Give Me Goosebumps

(via)

Adam recently brought home 38 Goosebumps books from his mom's house he had as a child. At first, I was against him bringing them home at all! He always brings back stuff we never use. I'm usually a very less is more person, Adam is not. Adam is a "more is totally awesome" person! 

Before Adam joined me in Alabama two summers ago, I occupied this apartment with next to nothing for a few weeks. I loved it, it was so spacious. So freeing. But when he got here and unloaded all the boxes from the moving van, I just about hyperventilated. I looked around and said, "I wish I could just throw all this stuff away." That comment didn't sit well with Adam at all! I could never understand why it bothered him, I would have thrown away my own stuff too! 

And don't get me started on the arguments we've had about keeping the extra measuring spoons he claims are from his golden, bachelor days (when he doesn't cook), or how I just about never got him to throw out some Cheeto stained dishcloths he got from his Grandma.

I should have known what I was in for it when I first visited Adam's family for Christmas the year we got engaged. One of his Aunts brought over a small bottle of soy sauce, she had acquired from somewhere that she didn't want. No one in his family liked soy sauce or had any use for it. But they still wouldn't get rid of it! And if they are anything like my husband, I bet it is still sitting in their cabinet today! That whole incident made me smile, so no offense to the in-laws!

 

But I relented on the Goosebumps because people tell me that marriage is of course all about compromise, and I didn't want to seem like a bossy mcbosserson in front of all the family. But also because we both loved these books as children. 

Adam loved them so much, that he knows the chronological order of them all by heart! It blows my mind. I may not know the numbers, but I remember the stories. I remember Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes, forever making those little lawn decorations somewhat creepy.  And in one, Night of the Living Dummy,  I have a vivid memory of the scene where the child puts his hand into a ventriloquist dummy, and finds a mildewed sandwich! That scene haunts me still because I'm such a visual person, and it grossed me out so much. Just thinking of it now makes me want to gag. You are welcome!

But my favorite was Night in Terror Tower. It is probably no wonder since I have a real love for English Royal History, and I am such an anglophile. The story takes place in the Tower of London and is loosely based on the twin, royal princes that went missing in the Tower of London in the 1400s.

When we were in Wisconsin, I reread the book. I think it took me an hour (ha). I was surprised to find the story held up. Reading it, it was obvious;y written for a child or tween, but the story still fascinated me, and it was still kind of creepy too. R.L. Stine knows his horror.

In the end, I'm glad we brought the Goosebumps books home. It represents such happy childhood memories for Adam and me. Nothing is more happy than nostalgia. And who knows maybe one day our children will be Goosebumps fans!