"Psycho" is 50!

I noticed that today is the 50th anniversary of the movie "Psycho." Even though you'll learn that I'm a real wimp, I just have to tell you a story about that movie.

I went to the movie with a date when it first came out. I made it only as far as the knife slaying in the shower, poor Janet Leigh, and couldn't watch anymore. My date really wanted to see the movie so I went to the ladies room for a while, then tried to just sit quietly and not look at the screen. Unfortunately, the music and other people's reactions got to me, and by that time my date was disgusted with me, so we left. Surprisingly, that wasn't our last date.

Several years later I was still a tad nervous about taking showers. My parents had moved from Illinois to Canada and I drove up to see them on vacation. I took some two-lane roads, partly because there wasn't a better way on parts of my trip, but also because I just enjoy the trip more that way. In upstate New York, though, I waited until too late in the day to start looking for a room for the night. The few motels I saw all had "No Vacancy" signs out front.

Finally, it was twilight and I was despairing of finding a room when I spotted a "Vacancy" sign and pulled into the drive. Oh no, the little strip motel looked like the Bates Motel. Even worse, the office was in the slightly run-down house next door. Well, I told myself that if the person in the office looked like Anthony Perkins, I was out of there. Otherwise, I had better stay.

The motel was owned by a perfectly normal appearing elderly couple so I checked in. The room wasn't anything to write home about but it was clean. I turned on every light in the room, including the bathroom which had a shower but no tub. Do you think I could take a shower that evening? No way! I tried to force myself to do it, but I just couldn't. I slept all night with all the lights on and in the morning finally forced myself to shower - the fastest shower in the history of mankind!

Well, at least I did sleep, fitfully, off and on, and I did leave the place clean, mostly.

A year or two ago, "Psycho" was on television and Dave had never seen it so we tried to watch it. Still can't do it. This time I couldn't even get past Janet Leigh checking into the motel. What a wimp!