“Don’t look back, keep running”

Remembering death as i was growing up.

This is a selection of videos and images which I remember and how shaped my ideas, made me afraid and inquisitive about death as a child. 

There was a school safety video that has stuck in my memory for being particularly scary. It was one about the railway where the kids football boots get caught on the line as hes crossing the tracks, he gets stuck as a train is coming and his legs get cut off. His sister watches the whole thing, screams and then she doesn't speak again. I was always really affected by the fact that she was so scared that she never spoke again.  I've been trying to find this one for you but no luck here are some other equally chilling ones. Enjoy!

Dark and Lonely Water 

 

Aids Monolith 1987

The Smoker of the future 

 

Stay out of the Fridge!

 

Electricity

ET. 

I found ET's death memorable because it is actually a story of resurrection as he comes back to life.   E.T’s health begins to decline, and while Michael and Elliot go out for Halloween with E.T. The next morning Michael finds E.T dying in the forest, and when he takes him to Elliott realizes that he is also dying. Mary, Elliott’s mother, becomes frightened when she discovers her son’s illness and the dying alien, before government agents invade the house. Scientists set up a medical facility in the house, quarantining Elliott and E.T. Their link disappears, and E.T. then appears to die while Elliott recovers. A grief-stricken Elliott is left alone with the motionless alien.

This death is ingrained into the memory of all who watch it the film because the child with his childlike innocence and joys must face the grim realities of death through his friend. As he holds the lifeless corpse of his friend in his arms, we all feel the sadness and loss with him.  

The death of Artex. The Neverending Story

I always remember the death of Artex as a really sad moment of my childhood. It didn't matter how many times i watched it, i always cried. It place in the deadly Swamps of Sadness, that Artreyu must pass in order to see the ancient Morla, the wisest being in all of Fantasia. Arteyu’s passage is hindered though, due to his horse, Artax, who is enveloped by the sadness of the swamps and sinks into the mud. No matter how Atreyu tries to pull his trusty steed out of the mire of dark emotions, he must leave Artax behind, and watch as he sinks into the swamps depths. 

Disney Death

This YouTube video is a compilation on all the best known disney deaths

The death of Daphne in Neighbours

This one gave me nightmares for weeks! I used to watch the Australian series "Neighbours' religiously in my early teens and this death scene of the character Daphne struck me particularly when she came round from her coma said 'des' her husbands name and then tragically slipped away. 

Old English poem

Eggs and Marrowbone 

(A traditional folk song from the UK)

There was an old woman in our town

In our town did dwell

She loved her husband dearly

But another man twice as well

She went down to the doctor

To see what she could find

To see what she could find, Sir

To make her old man blind.

"Feed him eggs and marrowbone

And feed them to him all,

And that will make him so darned blind

He can't see you at all."

So she fed him eggs and marrowbone

Fed them to him all,

And that did make him so darned blind

He couldn't see her at all

"So now I'm getting old and blind

And tired of my life

So I'll go and drown myself

And that will end my strife"

"To drown yourself," said she, said she,

"Now that would be a sin.

So I'll go down to the river's edge

And kindly push you in."

The old woman took a running jump

To push her old man in.

The old man he just stepped aside

And the woman she fell in.

She yelled for help, she screamed for help;

Loudly she did bawl.

The old man said "I'm so gol-darned blind

I can't see you at all!"

So she swam along, swam along,

Till she came to the river's brim.

The old man got a great long pole

And pushed her further in.

Now the old woman is dead and gone

And the Devil has got her soul.

Wasn't she a blamed old fool

That she didn't grab that pole?  

Eating eggs and marrowbone

Won't make your old man blind;

So if you want to do him in

Just creep up from behind.

fall from grace

I did an internet search to see how many pictures I could find of Michael Jackson's dead body.