top on a can of Del Monte back in the day.
In 1984: Tina Turner starts her three week run at #1 with her signature tune, “What’s Love Got To Do With It” from the album Private Dancer. It is her first and only Top 40 number one song and she became the oldest solo female to reach the top spot.
In 1990: Billy Idol and “Cradle of Love “ are on the way back down the chart after peaking at #2. It’s his tenth and final Top 40 hit. None of his future singles, as few as they are, break into the chart again.
Playlist: This Week In 1984
Playlist: This Week In 1990
In every edition of This Nostalgic Life, we like to share a curated list of nostalgia-themed articles, stories, and posts that we’ve come across recently. It gives you a chance to discover great content and remember things from your past that you may have forgotten. With that in mind, here are some things we wanted to share with you this week. (All links will open in a new tab.)
21 Incredible Films Turning 50 in 2024 (Mental Floss)
Fireball Island (Rediscover the 80s)
Marvel Almost Started the MCU in the 1970s (Giant Freakin’ Robot)
How Many of These Iconic ‘80s Summer Toys Do You Remember? (The FW)
The 11 Scariest Horror Movies of the 1970s (Movie Maker)
Remembering 3-2-1 Contact (Geekster)
Thanks for reading this issue of This Nostalgic Life. If you found something that connected with you, leave us a comment!
Dude, The Day After scared the crap out of me when I was a kid!! I think we all thought we were going to be nuked for real in the 80s.... it was nukes or aliens for sure!