What stupid things scarred you emotionally as a child?

[Hippy Hollow]

When I was four my sister placed me in a patch of stinging nettles. Sort of a copse of nettles with only one way out. To this day I am morbidly afraid of the damn things. They're not too common in America, thank God, but when I lived in California I had to avoid coastal trails.

I found a "Walking Liberty" fifty-cent piece in a friend's backyard as a kid. Something about its size and Liberty's headgear freaked me out. I have a real weird issue with large coins and statues.

I was eating a St. Michael's sweetie and accidentally bit into the hard candy, and one of the jagged bits went down my throat. To this day I pretty much avoid (hard) candy.

We did the MS Read-a-thon when I was in third grade. I was convinced I was going to contract MS from the stickers they gave us as a reward.

Yes, I was a weird kid...

[tellyworth]

When I was about 6 my parents took me to see a double feature, The Black Hole and The Incredible Shrinking Woman. It was at my father's workplace, not a cinema, just a projector set up in a basement. The whole experience was creepy and we had to leave before the end because I was too scared and upset.

To this day Lily Tomlin still freaks me out a little.

[Hazle Weatherfield]

The "Charlie's Angels" episode about "Beamish."
Fake wrestling because I thought it was real.

[MegaBee]

Originally Posted by lizardling

Dot and the Kangaroo. For years, I was scared stiff of the bunyip thanks to that one scene in it where the protagonists watched stick figures come to life and be chased by the monster. Although looking at it on youtube now, I had no recollection of how cheesy the effects were.

Oh god, that freaking bunyip!

[MegaBee]

The animated version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe scarred the hell out of me. My little sister and I were watching it, sad that the monsters were being so mean to the lion. "They cut off his hair! That's mean. Why are they tying him to that rock? What are they doing with that knife...?"

My sister and I promptly lost it. I was in my thirties before I could watch anything to do with Narnia again.

[FriarTed]

Originally Posted by WOOKINPANUB

Why, yes it does. It would have been even more helpful if one of my parents had explained it at the time. Did the viewer know this at that point? I do recall them saying "it isn't real, it's just a doll" as they tried to calm me. I assumed they meant it in the sense of "it's only a movie; no real monkeys were harmed", which I knew at some level, but was still freaked by the sadness of it.

Very interesting,John. Thanks!

Now to pee on your relief...

The chimp baby was supposed to be real. It just wasn't Cornelius & Zira's intelligent chimp baby, Ceasar. They traded it with the regular chimp mother at the circus where they were hiding, with the consent & knowledge of circus-owner Ricardo Montalban. MAYBE the baby chimp was stillborn so it was a more merciful trade.

[Dung Beetle]

Originally Posted by TriPolar

The Sound of Music. Don't ask, but I assure you it involved a horror too great to imagine.

Sitting on a pinecone?

[WOOKINPANUB]

Originally Posted by FriarTed

Now to pee on your relief...

The chimp baby was supposed to be real. It just wasn't Cornelius & Zira's intelligent chimp baby, Ceasar. They traded it with the regular chimp mother at the circus where they were hiding, with the consent & knowledge of circus-owner Ricardo Montalban. MAYBE the baby chimp was stillborn so it was a more merciful trade.

Khaaaaaaan! FriarTedddd!

puppies and kittens. . . puppies and kittens...pup

[Malthus]

Originally Posted by beowulff

When I was a kid, we had most of the Time-Life books. One of them was The Body, and it had a photo of the nervous system from a cadaver that was the creepiest photo imaginable. The first time I saw it, it gave me nightmares! My best friend found out that it terrified me, and he would leave the book open to that page under the covers of my bed, or somewhere where it would startle me. I finally cut the page out of the book (without looking) and threw it away.

I looked for the image, and couldn't find it, but this one is close. The image from the book was worse!

Heh you should never, ever visit the Hunterian Museum in London.

[Eve]

The Nairobi Trio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=416o9b_pjQk

I still have a huge crush on Ernie Kovacs, but the Nairobi Trio terrified me as a child and still gives me major heebie-jeebies.

[Rich G7subs]

Originally Posted by DeepLiquid

The Exorcist. My older cousins thought it would be a fun movie to take a 12 year old to, I've never been so scared, I still freak out if I see a clip of it on TV.

I didn't see that until 10 years after it came out. (I was 8 when it originally played) It STILL disturbed me for months!

I went to the movies with a friend and his family when I was 10 or 11. His mom lied to my mom and said we were seeing The bad news bears. What a cool Mom he had, right?

The ACTUAL movie we saw... The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

I had to walk (run!) home about 2 blocks... in the dark. If I'd heard a chainsaw I'd have stroked out right then and there. I think I was scared of the dark woods well into my late teens and I was an Avid camper!

[Eve]

Originally Posted by Rich G7subs

His mom lied to my mom and said we were seeing The bad news bears. What a cool Mom he had, right?

The ACTUAL movie we saw... The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.!

It was "The Really Bad News Bears."

[TriPolar]

Originally Posted by Dung Beetle

Sitting on a pinecone?

I'd have rather done that. It was possibly a part of the preferred alternative.

[DeepLiquid]

Originally Posted by Rich G7subs

I didn't see that until 10 years after it came out. (I was 8 when it originally played) It STILL disturbed me for months!

I went to the movies with a friend and his family when I was 10 or 11. His mom lied to my mom and said we were seeing The bad news bears. What a cool Mom he had, right?

The ACTUAL movie we saw... The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

I had to walk (run!) home about 2 blocks... in the dark. If I'd heard a chainsaw I'd have stroked out right then and there. I think I was scared of the dark woods well into my late teens and I was an Avid camper!

It probably didn't help that my brother thought this was all great fun. After The Exorcist he would wait until my light was out and make a guttural whispering sound and say "Reaaaaa-gan" though the air vent leading into my room. After Carrie he hid under my bed and reached and grabbed my arm as I was falling asleep. After Don't Look In The Basement he locked me in the basement and turned the lights off. I've pretty much been terrified of the dark ever since.

[lorene]

Originally Posted by Hampshire

Around the age of 10 I saw some of the Amityville Horror on TV and in particular the part where the guy breaks the hole in the basement wall and the lady looks in and says in the modulated voice "It's the gateway..... to Hell!!!!"
I was convinced for a couple of decades that that was the absolute scarriest thing ever shown on film......ever. Until I saw it on TV again 20 years later. OMG, was that horribly cheesy.

Right? God, when I first saw it, it was pee-my-pants scary.

Then I caught part of it on TV last year and it was pee-my-pants laughably cheesy. Just mortifying.

My mom is a big Stephen King fan and took us to see The Shining when it first came out. Scared the bejeesus out of me.

Originally Posted by Philster

My grandmother looking out the window secretly at a neighbor that I would go on to see everyday for ten years and telling me he was a murderer did not help me at all.

Did you ever find out what she was thinking? I mean, other than "That dude's a murderer"?

Originally Posted by TriPolar

The Sound of Music. Don't ask, but I assure you it involved a horror too great to imagine. Luckily the movie does not invoke the flashbacks because it now contains one of my favorite movie scenes.

What's the favorite movie scene?
Was the horror too great to imagine a fear of Ledehosen? Marionettes? Marionettes in Lederhosen?

[Shosy]

I think it HAD to be seeing the Omega Man (the Charleton Heston version) when I was 4 when my older sisters were baby sitting me. For months everytime I went to bed I thought the mutants were after me.

[Dung Beetle]

Tripolar, is it like a nightmare where you’re in school and the whole class is pointing and laughing at you, and then you look down and find out you’re wearing curtains?

[Jman]

My parents took my sister and I to the drive-in when I was about 5 to see Poltergeist. Now, this was not their smartest idea, and it wasn't for us to watch the movie, and they learned not to do this again, but whatever. We were to stay squarely in the back of the station wagon either sleeping or playing games. We were told that we should absolutely NOT peek over the back because we'd be really scared.

I did a very good job and then decided to peek over the back EXACTLY at the moment the guy tears his face off in the bathroom. I screamed my head off and a highly realistic vision of that has stayed with me forever (with occasional little nightmares about it). I just watched the scene for the first time since that night, on YouTube, and while my memory of it was certainly quite good, it's far less scary now as an adult, mainly because you can see the swap to the fake face, and it's really far less realistic than my mind had made it out to be, but it's still a nasty scene. To be honest I'm a little unsettled right now, simple because it's bringing back that night.

[Stauderhorse]

My parents took me for a vacation to the Cayman Islands when I was 5, then left me in the hotel lobby all night while they went out partying. I sat through the first three Child's Play movies. I was terrified, but too morbidly engrossed to change the channel. I had this fear that Chucky would show up under my bed and stab my legs for a really long time.

Also, I was afraid that E.T. would show up in my room and do...something. I was just really weirded out by his appearance.

[TriPolar]

Originally Posted by lorene

What's the favorite movie scene?

It's when the Mother Superior asks Maria "What is it, you cunt face".

[Kenm]

Originally Posted by Jack Batty

When I was 4 or 5, my aunt would always try to get me to say "shit," but I wouldn't. So she got me to say, "honey," after which she told me, "Honey is bee-shit; you just said bee-shit!" and I would cry.

Tell her "You were WRONG! Honey is bee PUKE! So there! *raspberry*"

Originally Posted by tapu

Yeah, The Exorcist, definitely. Thank god no one took me to the movie! I read it (secretly) at 12, and I had to go wake my parents in the middle of the night. They said, We told you so.

When I was five or six, one of my parents showed a story in the newspaper that included a head shot of a Neanderthal, not the prime minister but a cave-man Neanderthal (no worse than that U.S. insurance company's TV-ad caveman) drawn to look like a photograph.

"I wanna see it! I wanna see it!"

"No. It'll scare you."

