My mom went back to work, immediately after my birth, so I was in the care of a succession of Black maids/nannies. We are talking 1958 -1962 in Virginia so quite a common practice for professional women.

My mom told me that the first carer was the best ever except for one problem. Evidently when I was a terrible 2, the woman tried to correct/control me by telling me if I wasn't good, the "boogie man" would come and get me in the night. My mother, I am afraid let the woman go from employment for that. Perhaps, it caused me nightmares, unable to sleep without night light, whatever. I did need a night light until I was 8 or 9.

I had no memory of a physical description of this character from my early years and I do not remember making an association with evil. The fear of him was more along the lines of disappointing God or Santa or your parents. Something you wanted to avoid as a newbie in a confusing world of rules and behaviours and feelings you just don't understand.

But when I was 12 or 13, this character was given form by a male cousin who was trying to frighten me. Suddenly the "boogie man" who I had long dismissed to the realm of myth (with Santa to keep him company), was a real black man (with white hair) who lived in the shack in the woods behind my cousin's house. In later adult years, I understood just how racist this cousin and his parents were. And have since dismissed his childish pranks to make the "boogie man" real at the expense of a perfectly innocent and kindly old gentleman.

But now I wonder, in the southern US, is this enigmatic character of "boogie man" a force of good or evil dependent upon black or white culture? What are his physical attributes (black or white) respective of culture?


More on ancient association of darkness to evil in next post.