Spirit of dark and lonely waters.

[pretty-vacant-1.livejournal.com]

Again I have heard more items on the news about people drowning in lakes/ponds, etc, over the last few days due to trying to get some relief from this sodding heatwave. These days there seems to be no awareness what so ever about the perils these bodies of water can hold as there were in 'our day' (excuse me for sounding like an old bugger there).

Anyhow, it got me thinking back to the terrifying PIF from the late 70's, 'I am the spirit of the dark and lonely water' which, if you remember had that Grim Reaper figure standing at the banks of rivers, ponds and all that, face covered with brown cloth and a big, evil looking monk's habit thing. The PIF gave out three specific scenarios regarding water safety, two cumulating in death. The final, if memory serves (too terrified to watch it on Charley Live, to this day) had one little boy being rescued by some passers by and the Reaper saying 'I'll be back' or 'I'll get you next time', in one of those villains from Scooby Doo kind of ways. Needless to say it gave me nightmares.

To be honest I think it's about time the COI tried to recapture the 'horror' or the 70's and 80's PIF's as it seemed to me that they scared kids into having a lot more sense than they do now. One example from my own experience, my four year old son went through a phase of running across busy roads and no matter how many times I told him off, punished him for doing it (yes, I advocate smacking kids if totally essential and I think almost getting run over after not listening to a damn word, does constitute that), talking to him nicely about it...and so on, he still kept on doing it. My final solution was to show him the 'Children under 5 road safety' PIF from the TV ark site. He sat there happily watching it until the bit where the tires screech and it's implanted that the child has been run over and killed. The visuals and whole idea terrified the hell out of him. To this day he's not done that again. First hint he might and we say 'remember what happened to the boy who ran across the road?' His reply 'He got squashed. I don't want to get squashed.'

Since that he's come down with my PIF obsession and insists on taking 'Charley Says' with him everywhere he goes. I'm really happy with that, not in a way of he's enjoying the same things I do, but in the way that he's becoming educated towards potential dangers in a way he sees as fun. I'm yet to show him 'C.L' as I think a lot of things on there would be too much for him to handle. Shit, enough of them gave me the fear when I was a kid and they were shown during the ad breaks in TISWAS!

Enjoy the rest of the day peeps! I'm off to pray for rain. (an atheist praying?!)

Comments

[keresaspa.livejournal.com]

That must be a first- a PIF actually giving the public some useful information. Well done all round.

[queenmartina.livejournal.com]

The final, if memory serves (too terrified to watch it on Charley Live, to this day) had one little boy being rescued by some passers by

IIRC it was a bunch of kids wisely deciding not to play in and around unsafe water, littered with rusty shopping trollies and even the desolate shell of an old car. The (bloody scary) grim reaper admits he has no contol over wise children, but then says the three words that scare us twentysomethings witless...

I'll be back!

That PIF still scares me, but it is fascinating nevertheless and *has* to be watched in darkness.

I believe it did actually communicate its message of avoiding playing near water to children to some extent. Admittedly, you do seem to hear a lot less on the news about children drowning compared to in the past. Certainly, where I lived near the River Lagan in the 1980s, you were forever hearing of kids drowning due to playing on the banks and slipping into the water. On a misty day that river looked like a scene from the 'Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water' PIF! Thankfully less so these days.

And how many kids do you hear of nowadays playing frisbee in power stations and getting fried? Do kids even play with frisbees nowadays? I suppose today's kids are not exposed to such risks as depicted in the PIFs of yesteryear seeing as they'd rather stay in and play with their Playstations or whatever...which perhaps leads to new risks such as being electrocuted by a faulty games console or summat! Could you imagine *that* being depicted in a PIF?! :-D

The *only* PIFs that haven't seem to hit home to this day, despite them often being graphically horrific, are those concerned with road safety. How many people actually took on board (pardon the pun) the 'clunk click every trip' mantra, judging by the ridiculous numbers of road accidents every year?

It just strikes me as amazing that kids actually have taken on board the messages as seen on our best loved PIFs, whereas adults, who should know much better, aren't practicing what they preach! Belt up, folks! ;-)

I'd better go-this train of thought is making me sound like an old codger. :-)