thing that scared you the most as a kid

[mopaul]

for me it was getting stuck in a cave. we had bluffs all along the Mississippi valley around st. louis and there were thousands of caves. me and the other kids used to climb the bluffs and explore the caves. one day i got stuck in a very tight crawl space between caves and couldn't go forward or backward in total darkness.

i still have nightmares about it.

[Shoeempress]

1. Spiders. Still scare the Jeebus out of me. Make my Husband

kill them.

[El Fuego]

87. I was going to say spiders too.

All through my childhood I had horrible recurring nightmares about spiders. No other living thing terrifies me like spiders. Eight legs, eight eyes, they are EVIL ALIENS.

[NaturalHigh]

91. Spiders, without a doubt.

Werewolves were a close second up until I was six or seven. That's what I get for watching "Frankenstein vs. the Wolfman."

[Midlodemocrat]

2. Thunderstorms

and unfortunately, I have passed that particular phobia onto my son.

[Jamastiene]

41. I'm still scared of thunderstorms as an adult.

I've seen firsthand what kind of damage they can do. I lived through a hurricane back in the 80's while I was staying at my grandmother's house. She taught me that any time a storm was scaring my that bad to just go to bed. That night, we BOTH went to bed. I had never seen her react to a storm before, but that night she prayed hard using both the Christian form of prayer and the strange Cherokee derived singing ritual while playing with her hair thing she used to do when I was a kid. She would go into another world. I was soothed by that and went to sleep.

We woke up and several large limbs off both of the 2 old (like hundreds of years old with a trunk with a 3 foot diameter) oak trees in the front yard were scattered all over the yard and road. They had to bring in several people from the neighborhood with chainsaws to saw us out of there. The odd thing about though was that the house itself was not damaged and that included the covered porch that spanned the entire front of the house. We just couldn't get out the front door. I've never forgotten that.

I have also seen what tornadoes, hurricanes and other bad storms can do to people's houses and lives. When I first moved into the place I am staying now, there was a first time ever windstorm that kicked up. I had always thought trailers were rickety and not strong enough to take wind. My mother wouldn't shut up until she kicked me out and I had to move into a trailer. She has always wanted me to live in a trailer for some odd reason. Anyhow, that windstorm made this trailer make noises like nothing I have ever heard. It still frightens me to this day when the weather is bad like it was during that hurricane and the windstorm. Believe it or not, lightning doesn't scare me. And it's the thing I shoud be worried about. If there was a way to have lightning with no thunder, I'd probably sit my dumb ass up at the window and watch the lightning... It's the thunder and the wind that is my worst nightmare.

[Allenberg]

85. Same here.

Oddly I'm more fearful of lightning now in my mid 20s than I am when I was younger. :scared:

[Jamastiene]

93. And the Bushies still refuse to believe in global warming...

The weather worldwide has gotten more ferocious, hasn't it? Have you heard about the latest hurricane, Irene? Scaring me. I'ts going to hit about the time I go back to my new semester in college. Ouch. I mean we hardly ever had ice storms and snow storms where I live (NC) until the past 5 years or so. Now, we expect them several times a year. Used to only get them ever few years. Also, that windstorm was the first I ever experienced in my life. We had one a couple of day after that one again. Two of something in one year after going 34 years without ever experiencing one is unnerving.

[Cyndee_Lou_Who]

3. Ants.

OK, I was like 3!!

Oh, and I was terrified that the Christmas tree (real) would burst into flames whilst I slept. It was the 70's and we had those humungo hot-ass bulbs.

And... we had some funky 70's curtains with weird psychedelic designs. I formed monsters out of the designs.

[Enraged_Ape]

4. Alfred E. Neuman

I don't know what was behind it, but his visage used to scare the crap out of me when I was a kid. For several years I could only read "Cracked" magazine so I didn't have to look even for a second at his demonic image on "MAD".



I used to think I was nuts, but then I ran into another guy (a tough, Fonzie-like, biker-type friend in high school) who told me he felt the same way!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

54. Johnny Sokko's Giant Robot

My Dad watched this show when I was 2 or 3. One look at that icy sphinx stare terrified me to no end. Whenever I'd head the show was on I'd run as far away from the TV room as I could.

