⊰ Horror movies ⊱
Around the age of 13-14, when I was in junior high, I used to take the No. 25 bus from Jaffa to Tel Aviv University once a week as part of the "Youth for Science" (In hebrew: “Noar Shoher Mada”) program (this part is irrelevant, but it shows that I’ve always been smart - though, as you’ll see from the rest of the story, maybe not that smart).
First, let me reset the scene for younger readers about the availability of content back then. There was no internet (Dramatic dum-dum-duuum!), and television had a single-digit number of default channels. The alternative was illegal cable TV installed in homes. In general, there was a limited number of channels, and everyone watched the same content (you couldn’t pause in the middle). Those illegal cables were what my grandmother had in her house down the street so she could watch Spanish telenovelas.
One time, on my way back from the university, I sat by the window in the back row of the bus - where the cool kids sat. Back then, I was very friendly to strangers (don’t worry, I’ve totally gotten over that).
Someone sat down next to me, and we started talking. The conversation flowed, and he asked,
"What kind of movies do you like?"
My answer was: "Horror movies."
If he was interested before, now he was downright thrilled.
Stranger (surprised): "Doesn’t that scare you? Gross you out?"
Me (confidently): "No."
Stranger: "I didn’t know girls liked those kinds of movies."
Me (making a face, like, that’s just who I am, unique): "Yeah..."
Stranger: "You’re very mature for your age."
Me (proudly): "Yeah..."
Me: "I stay up late all the time to watch those movies on cable."
Stranger (excited): "Me too!"
Me: "Did you see the movie with Jack Nicholson on Thursday night?" (I meant The Shining).
Stranger: "I didn’t know Jack Nicholson was in pornographic movies."
I was stunned, confused... like the plot twist at the end of The Sixth Sense (years before the movie even came out). Suddenly, the entire conversation took on a completely different meaning.
I got off the bus many stops before my house and walked the rest of the way. The idiot had heard "Porn movies" (In hebrew: Sirtey Min”) instead of "horror movies" (In hebrew: “Sirtey Eimim”. I was sitting by the window, there was wind, and people hear what they want to hear. I thought maybe I should have said "scary movies", but even that could have been misheard as "lustful movies" (in Hebrew, “Sirtey Zima” sounds similar to “Sirtey Eima”).
Since this is one of my earliest "stories" and I was just a kid, my eldest daughter calls it my "Origin story."
It’s important for me to clarify that I don’t think he intended to harass. He was genuinely surprised by what he thought I answered, so maybe I was the one who harassed him. You also have to remember that this was a long time ago, the norms were different, and the world was way less politically-correct. So let’s treat it as a just a funny misunderstanding story.
