It is summer time, which makes me think back to summer trips from my childhood. This always included a week-long trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama without fail. However, it is a day trip to Six Flags over Georgia in the summer of 1975 that left me scarred for life. Sounds like fun right? A day trip to an amusement park, what could be terrifying about that right? Well, any child that visited Six Flags over Georgia in the 1970's already knows the terror that was waiting there.
So here was the family of six (Dad, Mom, oldest sister 17, evil older brother 14, older sister 11, and me 4) ready to enjoy a summer day at the park. For some unknown reason that I have never been able to fathom my parents decided that we would all go through the Horror Cave. Yeah, that's a great idea! Take a four-year-old through a "haunted house" nothing could possibly go wrong! Well, it is 33 years later and here is what I remember from the Horror Cave. Entering through the mouth of a monster the first scene I remember was a bubbly, foggy bog where not one but three Creature from the Black Lagoon monsters rise up (okay, now I am climbing my mom trying to escape this place and get passed to my father), next scene simply made me go mad, there was a woman's bedroom and she is lying across the bed, then I notice that the two creepy looking men in the room are holding her head that they just cut off (now I am climbing my dad attempting once again to escape), the scene that followed was like Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory with a creature strapped to a table and a mad scientist throwing the switch on some electrodes or something (so now I have figured out I can't escape so I close my eyes), so the last thing I remember looking at were two caskets one contained Dracula and the other the Bride of Dracula it looked as though they were breathing, and then you had to walk over a suspension bridge to get to the exit. To exit you had the choice to walk down some stairs or slide down a slide.
After that, I could not handle going through haunted houses. Over the years, I began to wonder if I remembered the Horror Cave accurately. I started searching the Internet in hopes that others had accurate descriptions of the terrors of the Horror Cave, better yet pictures from the cave. I wasn't disappointed because I found the FOLLOWING with PICTURES. I discovered that I wasn't crazy after all. My memories of the events from the summer of 1975 are accurate.
I love
A. that so many people vividly remember visiting this cave in their childhoods and
B. That one guy actually TOOK pictures back then and still HAS them! That is a hoot! (I wonder if he had to look hard for them or if he had them readily on hand!)
I dont live in Georgia and have never been there so I have never witnesses The Cave myself. I probably never would have anyway cuz I tend to stay off those Dark Rides. Does anyone remember the movie HE KNOWS YOU'RE ALONE? Well, there's a scene in it where Tom Hanks and some no-names are in a Dark Ride and there's a madman on the loose! And he's in there!!!
Now you know how s*** you see as a kid always seems to build itself up in your head? Well, I could have sworn that in the "haunted house ride scene" this guy decapitates someone on the ride in the dark. I just watched this movie recently and, no, he never does: He just sort of hides out in the ride looking menacing! It's a pity my mind has played tricks on me over the years- its kept me out of many a Dark Ride (I don't even like going on the ALICE IN WONDERLAND ride at Disney cuz its dark in there and a woman is screaming "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!!!"
* Has anyone gone to those "modern" Horror House rides….the kind where you WALK through and a bunch of people pop out of the walls and actually grab you????? Those scare the Hell out of me! They have a great one in Tuxedo, New York around Halloween-time that I think everyone should check out. I couldn't wait to get out of there!
MAMAMIASWEETPEACHES,
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Several years ago, when my husband and I were still dating, we took a trip to Gatlinburg, TN. While we were there, I decided I wanted to get over my fear of haunted houses, so he first took me to this haunted room thing. You sat in this room and spooky animatronics scenes happen. While I was scared, I didn’t die from the experience. I then decided that I would attempt to go through the Ripley’s Haunted Adventure. http://ripleyshauntedadventure.com/
Unlike the Horror Cave of my youth, this attraction has live people to scare the crap out of you. Luckily, they send you through in groups of six, lined up touching shoulders, so I was sandwiched between some dude and my husband behind me. I will have to admit that I kept my eyes closed the majority of the time. I made it out alive, but I don’t think I want to do it again.
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Oh yeah, my husband just reminded me that the first place we went to was Hauntings- A Live Ghost Show. We went there again a couple of year ago, but I was too chicken to try out the Ripley's Haunted Adventure a second time.