[havocmom]

5. That growups in charge seemed to believe sitting on the floor with my head

under a desk and an arm over the back of my neck was gonna save my ass from an atomic bomb.

At 6, I figured the people in charge should be smarter than me. Terrified me that it just wasn't the case.

[cally]

12. That just made me laugh

Hiding under the desk sure was a stupid thing to have us do. It might make sense for earthquakes, though.

[bliss_eternal]

6. I had a rather irrational fear of Winnie the Pooh--

Apparently at the end of the Pooh cartoons, when they switched the live action, and showed the stuffed animal Pooh in a child's room and Pooh winks, I would lose it and cry!

I'm quite fond of Pooh now, but as a child winking stuffed bears were apparently rather distressing for me.

(sigh)

Besides Pooh, I was afraid of bugs. Mostly any kind of flying bug, but also spiders, cockroaches, crickets, etc.

[saltpoint]

7. At 13, it was my shop teacher. Years later I saw BLUE VELVET --

-- and realized that "Frank Booth," the sociopath in the film played by Dennis Hopper, had been based on my shop teacher. Can't prove it, but I FEEL it deeply, people.

As an adult, U.S. foreign policy is the most frightening damn thing I can think of.

[no_hypocrisy]

8. Getting lost after a day at the New York World's Fair in 1966.

I honestly wasn't sure my parents were going to look for me and go home without me. Since it took about 45 minutes for them to find in the Borden Exhibit, I was half convinced I was right.

[swag]

28. Wow.

That's pretty intense. That would stick with me, too.

[Not_Giving_Up]

9. Late at night, when everyone was asleep

If I woke up to go to the bathroom, I'd flush and then run. The toilet always seemed so much louder, and it scared me!

[xultar]

10. The KKK. I was always afraid they'd burn a cross in my yard.

[cally]

13. Where did you live?

Was that happening in your community? That must have been terrifying.

[xultar]

16. Georgia in the 60's and 70's

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

14. That would be scary.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

11. The original "The Blob"

I thought it was going to come around the corner and get me. The brochure about rubella that we got in second grade. Wolf spiders.

[cally]

15. Mirrors and open closet doors

I heard about two way mirrors and was convinced that someone was spying on me through the mirrors. I was afraid someone would come out of the closet. To this day, I'll get up and close the closet if it's open.

[Archae]

17. Nixon.

I was 8 when he was first elected. :scared:

[intheflow]

18. Creature Features!

I remember running out of a movie theater with my best friend at age 9. The movie? The Golden Voyage of Sinbad.

I'm ashamed to admit this now. I think this is the cheesy scene that drove us almost wetting our pants from the movie theater:



:blush: :eyes:

[Jamison]

19. Michael Myers

Those Halloween movies were popular when I was growing up. I used to think he was the scariest thing. I was even afraid of guys wearing blue jumpsuits b/c of him.

[sundog]

32. i had nightmares about him for a period of my life

:scared:

[nookiemonster]

40. I almost missed your "Halloween" reference and thought of this guy

Dude....like....I'm scared. LOL

[peekaloo]

20. white noise from the tv

and this was long before 'Poltergeist'.....once upon a time TV stations went off the air after midnight.

[seaglass]

21. Bridges. To this day I still insist that everyone put their windows

down when we go over a bridge.

Oh, and birds, the movie The Birds scared the crap out of me, I believed that birds plotted against people IRL.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

22. I used to dream that I would wake up in my dark bedroom

and try to turn on the light and it wouldn't work, so I would go in the hallway and that light wouldn't work, then pretty soon I had wandered further into the house where it was pitch dark and I couldn't find my way back. The dream was so real that when I really woke up in the middle of the night I was terrified to turn on the light because I was too afraid that it would be like my dream.
I hated that dream.

[VelmaD]

23. Being burned alive...

my whole life I've had a recurring nightmare about being trapped in a burning building and not being able to get out.

[swag]

24. Ages 4 - 10, probably all that shit from the book of Revelations

that my fundamentalist mom (god bless her) was always carrying on about. Didn't sound too good. The oldest dream I remember (and still the dream I remember best) was of the end times as described in that bad book.

