Playing Gremlins

(1994) Playing Gremlins

"They hate bright light…Never feed them after midnight…Never get them wet." If you're not familiar with those lines, you need to watch the movie Gremlins. Bight light kills the creatures. Feeding them after midnight changes the sweet little Mogwai into monstrous Gremlins, and water makes them multiply!

Still, it's a cute, fun little movie that my kids watched. I never dreamed my two older boys would imitate scenes—one in particular. After the Gremlins changed to their evil form and multiplied, they went wild and swung on ceiling fans.

Up front up making dinner, I suddenly heard this god-awful noise and screaming. I raced to the boys' shared bedroom.

The next to oldest son was wailing and holding a blade to the ceiling fan. They were playing ''Gremlins"! It was so NOT funny.

When Dad got home, he was livid. At that time number two son received three dollars a week as an allowance. As punishment, he had to give back two until he could pay for a new ceiling fan.

Fast forward ten years…

As Matt, number one son, and I drove to school when I changed his place of attendance to where I taught, he said, ''Momma, I have to confess something to you."

I glanced at him. ''What have you done now?"

''You remember when Nate and I were playing 'Gremlins'?"

''Yeah."

''I swung on the fan first. Maybe I cracked the blade before Nate took his turn."

My mind boggled. After ten years, the boy's guilt nagged at him that hard. Neither of them had ever said Matt went first or at all. It was so NOT funny that I almost chortled. I managed to eke out, ''Well, then I guess you owe Nate fifteen dollars, half of what he paid Dad."