My informant is a 23 year old filmmaker who grew up in San Diego County.

“So this is the story about um, it’s pretty much like the- the scariest thing that ever happened to me when I was like a young child. Uh, one night I was really thirsty and I wanted a glass of water. So I woke up my dad, he walked me downstairs, and at the time we were living in this house we called “The Big House.” It was a house on a five-acre property deep in the woods in Temecula in this area called Deluz. So we were surrounded by these massive oak trees that were easily hundred, two hundred years old. And me being a young kid, I called it the “Hundred Acre Woods” like in Winnie the Pooh. And so, uh, I walked into the kitchen with my dad and there was this pale orange light. And I look, and we have these huge plate-glass windows looking out, and there’s these massive orange eyes. And I’m not kidding you, they were probably like the size of a large dinner plate. With um, an orange, basically there were – it was an orange circle and then the inside was black as night and then another orange circle. So it was clearly an animal, but in my young mind, I was so paralyzed with fear that I thought it was an alien. And my dad saw it too, and he was like, “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.” Got me my glass of water, went back to bed. But to this day, when I think about the woods, or when I think about going out at night, I always think of these orange eyes. And they are just so vivid in my memory that I will never forget not only the color, the size, where I was, and what I said. And it was, I think it was to the – it was just the sort of “what is that” and that fear alone.”

This would be performed when sharing stories about strange childhood experiences.

Analysis:

My informant was very young when he experienced this. He was frightened by something that he did not understand and naturally assigned it supernatural qualities. After being told by his father that it was fine, he calmed down. But he is still haunted to this day by those eyes, demonstrating how fear can create the most vivid memories.