Blog #507: How the late Jay North Demonstrates the Dangers of Masking Our Emotions?

If you grew up in the baby boomer generation or happened to watch Nick at Nite back in the day, chances are you grew up on the television adaptation of "Dennis the Menace," starring Jay North, Joseph Kearns and Jeannie Russell.

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With the recent news of the passing of Jay North at the age of 73, I wanted to bring up a topic that I've talked about before and that is masking our emotions. You see, being a television star in the late 50's and early 60's had more pits than pleasures and Jay was subjected to more pits.

In those days, child actors were viewed nothing more as dollar signs and were often treated very badly. Jay was left in the care of his mother's sister and her husband who abused him emotionally and physically in order for him to stay in line with his role as Dennis the Menace and the same was also said of the show's crew who wanted Jay to bring them in the money. Of course, this led to Jay developing a fear of retribution from his aunt and uncle and he kept a mask on his face to hide what he was enduring.

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Abuse of any kind is something that should never be tolerated and the same is often said of young celebrities who are nothing more than dollar signs. For most of his life, Jay struggled with the demons that had been with him since his Dennis the Menace days. The masking he had on him led him down a dark path and it wasn't until the suicide of Rusty Hamer of "The Danny Thomas Show" did he finally get the help he needed.

While not often the case, masking our emotions is more bad than good and the more we mask the emotions, the more the build grows. What Jay did was only play a character from a comic book series and the only thing he got in return was self-doubt and self-pity. What's more was that had Jay opened up to the cast and crew of Dennis the Menace of what his aunt and uncle were doing to him, then that built up frustration would not have happened and it was more than likely the law or child protective services would have been involved.

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The fact is that Jay was lucky to get the help that he eventually did later in life through the organization, "A Minor Consideration," headed by another former child star, Paul Petersen of "The Donna Reed Show," shows that eventually we have to confront our demons more than anything. What is sad out there is that there are people like Jay who are being abused and is either afraid to speak up about or cannot speak at all. This is demonstrated with caretakers who don't have the individual's best interest at heart and rather make a quick buck off of the individual.

The truth is that actions have consequences and the consequences that Jay's aunt and uncle have bestowed upon themselves have brought them to a permanent home in the depths of hell with the worst of the worst. In fact, anyone who abuses anyone smaller than them and is unrepentant about it is also bound for Satan's house.

But as for Jay himself, he is in a place where he will be treated with respect and love that he never got as a child and perhaps maybe now, he can continue to avoid wearing the mask he was forced to wear because he is free now from the devils that tormented him.

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Catch you all later!!