Show a little love for your Zombie

    This is a strange blog, but be patient and I'll explain the title of this post.

     Thursday night at 10 p.m. I went to the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn part one, based on the fourth of the Twilight books. I went with my daughter ReRe, and my niece Beverly, great niece Samantha, and their friends. You'll realize how devoted we are to the Twilight movies when I tell you, we have been to every midnight opening for every movie.

     I and my daughter are Team Edward, while others in our group lean towards Team Jacob. What can I say, I love the books and the movies. I enjoy the feelings of togetherness at these midnight showings. Everyone is happy, and strangers act like old friends while at the theatre, all is well in the world. I'm also a True Blood fan, enjoying the books more so than the HBO version, but let me return to my title.

     The next day, which was Friday, I picked up the three grandsons Jimmy age 17, Joshua age 15, and Nathan who is 9 but thinks he's 21. I took them out for ice cream and while waiting for our order we talked about the movie.

     "Vampires don't sparkle," Jimmy reminded me, adding "It's a dumb movie."

     "Don't worry, no one sparkled last night...but," I replied, and then updated them on what happened in the movie.

     "Were the monsters always handsome, and did they have fan clubs for vampires when you were young?" asked Nathan.

     "Well...no...they were scary and ugly. We never thought of them as handsome," I replied and then began to think of the movies which were showing when I was the age of the boys.

     When my sisters, brother and I would go to the Broadway Theatre on Broad and Snyder in South Philadelphia on a Saturday afternoon, we went there to be frightened, and believe me, we got our money's worth. You paid fifty cents to watch two films and a cartoon. The vampire movies we watched were either the old ones with Bela Lugosi, or a newer version presented by Hammer Films showing Christopher Lee as Count Dracula. These actors portrayed Dracular as something to be feared and not viewed as a lover. Sorry to say, there was no team 'Bela'.

    Even later, the vampires and werewolves on film and in books were the things which kept you awake at night, and trembling under your covers. Here is just a small sampling: Nosferatu, Salem's lot, Lost boys, Fright night, American werewolf in London, and Dog Soldiers.

     "So grandmom are the zombies in your second book going to be sexy?" Joshua teased.

     "Who would love a zombie?" I asked, telling them about the best zombie movie ever, "The night of the living dead" a film by George Romero released in 1968.

     "Well, they can be funny. You liked Shaun of the Dead," Jimmy reminded me.

     "Funny, yes. Sexy, no," I said, my mind working on how to present a likable zombie.

     The older boys are into the Walking Dead, a well written zombie show, and as I noted in my past blogs, are into the zombie apocalypse. I've recently joined a group, which use the premise of a zombie uprising,to teach large groups to prepare for all types of natural disasters, such as Katrina. We can't always depend on the Government to help, especially if all lines of communication are down.

     "Come on grandmom make your zombies, fun," Nathan urged.

     "It would be easier to make a toothache look like fun," I mumbled, but after spending some time thinking about the poor mindless rotting lumps of flesh, who would play a part in my second book, I promised the boys I would do my best to add some personality to my zombies.

    "So lets hear it for the Zombies! They're dying to love you, as their next meal. Share a little love with them."