Obsession or Possession??? - "Dark Shadows 1966 - 1971"

 

http://spillwords.com/author/phyllispcolucci/      

https://www.amazon.com/Phyllis-P.-Colucci/e/B00VMU8B44

 

     OBSESSION or POSSESSION ??? Have not figured that one out yet. All I can tell you is that when I first watched "Dark Shadows 1966-1971", I was a 10 year old child. I did not have the maturity nor the understanding to fully comprehend the many gothic, ghoulish, murderous, frightening, romantic, loving story lines that were presented/performed everyday. All I know is that after watching an episode, I would go back to class the next day, at P.S. 132, in Brooklyn, New York, and compare notes with my other young "too immature to know" friends who did not fully comprehend the show either. All we knew was that we were in love with vampire Barnabas (Jonathan Frid) and Quentin (David Selby) - who were quite older than most of us. We loved the beautiful "Angelique" (Lara Parker) and suddenly wanted to become a gorgeous witch. Everyday, we would rush home after school and watch "Dark Shadows". It was a must, that's all that mattered. School and homework came later, to our parents' chagrin - yet, surprisingly, they understood that. They even watched it with us (lol). So I ask - OBSESSION or POSSESSION???

     Well, as life got in the way and many of us began to mature and look toward boys (or girls) - and school dances and activities, we started to move away from watching the show...however, the show never moved away from us. Little did we know that many years later, as social media and television/internet tv made its way into all of our lives, "Dark Shadows 1966-1971" resurrected from the dead. It became an overnight sensation, generation after generation. 

     After I retired from an administrative position with a Federal Law Enforcement Agency in New York City (2011), my life changed. I began to follow my passion for writing fiction and poetry and self-publishing on Amazon - and now writing this blog! I also became reacquainted with "Dark Shadows 1966-1971", when my son bought the ROKU. For some strange reason I had a strong urge to watch Dark Shadows again. I wanted to relive that time when I was a child whose only desire was to run home and watch the show after school. So I asked my son to check the ROKU lineup for "The Original Dark Shadows 1966-1971", to which he did. Voila! There it was. I was so excited, elated, eager and destined to watch it as a mature person who could now fully grasp every story line and understand every character. I had to watch it. I just had to. When my son saw it, he realized he had seen a few episodes being shown on other channels some years back. He asked if this was the show I had mentioned to him over the years. He said that he had seen bits and pieces of it. I said "Yes, that is the show!" I knew that we must watch it together in its entirety...and we did. It was calling out to me through my son and his purchase of the ROKU. Again, I ask - OBSESSION or POSSESSION???

      It took us several months to watch the entire series. We just kept watching and watching that we actually neglected all the other shows and news stations he or I would normally watch. We didn't care about those shows anymore - and some were nighttime series we thoroughly enjoyed before Dark Shadows crept back into my life - and then my son's life. He was a new generation that got hooked. Again, I ask - OBSESSION or POSSESSION???

     Well, now I think I have an answer to that infamous question. I believe it was both OBSESSION and POSSESSION. Why? As we watched without planning to, and kept watching as it called out to us, some weird things started to happen. The old clock that chimed quite often throughout the series, many times would chime at the same hour my Wall Clock would show, while we were watching the series. Then there were dates and/or months that were mentioned in the show by the characters, that would coincide with the exact date or month we were watching at the time. Talk about the "Parallel Time" story line, it actually felt like that. Whatever year the characters were in - we were living that year with them throughout the show; however, with the old clock chiming and certain dates and months being mentioned, we were also living in  (2022), with those characters, from our living rooms in "Parallel Time" (Same time, dates and/or months)...Ha! Ha!  -  So I ask again, OBSESSION or POSSESSION??? You decide.

    I am still obsessed (or possessed) by the memory of that show and the memory of 1966, and am proud to know that still, today, Dark Shadows lives in the hearts of all of us from that time long ago - and still lives now in the hearts of generations that followed. Amazing, isn't it? One last time now - OBSESSION or POSSESSION???

                           

                               (ALL PHOTOS BELOW SHARED FROM PINTEREST)