La Lechuza!

So this one goes out to all of my cousins, who scared me half to death when I was younger.   So I bought Elle this Dora the Explorer book the other day.  It's cute.  Dora goes around to all of the animals and wishes them goodnight.  Well, at the very end of the book, she says Buenas Noches, Lechuza.  Perched on this tree, ever so cutely is an owl.  She says good night to the owl, and then she dozes off to sleep.  This is not how it happened at my Grandmas house.

So I was like in junior high, and we would go and visit my grandmother who lived in a very small town in Texas.  For those of you who don't know, small towns are built on rumors of scary supernatural stories.  These stories are meant to haunt you to your very core.  Or at least give you the creeps.  For many, like my brother, it did  not phase them, they live for the thrill. For me on the other hand, walking through the House of Horrors at Universal studios clutching my husbands arm with my eyes shut for 15 minutes, it gives me nightmares.  My grandmas house is on one side of the half paved road, and my Aunt Velma's house is on the other side.  Most of us kids, would switch back and forth going from one house to the other.  One night someone decided it would be great to tell scary stories, so instead of being the scaredy-cat and leaving, I listened intently.

The story was about this half human half bird called La Lechuza.  He sat up in the trees and preyed on people walking by.  You were safe as long as you didn't tempt him and say his name three times...sound familiar.  I would run so fast from grandmas to Aunt Velma's, it was ridiculous.  Of course I didn't believe them...;)but I was not about to tempt him and see who was telling the truth. 

Now when I was younger, I didn't know what Lechuza meant, it was just a word for a scary creature.  After reading the book for the first time, I actually laughed when I realized it was just an owl.  For those of you who don't know, I do not choose to watch a scary movie even if it implies scary or ghostly things.  I can't read anything scary.  If I do, I will have nightmares for weeks sometimes.  Just FYI!