We’re watching Twin Peaks at the moment. Lain lent us the Gold Box Set, and Daz (brother number one) comes over each Tuesday night. He and I watched Twin Peaks when it first aired, in ’91 or ’92 or whenever it was. I’d “tape” it, using a “video recorder”, or we’d watch it live. We’d almost always accompanied this by eating doughnuts (from Puffin’ Fresh in Garden City) and imbibing coffee. These days, we do three episodes each Tuesday, accompanied by beer, and preceded usually by Viet Hoa takeaway. Oh, and culminating in some kind of dessert reminiscent of cherry pie (which, tonight, was blackberry and apple strudel from Corica, which is the best strudel in the metaverse).

In one of tonight’s episodes, a recently shot Agent Cooper has a visitation from a giant who tells him “the owls are not what they seem”. Afterwards I mentioned how, back in ’91 or ’92, the idea of owls as replacement memories for alien visitations spooked me out. I think I was reading Whitley Strieber’s books at the time, and I took them semi-seriously. Daz reminded me of something I’d forgotten; I used to speak of seeing a “golliwog” – a living, breathing creature – behind the shed of a neighbour when we lived in our childhood home. I must have been about four at the time, and I guess I remembered it vividly enough when I was 18 or whatever, and watching Twin Peaks for the first time.

I can only think that my neighbour (a boy a year older than me) and I snuck around the back of the shed, and…

1. saw a toy golliwog on the ground. Or…
2. got surprised by the boy’s father, who was holding a golliwog and trying to frighten us. Or…
3. it never happened, and I’m just remembering a nightmare I had as a child. Or…
4. we saw a frickin’ alien.

Should I Facebook this childhood neighbour and put the question to him? Or will he think me insane?