Ages 10-12, the family had moved to Havre, MT, and my schoolmates and I were shown weekly 16mm films, with trailers from the Montana Power Company, scaring the hell out of us (out of me, anyway) about the communist threat and convincing us (me, anyway) that those evil Soviets were going to come over the Saskatchewan border with tanks, evil stormtroopers, and nuclear missiles any minute now. Those films and our idiot school teachers drilled that shit into our heads and nearly drove us (me, anyway) crazy with their paranoia inducing lies.

[barb162]

25. bad storms, tornados

[unsavedtrash]

26. my kid fears are best left in the past.

[Ladyhawk]

27. Going to hell or being left behind after the rapture. n/t

[swag]

30. If I had had a sister, you might have been her.

[Zuni]

29. demonic possesion, evil spirits

and spiders

[smartvoter]

31. Lint. It's everywhere! nt

[Flaxbee]

33. Stephen King's "The Bogeyman"

short story, I read it when I was 8 or 9 (older sister left book lying around) and I really was terrified for years. Decades, even.

[texas1928]

34. The black evil thing that used to rush us at night.

it would rush at you and you could not see any light from outside. It seemed to block it all out.

[Ptah]

35. Gentlemen, cross your legs.

I used to fear the exposure of my attraction to other boys.

I was certain, if discovered, I would be altered into a steer.

:shrug:

On edit: I was born and raised in cattle country, on the Great Plains.

[tjwmason]

39. I do hope that you've got past that fear

Now you just need to post a photograph and I'm sure you'll get a whole big line of us. :hi:

[Ptah]

46. Sure, that calms me down.

A no-profile person wants me to post a picture so
I'll get a whole big line.

A line of what, jokes about fags?
Cowboys?


Not too reassuring.

[tjwmason]

49. You'll get none of that round here

It was actually a misinterpreted attempt at flirtation - and a reference to that fact that the assembled gay men here in the Lounge are a very flirtatious bunch at times.

Nothing to get het-up about.

On Edit - you might want to have a look round here - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=221

[Ptah]

60. I know, I reacted badly to you.

Please accept my apology, tjwmason.


:hi:

Sometimes, that childhood fear is still with me, even when I am among friends.

And you are correct, "none of that around here."



:toast:

[tjwmason]

67. I should be more careful at times

The subtleties of tone and inflexion do not carry well down the internet, and when a person is not used to my style it can be very open to misinterpretation.

Welcome to D.U. :hi:

[borlis]

36. I was afraid of the garbage men.

When I would hear the truck down the street I would run to the front door and close and lock it. I would then close the living room draperies also. :shrug:

[rene moon]

37. Darth Vader

The Man of My Nightmares!!! UGH!!!!!!!!

[VOX]

38. The concept of infinity.

I mean, everything starts and stops, right? Or has an inside and an outside? A top and a bottom?

But...INFINITY. :scared:

[Lumily]

42. Fire.

I remember watching an episode of "The Waltons" where the school house burned down. I think I was 3-4. After that I was horrified of fire.

Still am.

[BreweryYardRat]

43. Cockroaches.

Still am.

[Mizmoon]

44. The Dark

What if "they" creep up on you before you can scream for help?

[cmf]

45. Nuclear war.

I was obsessed with it. Since Numbnuts took office, I've began having nightmares about it again.

[Deep13]

47. bingo

When I was a teenager in the 1980s, I went to bed every night wondering if I would ever wake up. Having Reagan's finger on the button didn't help much either. And we wonder why gen-X is narcessistic.

[gizmonic]

53. I had the same fear as a teenager, too.

Reagan scared the crap out of me.

:scared:

[liberalitch]

50. I grew up (and still live) in Norfolk, Va.

Once when I was a kid I heard this guy say that because this is the home of the largest military installation in the world.... we are Ground Zero in case of "new-clear" attack..... That frightened the hell out of me.

[neweurope]

48. My mother

-------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[bertha katzenengel]

51. my mother

She was a fucking evil *blank* on wheels, and as predictable as an earthquake. Scarier than an earthquake though.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

70. Mine too!

[bertha katzenengel]

73. Are you my long lost sister?

I always suspected there was someone hiding out of terror in the closets....

[Brewman_Jax]

52. Falling into the toilet

in addition to monsters under the bed and in the closet, and the dark and ghosts.

