by Elle Reeves

Created on: May 23, 2008   Last Updated: May 28, 2008

I am the parent of two wonderful children aged 5 and 6. Both of my children have a thing for the Spider-Man movies. We have watched all three about a hundred times. No kidding. I could recite every single line in the movie.
After watching all of those movies so many times, it is not a surprise that both of my children would recognize one of the characters.
One day at the grocery store about a year ago, while browsing the cereal aisle a man walked by. My children both began to start screaming.

"Oh no, run, it's the green goblin," they both screamed.
I looked around confused and noticed the man. He looked exactly like Willem Dafoe, the green goblin in Spider-Man.
I tried to get them to be quiet but they wouldn't. I was immediately embarrassed, my face was red.
Luckily the man didn't notice and we all went on with our business. My kids kept talking about seeing the green goblin and my son went on and a=on about Spider-Man.
I carefully walked each aisle hoping that we would not run into the man that resembled the green goblin again.
Once we were almost done shopping, when we all forgot about it, I heard a thump.
I turned and looked, my son threw a can at the "green goblin" and said, "Spider-Man is going to get you."
I could not believe it, my child assaulted someone in the grocery store.
I told the man I was so sorry and tried explaining the story to him.
As I did this, my children kept yelling at me because I was talking to the green goblin. They told me that Spider-Man was going to be mad at me.
The man, named George, was very nice about the whole thing, and said that he valued my children's imagination. He also said that he has never been told that he looked like Willem Dafoe before. He was not offended at all, even though they were still yelling at him in the background. I could not get them to stop, I tried everything. They were just so sure that he was going to start throwing exploding pumpkins in the store.
As we said our good byes, the man looked at my children and told them that he liked Spider-Man, then he let out the same cackle that the green goblin does in the movie.
After seeing Spider-Man so many times, I thought it was really awkward that the man did actually sound like the green goblin.
I laughed about the situation for a while, it was kind of funny, he did look exactly like the character.
We left the store and got to the car, as I was putting the groceries in the trunk, George walked by us.
This time my children were quiet, they only glared at him. I have never seen my children glare at someone before. George just laughed and went on by.
When I got in the car, I asked why they were so quiet this time, they explained to me that they didn't want to make him mad outside because then he could jump on his glider and follow us home.

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