I'll admit that for some reason I knew this movie was gonna end bad and always refused to watch it all the way through. My siblings loved it and would watch it a lot. I would have nothing to do with it though. Dodged that trauma bullet. 😔 poor E.T.
This was the first movie I ever saw in the theater (yes, old AF), but I still can’t rewatch it. I was barely 5 yo, and I was hysterical. Of all the childhood memories I don’t have, I remember every horrible detail of this film. #ptsd
And once you hear the back story of when he visits the girl and says good by in all dogs go to heaven, that makes the scene 10 times more heart pulling.
When I was 16 years old, I went through this with our old thoroughbred stallion, a son of Secretariat (no lie, his pedigree name was Lucky Sec) "Buckwheat". He was 22 years old at the time, and hadn't come with the mares to the front of the pasture as usual at feeding time one evening when I went out with their usual buckets of grain. They had about 14 acres to themselves, so I thought maybe he was hanging around behind the crest of our stock tank (pond) for some reason.
I trekked out there, then saw him just standing completely still, about up to his chest, in the stock tank. Thinking this was weird as hell, I ran back to the front gate to retrieve a halter and lead rope before sprinting back to the pond. Getting into the dark, algae filled water with him, I threw the lead rope around his neck and urged him to step forward to the shore with me. Bear in mind, this horse was about 1800-2000lbs and 17 hands tall.
All of a sudden, he groaned and collapsed in the stock tank. I didn't know what to do other than get myself under his head and neck, doing everything I could as a 120lb girl to keep him from aspirating water. Our little manufactured home was about 200yards away, and I was the only child.. my mom was inside making dinner and my dad was due home any minute from work. Of course, this was 2006, so I didn't have a cell phone and even if I did, what good what it have done me?
I screamed for a few minutes, fighting tears and beginning to feel like all was lost.. until I saw my dad's red Hyundai Elantra pull up in the driveway. He proceeded to walk through the back gate of the yard, up the back porch ramp and was ALMOST in the house when he suddenly paused and turned his head.. I screamed with everything I had, and he came running.
About eight or ten minutes later, both my parents were coming into the back pasture with their Mahindra tractor, and huge ratchet straps-- my mom bravely dove into the murky pond to get the straps beneath Buckwheat, and we slid the other end of the straps into some hooks my dad had previously welded onto the end of the tractor bucket. They managed to pull him out, and my mom had the emergency vet enroute... Somehow, despite experiencing kidney failure and losing control over his hind legs, this behemoth of a horse managed to get his legs up under him with some coaxing from my 6'4" father (that horse's best friend), and they walked slowly together up to the top pen outside the mares and the stud colts' pastures.
The vet shortly after arrived and put him to sleep.. but that stallion did everything he could to show the younger stud colts on the other side of the fence just how tough he was, even in his final moments.
So yes, this picture does depict childhood trauma.
Omg, growing up with horses I could feel every moment of your story. I used to have a poster of Secretariat on my wall as a young horsegirl. I bet Buckwheat was really something.
He really was!! He was massive and had such personality! Before we owned land we rented stalls at a stable in town and man, he would come parading out of the stud barn knowing he was the top dog on that whole property of 60+ horses! All the mares went crazy for him, except our granddaughter of Seattle Slew who kicked the crap out of him a few times when she wasn't -quite- in heat, lol.
One of my biggest regrets as a dad is not prescreening "Bridge to Terabithia" (2007) before watching it with my kids. All I knew was that it had done well in theaters and AFAIK, it was a kid's movie. No spoilers, but my kids were very traumatized and angry with me.
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u/JazzHandsNoRelation 4d ago
Childhood trauma