[gizmonic]

55. Automatic Car Washes

I think they are creepy. I prefer to be outside the car when it's being washed. :scared:

Never told anyone until now.

[calico1]

56. I would say probably a class trip I went to

when I was in 4th grade. It was to a wax museum. (School trip). They had very real, lifelike exhibits of important historical events. One was of Marie Antoinette being taunted by her captors when they beheaded her maid and put her head on a spike and waved it in front of her window. That was the exibit..head on spike in front ot MA window. Very real. You could see blood, veins, etc. Then there was the exibit of the women trapped in the Triangle Factory. Wall turning red, women with panicked expressions on their faces not being able to get out. There were a few other ones that scared the hell out of me. I had nightmares for about a month. One recurring one where I thought the house was on fire and I couldn't get out. I would say its probably NOT a good idea to take a little kid to a wax museum!

[Mutley]

57. Thunderstorms were number one.

I love thunderstorms now, but when I was about 8 years old the house behind ours was struck by lighting and caught on fire. The family was out of town, so they were okay. Everything that was plugged into the wall in our house was blown out of the socket and fried. We had to get a new TV, microwave, radio, alarm clocks, pretty much everything. That was when we finally switched from a beta machine to a VCR. :rofl: I assume insurance covered all that, but who knows? My parents didn't discuss insurance matters with me when I was 8.

It took me years to get over my fear of thunderstorms after that. My mother actually had to make me sit on the porch with her, when I was around 13, during a thunderstorm. That was the beginning of my healing process. LOL.

Monsters from movies were number two, the worst being werewolves (from American Werewolf in London) and the aliens (from Alien). My parents never really censored movies from my sister and me, and I watched both of those movies at a very young age. I was always afraid that they were hiding in my closet or under my bed.

[zanne]

58. Nuns.

Catholic school, rosary-wearing, knuckle-rapping nuns.

[MsAnthropy]

69. I hear ya! **shiver**

I still have nightmares!

[livetohike]

59. Air raid sirens

(in case of nuclear attack) we would have drills at school and had to crawl under our desks.

I would have recurring nightmares for years that I was running home from school while the sirens were blaring away. :scared:

[WCGreen]

61. Barry Goldwater.....

[rbnyc]

62. curtain rods and the emergency broadcast system test

When I was little, I thought that the Emergency Broadcast System test was a sonic code that could be received by the heads of the living room curtain rods. If the signal was received in full, it would trigger the curtain rods to come to life, and stretch out across the room like giant metal snakes, and come get me!

So I always had to run and change the channel when the EBS test would come on, to disrupt the signal in time to keep the curtain rods from coming to life.

[ChickMagic]

63. The Cuban Missle Crisis

I used to pray every night that our whole family would die at the same time.

[dajoki]

64. the nuns

they were pretty tough back then:scared:

[displacedtexan]

65. "We interrupt this program..."

That meant either the Russians were attacking or another slew of soldiers in Vietnam had died.

To this day, that "BREAKING NEWS" crap with the serious-as-a-stroke musical score scares the Novak out of me.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

81. Here's the Brazilian version

I get the urge to fold into fetal position when I hear this.

http://www.memoriadatv.hpg.ig.com.br/plantao.mp3

[trackfan]

66. Bees. Vomiting. Being forced into the Mafia. Heroin Addiction.

and many others

[gardenista]

71. Hey, kid! I got an offa ya can't refuze.

"Being forced into the mafia"- I had a similar irrational fear- being conscripted into the KGB.

[Culture Mind]

68. old burned up mattress

1. When I was 5 or 6 there was an old, partially burned up mattress out in the woods behind a house in my neighbourhood. There were a couple of other items (also partially burned) like a single shoe and a ratty blanket. This mattress was the creepiest thing i had ever encountered. It sent me running away in horror to hide behind the couch at home. I think it bothered me because my bed was a safe refuge and i imagined some kid like me burning alive on it. Old mattresses bothered me for years. I still get vaguely creeped out by single shoes i see in an alley or in the bushes etc. What happened to the person that was wearing that shoe? Where is the other one? :scared: :scared:

2. Around the same age, a guy down the street held sunday school classes on his front lawn for the kids in the neighbourhood. I was raised in a completely non-religious household and hadn't been exposed to any bible stories or god talk at all (dad saying "goddamn" was as close as my family got to religion). I went to the sunday school class one day with my friends. I don't remember anything about the class or how long i stayed. My mom found me behind the couch later crying and begging her not to let God eat my brain. My mom reassured me that this fear was nonsense but I had nightmares for weeks about my brain and God trying to steal it and eat it. I don't remember what kind of reassurances my mom gave me but I remember very clearly becoming an atheist at that time (mom is agnostic and open minded).

