# Help me track down these childhood (horror?) stories... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 10, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-track-down-these-childhood-horror-stories/535637 "2010-04-10T14:12:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-track-down-these-childhood-horror-stories/535637/1 "2010-04-10T14:12:34Z")
As an elementary school student in the early 80’s, I remember reading a couple of books from my school library that I think were anthologies of short stories. The books themselves were probably ten or more years old at the time. Several of these stories have stuck with me lo these many years, and I’d like to try to find them again if I can. I seem to remember that the books were related to Alfred Hitchcock in some way, even though the stories themselves were more Twilight-Zone rather than mysteries. Sadly, I can’t even be sure that all the stories were from the same anthology series. So, I draw upon the collective memory of the Teeming Millions to help me find these short stories: 1. Some ultradense 6" tall organisms who live in the Earth’s mantle use spacesuits and antigravity belts (?) to visit the surface of the Earth. They are so dense that they can push through normal matter like it was fog and they sink into concrete like it was mud. Somebody tries to kick one of them over and pulps his foot in the process. I don’t think that the creatures were malevolent. 2. A family of vampire/monsters has a child with ‘soft, yellow teeth’ (ie human), and they don’t know what to do with it. The line about the teeth has really stayed with me. 3. A deep-sea creature is disturbed by an earthquake or bomb test or something and moves up to land. It’s basically a mobile oil slick or Blob-like monster. I think that it kills a few animals out of curiosity. Ring any bells? ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-track-down-these-childhood-horror-stories/535637/2 "2010-04-10T16:32:15Z")
> [@brossa](#): > > 1. A deep-sea creature is disturbed by an earthquake or bomb test or something and moves up to land. It’s basically a mobile oil slick or Blob-like monster. I think that it kills a few animals out of curiosity. > > Ring any bells? Slime by Joseph Payne Brennan? “It was a great grey-black hood of horror moving over the floor of the sea. It slid through the soft ooze like a monstrous mantle of slime obscenely animated with questing life.” Disturbed by an earthquake, it finds the beach and is very hungry. ---
**Author:** ![GythaOgg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@GythaOgg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GythaOgg)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-track-down-these-childhood-horror-stories/535637/3 "2010-04-10T20:23:38Z")
> [@brossa](#): > > 1. A family of vampire/monsters has a child with ‘soft, yellow teeth’ (ie human), and they don’t know what to do with it. The line about the teeth has really stayed with me. > Ring any bells? Number two sounds like the Ray Bradbury story ‘Homecoming’. I know it’s been in a number of various collections. From my high school days working in a library, I do dimly recall there were several anthology volumes of horror/supernatural stories with the Hitchcock name on them, aimed at juvenile readers. ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-track-down-these-childhood-horror-stories/535637/4 "2010-04-11T15:29:12Z")
Thanks, **DocCathode** and **GythaOgg** - those gave me some solid leads to track down. It sounds like I was remembering the _Alfred Hitchcock Presents…_ or \*Alfred Hitchcock’s Monster Museum \*books. The latter has _Slime_ and _Homecoming_ and _The Microscopic Giants_, which sounds like my ultradense astronauts one. Off to the Internet to secure a copy! ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-track-down-these-childhood-horror-stories/535637/5 "2010-04-11T16:38:06Z")
I’m glad you got your answer. I just wanted to say these stories sound awesome. ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-track-down-these-childhood-horror-stories/535637/6 "2010-04-14T19:46:00Z")
_Alfred Hitchcock’s Monster Museum_ was the book I was thinking of. It turns out that the local library has a copy. I guess I’m posting this because I’m amazed at how specific my recollections were of short stories I read about thirty years ago. From “Homecoming” - > [@](#): > > He opened his mouth, surveyed the poor, inadequate teeth nature had given him. No more than so many corn kernels – round, soft, and pale in his jaws. From “The Microscopic Giants” - > [@](#): > > I leaped at the three little figures. With all my strength I swung my heavily booted foot at the one with the rod. There was death in that swing. I wanted to kill these three. I was berserk, with no thought in mind other than to rend and tear and smash. That kick would have killed an ox, I think.