Creepy Classics & Monster Bash News

I was at my Grandparents Adams' house visiting after just coming back from Conneaut Lake Park. That was an amusement park on a large lake in western, PA. Most of my dad's family had gone together to the park and spent the night there. What I remember most about being there that time was the magical night time. Rides that were lit in the dark with long colored fluorescent tubes, flashing movement, the sound of the roller coaster and screams, and the boardwalk of games and barkers. Little floating plastic ducks with numbers on their underside, a shooting gallery, a ring toss, knocking bowling pins over with a baseball. All these games enticed you with something to win after plunking down some coins.

For me, I was more interested in the spooky rides. There was a ride through called Devil's Den that featured papier-mache devils, bats, vampires, and goony monsters. A ride that plastered you against a circular wall with centrifugal force called the Hell Hole, and a boat ride through a plaster cave full of skeletons. It was a glorious time for a twelve year old.

On our return from the park, there I was upstairs in what used to be my Aunt Barbie's room. While most of the family was discussing the good times down in the living room, my cousins were upstairs, running around, pairing off into different upstairs rooms. I was sitting cross-legged on the bed in the room paging through comic books. When, out of the blue, my cousins Judy and Karen burst in. One of the them, or one of their parents (my aunts and uncles) had won a prize probably playing a game called Skee-Ball the night before at the park. The family loved playing Skee-Ball.

My girl cousins, older than me, were more into music and The Beatles. So the prize that they had didn't mean much to them. They always saw me reading comics with monsters in them, so they gave the "prize" to me. To me it was one of the best prizes, and now gift to me! It was a card set called Monster Old Maid. Oversized thick playing cards with photos of movie monsters on them. This was incredible. My cousins told me I could have them. What a gift!

These cards fascinated me. I knew most of the monsters. I recognized Frankenstein, the Glenn Strange face that was all over merchandising. I saw Bela Lugosi as Dracula and The Hunchback (not knowing, at that time, that it was James Cagney from MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES). There was the Creature From the Black Lagoon and The Mummy. But, wait a minute. Who was that one that said The Wolf Man? It didn't look like The Wolf Man. I would find out a few years later that it was really Oliver Reed as the beast from CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF. Now the Old Maid card itself said "Dracula's Daughter." I didn't know at the time that it was a female vampire from the film THE BRIDES OF DRACULA. 

I loved this card set and took it downstairs to the couch in the living room. I was still shuffling through them. They were black-and-white photos that had overlay color on them. Some a purple, others a yellow-green. I studied those faces, those monsters. I spent hours looking over them again and again.

When my parents, toddler sister, and I went home I did the same. On the couch, or in my bedroom, I just looked at these cards. They were branding into my young brain. Over the years, the cards were lost. But, I never forgot them. I could clearly see those monsters in my head. After about 25 years I found them again for sale at a convention. I reclaimed them, and my memories. 

They now sit behind glass in my living room reminding me of Conneaut Lake Park (gone now) and the simple gift that was unexpected and meant so much. Thanks cousins Judy and Karen.

-Ron Adams
Ligonier, PA
August 2026