[bicentennial_baby]

72. death...still does

well, that and my intermittent hypochondria, that's a problem too. :)

[Baclava]

74. D. all the above

Getting lost on a stormy night on the way home from a scary movie and taking shelter in a strange house with no electricity because the police cars were chasing me and some nuns come running out of the closet and start vomiting in the toilet...you'd be surprised how many times this happened to me as a child.

[Montauk6]

75. I was scared by some bizarre things, indeed!

I used to get freaked out when my brother would fold his eyelids so they looked inside out.

I also used to run from the room screaming whenever someone on TV would have their head draped down so that the chin is upright with little eyes painted on it. Some of you old school Detroiters in the house might know what I'm talking about if I mentioned a character called the Blob, featured on the Sir Graves Ghastly Show.

[MsAnthropy]

76. Tornado sirens

[XemaSab]

77. Scary things

I used to worry that pirates or burglars would burrow under my bed and stab me with their swords as I was lying in bed.

I was VERY little then.

[tjwash]

78. Tornadoes

Grew up in Tennessee. Scared to death of them, and the way they would announce the weather bulletins about tornado warnings.

[AVulgarianHue]

79. Apartment buildings

Scary monstrosities. Couldn't go near them without feeling vertigo, confused, lost and imprisoned.

[Saphire]

80. that thing that was under my bed!!!

[bigwillq]

82. Getting lost from my parents

or being kidnapped.

[LeftyMom]

83. My father's collection of poisonous and possibly child-eating pets

He kept the lionfish by the door because he knew I was frightened of it and it kept me out of his room. The feeder fish had a tank in my room and I'd make friends and give them names and then the lionfish would eat them. One day he choked to death on one that had got a little to fat in my care. I was not sad.

Dad also had a burmese python and a iguana. He though it was funny that I was frightened of them, but both of them bit him (on separate occasions, of course) and both times the bites got infected. Personally I think a reptile that will attack a 200 lb man ought to scare a 35 lb girl. :shrug:

Anyhow, we moved and he geve the reptilian hellbeasts away and we got a dog. :D

[Left_Winger]

84. If it happened as a teenager, then...

it was when I was trapped alone in an elevator when I was 16. At the time I had several morning paper routes and one took me into an office building. The elevator stopped about one foot short and the door opened about three inches. I pushed the alarm button (repeatedly), but evidently the security guard, who was the only person in the building, was asleep. I spent about two hours in that elevator until someone responded to get me out. To this day, I cannot ride in elevators as I am just slightly claustrophobic, so I take the stairs.

[TrogL]

86. I don't remember

I'm still blocking it.

[yellowdogintexas]

88. nightmares probably scared me the most

when I was a kid, thunderstorms sometimes scared me

being yelled at still scares me

[u4ic]

89. My sister, and the basement of our house

My older by 7 years sister, had violent outbursts, and I was the target.

Our basement had always creeped me out, but I was surprised to eventually learn that it did for a few others in my family, as well as a couple of friends. I didn't feel it upstairs. There were no ghostly manifestations, but just the feeling of uncomfortableness, and that you were being watched. :scared:

[Spock_is_Skeptical]

90. paper wasps

I would always sense them giving me evil looks...and then look up and see them glaring at me, slowly crawling about their nest. Living in the country with many old barns/buildings/sheds this happened about a million times. Never actually got stung, just hated the creepy factor.

[Left Is Write]

92. Wind.

[deadparrot]

94. The ClayMation orange on Sesame Street.

Its face would fly off to show different emotions (happy, sad, etc.)

I remember screaming at the top of my lungs and fleeing the room whenever that segment came on.

[enigmatic]

95. Clowns

I was (still am, I guess)scared to death by them; I can't remember what set me off originally about them. I remember being taken to a Shrine Circus when I was little and and having a clown come over and try to take me out on the pit and I was bonkers; he was the scariest, ugliest thing I'd ever seen.

