My Spider Story

After reading my daughter's spider story, I thought I would write my own:

When I was about 10, in a decision that defies logic now that I am a parent myself, my parents bought me and my older brothers motorcycles. We used to ride them on our dirt road and through the nearby woods (that we called “The Flats”).

One day, I was following my brothers through the flats on my little Honda 50, when they got a little ahead of me and I lost sight of them. I turned off on a trail that I thought was the right one, but of course, it wasn’t. In fact, it was a trail that we hardly ever rode on.

Not too long after I turned, I ran through a giant spider web that was stretched across the trail. Then there was another, and another until I finally passed through a web and a big garden spider landed squarely on my face shield (thank God I had a helmet on).  Panic stricken, I fell over and when I tried to stand up I found myself tangled in what seemed like hundreds of spider webs. It seemed like a bad horror movie.

I remember screaming like a girl as I frantically tried to get the spider off my face shield and the webs off my arms and body. Somehow, one of my brothers heard what was going on and managed to get me out and calm me down. To me, it was a pretty traumatic event and I have never liked spiders since.

So, there you have it. The secret is out. I am afraid of spiders. Still, when duty calls and I must be the man of the house - the ever present spider-killer- I will put on the face of courage and squash one if I have to. Although, I have to admit that even while I am doing it I am dreading what might happen if I miss and it jumps on me.