One of the things that my mother used to do to scare me into sleeping early when I was a child was the threat of being kidnapped by witches at midnight.
She used to say, "If you're not asleep by midnight, witches flying by the window checking on stubborn children will snatch you from your bed.
They will boil you in their cauldron and make dinner out of you!" That speech used to scare me into shutting my eyes tight and compelling me to imitate a stone statue as I lied on my bed with my pillow nervously pressed on top of my head.
Not only that, I was so bothered about my mother's warning that I often found myself waking up in the middle of the night thinking some eerie voice was calling my name only to find out that it was just my grandmother, snoring at the next bed.
And neither did it help any that my parents used to turn off all the lights but one tiny bulb when they tucked us into bed.
Talk about setting the mood for a witch intent on casting a witchcraft spell on unsuspecting children.
Another threat that my mother used to spout was, "Witches love disobedient children.
So if you continue being bad, a witch will come for you one day and you will never see us again.
" This one she used to menacingly whisper to us whenever we refused to obey some of her edicts.
And so it was really no wonder that my childhood was full of imagined horrors and fictional malevolent beings.
In fact, as a child, I even believed that one of our neighbors was an actual warlock.
And curious child that I was, I used to convince my friends to come with me as I stalked that neighbor's usually dark and silent log cabin, hoping to catch him in the act of performing a witchcraft spell.
We never really saw him do anything suspicious.
I now doubt if the old man even knew any magic at all.
And now that I think back on it, I believe that he was just a plain recluse.
Clearly, I was just a hyperactive child with an overactive imagination.
However, as I grew up I actually began to take interest in magic.
And despite our pastor's litany about the Bible damning witches and anyone who practices magic, my curiosity about witchcraft and witches never dimmed.
Fortunately, I found some books that explained the truth about witches and magic - whether they are just figments of people's imagination or they really do exist.
One of the books that shed some light on this subject was 'The Journey to Trad Witchcraft by Adrian Eglinton'.
Well, whether you believe in magic or not, one thing is for sure, a realm with witches would be a far more interesting world than ours with its nonsensical wars, dull presidents, and never-ending inflation.