To this day they still scare the shit out of me..

[SamBass]

96. Me, too, and I thought I'd gotten better.

Then I made the mistake of watchin' "It." (Now I'm scared I'll do something just as stupid in the future.)

I swear, I think some clowns get off on creepin' out little kids. And, hey, how wrong were we as kids? We had that gut reaction . . . wasn't there some cat named Gacey?

Hmmmm. Little kids can be pretty wise creatures.

[enigmatic]

97. you got it

Ever see "Killer Klowns From Outerspace"? It's a funny horror flick, but ther "Klowns" in the movie were truly frightening to look at, and they absolutely creeped me out.

Ugh.

[SamBass]

102. Loved "Killer Clowns."

Talk about a totally weird (and obscure) flick. Now, would this have been nearly as scary if it had been, say, "Killer Acrobats" or "Killer Lion Trainers?" I think not. Yeah, it was hard to watch, but it went for some truly bizarre laughs, so I handled it.

[u4ic]

98. Not quite in the same vein

but one year - I was 7 - we stopped in Edmonton to visit an uncle (I'm originally from Ontario) and went to the Klondike Days parade. The A&W root bear tried to chat with me - I gave him one hell of a swing back. I hit the A&W root bear. :crazy: I wanted no part of him - he didn't scare me, it was pure annoyance.

As an adult, though, I find it unnerving to see mascoted characters. In a situation where I can't see someones face, or reactions, it really creeps me out.

I did some clowning in theatre school, though, so they don't bother me. Unless it's the Stephen King kind.

[enigmatic]

99. I can see that, too

Any kind of oversized "mascot" to a little kid is scary as hell I would think; that makes sense.

[Mojambo]

100. Free roaming Chickens

I was totally terrified of chickens as a child (Hell, I'm still kinda skittish around all birds)

Whenever we would visit my grandparents farm we'd have to walk across a yard just filled with chickens roaming around. I was so afraid they were going to peck me.

The scariest place in the world to me are the rooster pens at the county fair. What a nightmare setting!

[Baclava]

101. Sometimes...you're right...to be afraid

They come out at night...mostly...



Big Red Eye is Back in Town
---------------------------------------------------------------------

After a twenty year hiatus, Big Red Eye is back in town. Bigfoot, or Big Red Eye as he is locally known, is no stranger to New Jersey. He's been prowling about since the turn of the century. There were more than 50 sightings of Bigfoot in the 1970's and these were in Sussex County alone.

Then as mysteriously as Big Red Eye appeared, he dropped out of site for nearly twenty years, only to resurface again recently in isolated appearances, such as the five known sightings on Layton Road in Wantage starting from around 1995. But this past summer he decided to reclaim his fame and serenade some of the locals with his eerie and haunting screams. Yet nothing he did this summer can come close to what he did back in 1977 on Wolfpit Road.

Over a period of two weeks beginning in late May, these strange moaning sounds filled the night. It always started around 2 a.m. and went on till almost dawn. The wailing noises were almost constant throughout the night, and they lasted for hours.

It was like some kind of huge primate, making these noises, it woke me out of a sound sleep. I had the windows open so I could hear it really well, but I couldn't tell which direction it was coming from. I think it was coming from the direction of Route 284, going out of the borough. It was a terrible moaning, like something out of a horror movie, and it was so intense it just seemed to go right through you. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up and my eyes water.

Sleep tight kiddies...

[gypsy11]

103. Clowns and the toilet flushing

Clowns still scare me. Creepy, creepy clowns!

When I was around 3 I was living at a place that had a half bath in an unheated hallway. It was winter and the water in the toilet had iced over. When I flushed it the ice broke and the toilet made a really loud noise and then overflowed. I can still remember that day like it was yesterday. For years after I would refuse to flush the toilet. It scared me so badly. And even now as a 34 year old adult, when a toilet starts to overflow I get a little freaked out.
:scared:

[usedtobesick]

104. Democrats

I grew up in a really repug neighborhood and family and you guys were going to ruin the very "American Way of Life." Worse the #&$^ communists I believe. Really, you all creeped me out, huh now I are one. Go figure.