Hopkins Dad Wakes up in a Cold Sweat After Nightmare Where His Son Left the Basement Light On

HOPKINS — While sleep is often a time of rest and rejuvenation, sometimes our subconscious will be the very thing that goes bump in the night. That’s exactly what happened to Hopkins resident Jerry Hoffman Tuesday night when he was haunted by a vivid and horrific nightmare that centered around his deepest fear: wasteful energy consumption.

“Oh boy, I gotta say, not too much scares me anymore but jeez louise this one felt so real. There I was, walking down the stairs for a glass of night milk like I do every night when I see this…this light. That was weird because there’s never any lights when I’m in the kitchen. So I slowly walk towards it and that’s when I realize, oh my god, it’s coming from the basement!

As Hoffman recounts this dream, he explains that it wasn’t the light itself that rattled him so much but the person who left it on.

“So I run down those basement stairs, turn off that light and when I get back upstairs, my son Andy’s waiting at the top of the stairs and all he can say is ‘whoops, sorry I forgot to turn that off’ and that’s when I woke up. Screamed so loud it woke up Barb and I sweat through my Hanes too.”

Despite his terrifying ordeal, Jerry Hoffman feels that there is a lesson to be learned from his nightmare.

“Not a lot of people are saying this but it can be your own family who’ll have Centerpoint Energy owning your ass for a couple of months if they’re careless with turning off lights. Andy might as well put a bloody horsehead in my bed Godfather-style if he wanted to scare me like that.”