Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Scare Them Straight with History, with “True Terror with Robert Englund,” Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Travel Channel.

By Laura Medina

Got kids bored to death during quarantine?

Since online school for tweens and teens have proven to be a bore, parents realized it's no different from forcing a kid into eating a vegetable they hate, scare them straight with history.

Ripped from historical newspaper headlines and historical documents, the Travel Channel's "True Terror with Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger in Wes Craven’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”) proves that facts are stranger than fiction.



Since we're all locked down in quarantine to stop the spread of a virus, let's paraphrase a saying, "Those who don't know history, are doomed to repeat it."



Way before advance lab technology, thanks to malaria's and smallpox's high fevers, people were mistakenly buried alive.  This mistake was so common, President Lincoln had a rational fear of it, taphophobia.  Fear of being buried alive.  This leads to a gruesome practice of waiting for a body to awaken or be proven dead for three days.



In the premiere episode, "Twisted Relationship," https://www.travelchannel.com/shows/true-terror-with-robert-englund/episodes/twisted-relationship, a ripped from the headlines true story of a smallpox victim fears he’ll be buried alive after he's mistaken for dead in New Orleans.  Pretty relevant to today's quick deaths and massive burials of CORVID-19 victims.
Harassment, bullying, and intimidation through technology, was no different at the dawn of the telephone, when spirits haunted a  cemetery manager is tormented by inexplicable phone calls in second episode, "Tidings of Terror."  Something your tweens and teens, and perhaps, you can understand.
Further reinforcing that history does repeat itself.  With talks of New York City being forced to bury today's CORVID-19 victims in city parks due to overwhelmed funeral homes, it a page from history with "Spirits in the Air" episode when Denver's Cheesman Park, also known as Denver City Cemetery. Since a many remains still remains in the former cemetery, Cheesman Park is an inspiration for many horror movie, Steven Spielberg's "Poltergeist" and Writer and playwright Russell Hunter's  The Changeling on experiences from his first months in Denver in 1968, while living in a large house at 1739 East 13th Avenue on the northern edge of Cheesman Park.

In fact, before Manhattan's Central Park, people used to take a stroll through peaceful, blooming cemeteries.  Central Park was created to make people quit disturbing the peace. Once Central Park was made, a many city parks were created to get people away from cemeteries.
Now that we got your tween's and teen's attention, make it an Halloween for Easter and have them watch and learn https://watch.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/true-terror-with-robert-englund, this Wednesday night at 10pm on the Travel Channel.
Scare them straight with history, not bored.
Halloween for Easter for tweens and teens.










No comments: