Candle Cove: Memories

It was in 1971 when I first moved to Ashland, Ironton. My family had to move away from Beacon, New York due to the issues we had while we lived there. Due to this, my younger brothers and sisters complained but my mother and father would always tell them that it was for their own good. After we moved, I was placed in a elementary school where I met a boy named Bradley.

He was always that shy kid who sat quietly near the back of a classroom. He was skinny, pale and whenever I saw him, he wore small glasses. After a few months of schoolwork, I was confronted by Bradley who began to talk about a kids show called Candle Cove. He gave an outline about what the show was about. It was about a little girl named Janice who imagined herself to be friends with a crew of pirates on a talking ship character called Ms. Laughingstock. He told me that the show's antagonist was called Horrace Horrible.

This intrigued me so I told him about where I could watch it. He told me that it only aired on channel 58. When the school day ended, I ran up to my bedroom, turned on the TV and tuned into channel 58. An episode now known as "Getting Under My Skin" was playing.

The episode began with Ms. Laughingstock telling the Laughingstock Crew about the Rubber Fishes trying to steal another pirate's treasure. After some more boring plot details, they reach a cave where a character named the Skin-Taker is singing in a creepy voice to a song that has been dubbed "Come, Come, Rip". The main character, Janice, follows the pirates as they head towards the Skin-Taker and Horace Horrible.

The camera then focused on the Skin-Taker facing the crew as Janice asked why his mouth moved sideways. Then he said it. No. He shouted it.

"TO GRIND YOUR SKIN!", he shouted as Janice screamed in fear.

I don't remember much about the episode after that, but I know that image of the Skin-Taker facing the camera will forever stay in my head. I skipped season one after that and I watched the episode 7, 9 and 12. While I don't remember much about this episode, I do remember the fact that the Skin-Taker grabbed a sword, pushed the camera and killed and skinned a character with blonde hair called Milo.

I recall episode 9 detailed how Percy got frightened easily while some strange scratching sounds played at key events in the episode. Apparently, the alleged "script" has been lost so I can't give you too much info about the episode. Everybody knows about episode 12 A.K.A "The Screaming Episode". If you don't, it has all of the characters screaming into the camera while Janice is crying for the entire duration of the show.

I've had nightmares about the show since then. Whenever somebody brings up the show, awful memories come flooding back. Here's what I know:


 * Milo's hair color is highly debated. This is believed to have been caused by the broadcast having issues with transmitting the hair color. Interestingly, many children saw his color as their own.


 * Candle Cove was supposedly inspired by a obscure short story written in 1767 called The Nickerbocker's Tale. The book was written by an anonymous author who is speculated to be a man named Colin Caulkry. Before the book could be finished, Colin disappeared and the book got published.


 * The show has possible connections to real pirates. A few years before the show was released, an old ship was found off coast of a private island. By request from the owners of the island, newspapers never specified which island. There was an inscription with most of the letters faded which caused people to suggest that the inscription read:

"LAUGHINGSTOCK".


 * After the show was taken off the air, Bradley went missing after he complained about a nightmare. Nobody has seen him since.


 * Somebody keeps sending me puppets from the show. Whoever's doing this, stop. It's not funny and all the puppets do is creep me out.


 * I'm hearing knocking at my door.


 * It's a package. But why has it arrived during the evening?


 * I see a bunch of tapes. I've just picked one out of the box and it's labelled, "CC: EPISODE 15".


 * All I see is static.