The Childhood Trauma That Prefaces the Drink – Don H.

About This Speaker Tape

The 'carnival' of Don H.'s childhood was the visceral act of spying on a grizzled neighbor known as AC-DC. Alongside friends Sprocket and Tenderloin Don describes the tension of hiding in a desiccated creek bed and watching through a rickety fence as the old man hunts a red hen. The scene shifts from a nature study to a horror show when the neighbor kills the chicken with a hatchet and drinks the blood straight from a saucepan.

The narrative captures the raw shock of ten-year-old boys facing mortality and disgust ending with the chaotic aftermath where Tommy is captured and hauled into the compound leaving the remaining boys paralyzed between the fear of the 'vampire' and the fear of Tommy's father.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction to the 'carnival' and the boys sneaking along the creek bed
• 2:15 Description of the neighbor's compound as a modern-day Grimm's fairy tale
• 4:30 Tenderloin gets distracted by the sight of world-class watermelons
• 6:10 The 'Danse Macabre' between the old man and the red hen
• 8:00 The killing of the chicken and the boys' first encounter with mortality
• 9:45 Laughter: The neighbor drinks the blood from the saucepan
• 11:20 Tenderloin's violent physical reaction and the flight of the boys
• 13:10 The discovery that Tommy has been captured and hauled into the house