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by Thomas Ankow [Special to The Tennessee Conservative] –
Remember this little ditty?
“All around the mulberry bush
The monkey chased the weasel.
The monkey thought ’twas all in fun…
POP! Goes the weasel.”
We’ll get back to that.
My wife doesn’t understand how I can vividly recall moments from my childhood. Please don’t share this with her. I can’t remember what she said was on my “honey do” list from last week.
However, I do remember my first experience of being really scared. That incident is seared in my brain. Forever!
I was around five years old. My beloved Dad, aka “the trickster”, decided to jump out of the shadows near the door to our upstairs bedroom, (my sister and I shared one room) and scare the bejesus out of both of us. The famous “boo” experience. I had to change my underwear, so I guess “scared sh..less” might apply here.
We lived in a classic old two-family home that was built in the late 1930’s. The house was chock full of both pleasant and disturbing childhood memories. I was convinced that the second story ceiling (yup above our bedroom) was full of evil spirits, and the coal fired furnace in the basement was certainly being used to incinerate and dispose of unruly neighborhood children. The ceiling thing turned out to be mice in the attic. Not really sure about the furnace. Beside those items everything else was just peachy. Especially toys like my “Jack in the Box” toy, lever action bb gun, Daniel Boone coonskin cap, and St. Lawrence Seaway pocketknife.
Terrorizing small children in our society seems to be the modus operandi of most parents. I think that they believe it is a rite of passage. Begin with a seemingly passive game of “peek-a-boo” to provoke uncontrollable giggling, and graduate to sneaking up ninja style from behind screaming BOO to rattle their cage.
Supposedly builds character and a resistance to fear, and wariness to folks covering their eyes with their hands. Right?
Let’s address the Jack in the Box and the incessantly annoying “pop goes the weasel” tune used to deliver our glee. What you say is being delivered? Jack of course. That earworm along with “It’s a small world” and “1-800 cars for kids” and countless other lovable hits are stuck in our brains for eternity!
According to Google the history of the jack-in-the-box toy goes back to the 1500’s. There are two theories about its origin. Both seemingly involve the devil. Theory number one.
“Claus a German clockmaker built the first jack-in-the-box as a gift for a local prince’s fifth birthday. The box had a handle that would pop out an animated devil or “Jack” after cranking the handle”.
Two. “The jack-in-the-box toy is related to an English churchman from the thirteenth century, Sir John Shorne. Folklore credits Sir John with casting the devil into a boot to protect the Buckinghamshire village of North Marston”. Boot. Box. Still got the devil in the story. Seem that the goal of each “box” was to startle or play boo with the operator.
Now that the devil has been replaced with an innocent clown, Sesame Street character, or other innocuous figure, could “the box” really be a Ouija board in disguise? Or just another earworm destined to drive us insane!
Speaking of the devil. Consider this great quote from an infamous cinematic classic, “The usual suspects”.
“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist”.
Is it also possible that the devil could be convincing us that twelve million illegal aliens (The Invisibles”) crossing the southern border are actually invisible?
Let’s defeat the Devil! GET OUT AND VOTE!
THOMAS ANTKOW is currently a freelance writer and produced and hosted his own daily radio show on KCSF AM 1300 and co-hosted talk shows for KVOR AM 740 for Cumulus Broadcasting in Colorado Springs. He can be reached at taradio863@gmail.com. You can subscribe to Tom’s FREE newsletter at: Antkow.substack.com