:nope:
Do you still have a celebrity crush on Barnabas Collins?
Oh, yes. Definitely.
Please bear with me and hear out the story.
This character has influenced my entire life in good ways. In fact, I could say that he “saved me” in grade school.
I was always a happy little child who did well in school and played with many friends.
But when I got to 5th grade, something went all wrong. It was partly because my parents were rather “country” types who didn’t march to the same beat as many of the people in our neighborhood. My mother dressed me in adorable dresses that were fashionable back when she was girl. (Back then, all girls were required to wear dresses to school.) And my dad was a plumber who wore jeans and work shirts instead of business suits like most of the other dads in the school. And they were down-home friendly, not “reserved” like many of the neighborhood folks who tended to hold back and not get involved. And they had a farm, and my dad would drive out to the farm everyday, and we spent a lot of weekends on the farm.
So I definitely marched to a different beat.
What I believe tipped everything over the top was the utterly worthless teacher of that 5th grade class, who did virtually nothing all year long (Why should she? Her union protected her.) It was a free-for-all in her class, and the strongest picked on the weakest, and I was definitely weak.
The bullying went on all year long while the teacher paid no attention at all. Everyone in the class picked on me about my clothing, my intelligence (I thought everyone in the class was getting straight As), my parents, my brother (he had club feet and wore orthopedic clothes), our farm, even our television (we only got one channel, and my parents didn’t really care). They even made fun of my mother, who didn’t drive, and who walked down to the school once a week when the bookmobile came, and checked out huge stacks of books, really GOOD books, and read them all during the week.
I can truly understand how the school shooters feel. I felt that way, but there were no guns back then. (My dad actually had shotguns, but we weren’t allowed to go near them, and we didn’t even dream of disobeying our parents.)
When spring arrived, I was on the playground by myself as usual (we weren’t allowed to stay in the school during lunch break), and all the kids were picking on me.
And I finally snapped. I grabbed one of the meanest girls, spun her around several times, and slammed her into the war slide. She went down. Her face was bloody. The playground got very quiet.
I was quiet, too. I walked into the school building (against the rules) and sat down at my desk, and listened to the ambulance siren. I knew that the teachers would come for me and I was ready for them.
When they came up to me, my nimrod teacher said, in a shocked voice, “How could you do such a thing?”
I looked up at her and in the quietest, calmest voice, said, “You teachers have watched these kids make fun of me and my family all year, and you never tried to help me or make the kids stop. This is YOUR fault, not mine.”
The teachers walked away. I didn’t get in trouble. I never heard anything about the incident.
I think that’s because the teachers knew that I was absolutely RIGHT, and they WERE the ones at fault for not helping.
Interestingly, from then on, the kids never made fun of me again. Even the big boys stayed away from me and were respectful. And the girl that I beat up actually ended up becoming a friend, or at least a nice person.
So what does this have to do with Barnabas? (Next post, please)
You appreciate demonic creatures such as vampires, but you condemn the consumption of alcohol. 
Ahhhhh…Hahahaha! A good bottle of beer is much better than getting bit in the neck by a vampire. 
npatrol:
Using the definitions