"Whine, whine, whine."

"Oh, all right."

That night I woke up screaming from a nightmare about it.

"We TOLD you so!"

[SmellMyWort]

Those PSAs with the ominous music warning about the dangers of high voltage wires (shudder). And add me to the list of those traumatized by Rescue 911. I remember being terrified watching kids catch on fire or almost drown and my mom would always cry during that show. I also remember being freaked by an episode of 3-2-1 Contact that involved a ghost, someone drowning in quicksand in The Electric Company, and some cartoon episode on PBS where a troll or something make a guy carry him on his back and won't get off. Weird.

[Malthus]

Originally Posted by SmellMyWort

Those PSAs with the ominous music warning about the dangers of high voltage wires (shudder). And add me to the list of those traumatized by Rescue 911. I remember being terrified watching kids catch on fire or almost drown and my mom would always cry during that show. I also remember being freaked by an episode of 3-2-1 Contact that involved a ghost, someone drowning in quicksand in The Electric Company, and some cartoon episode on PBS where a troll or something make a guy carry him on his back and won't get off. Weird.

There was a deeply traumatizing safety commercial that aired in Ontario, about the necessity of wearing eye protection while working. It featured a guy pounding with a hammer on some sort of metal spike (not wearing safety glasses), and finally the pounding detatches a mental splinter that flies through the air in slow-motion straight at the screen (with ominous soundtrack) ... and then you see the worker writhing in agony and clutching his eye - the agony of having a metal splinter shot into the guy's eye was very graphically displayed.

The commercial was certainly effective. It gave me nightmares for years - but I always wore safety glasses when working!

[Rich G7subs]

Originally Posted by DeepLiquid

It probably didn't help that my brother thought this was all great fun. After The Exorcist he would wait until my light was out and make a guttural whispering sound and say "Reaaaaa-gan" though the air vent leading into my room. After Carrie he hid under my bed and reached and grabbed my arm as I was falling asleep. After Don't Look In The Basement he locked me in the basement and turned the lights off. I've pretty much been terrified of the dark ever since.

But that's what brothers are for!

[TruCelt]

Ultraman scared the bejeezus out of me. Soemthign to do with the psychedelic swirling colors int he opening sequence. And his resemblance to a Sleestak.

[DeepLiquid]

Originally Posted by Rich G7subs

But that's what brothers are for!

Same thing he says.

[SmellMyWort]

Originally Posted by Malthus

There was a deeply traumatizing safety commercial that aired in Ontario, about the necessity of wearing eye protection while working. It featured a guy pounding with a hammer on some sort of metal spike (not wearing safety glasses), and finally the pounding detatches a mental splinter that flies through the air in slow-motion straight at the screen (with ominous soundtrack) ... and then you see the worker writhing in agony and clutching his eye - the agony of having a metal splinter shot into the guy's eye was very graphically displayed.

The commercial was certainly effective. It gave me nightmares for years - but I always wore safety glasses when working!

I have to say I survived childhood without lighting myself on fire and never chased a soccer ball into a fenced-off electrical area, so yeah, I guess they worked.

[lorene]

Originally Posted by TriPolar

It's when the Mother Superior asks Maria "What is it, you cunt face".

[orderfire]

The thought of being shrunken down to a teeny, helpless size was very disturbing to me. Such as when Paul accidentally gets injected with the shrinking potion in Help and wriggles out of his own gigantic pantleg and is scrambling around in a gum wrapper, or, even better, the entire concept and premise of Fantastic Voyage. Shudder. Great nightmare fodder, that.

I also harbored some dread that some unknown person would come into my room and put drugs in my mouth when I was asleep, and would very carefully pull and fold the sheet up over my mouth at night. I don't know where I got that idea, but it must have come from some late 60's PSA warning about LSD and everything else.

My younger brother and I voluntarily traumatized each other with the reference book "Spiders and their Kin". We'd sit side by side on the couch and would take turns flipping the pages and having to put your hand on the next picture of the grossest, most hideous, hairy, disgusting, horrible spider. I'm sure I'll come up with some others.

[needscoffee]

Originally Posted by Dung Beetle

Tripolar, is it like a nightmare where you’re in school and the whole class is pointing and laughing at you, and then you look down and find out you’re wearing curtains?

[KRC]

Orderfire, I had that spider book. I used to use it to scare my sister away from borrowing my stuff.

[Kenm]

Originally Posted by Dung Beetle

Tripolar, is it like a nightmare where you’re in school and the whole class is pointing and laughing at you, and then you look down and find out you’re wearing curtains?

As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again.

[Small Hen]

Crow T. Robot from MST3K. It was my favorite show when I was around 7 or 8, but goddamn, Crow scared the crap out of me. I was wary enough of him when he was just a tiny silhouette on the bottom of the screen, but I sometimes had to actually leave the room during the host segments.

[Noodles Fellicini]

I must have been six or seven when my family went to the local carnival. The midway included a House of Horrors with a bubbling cauldron, screeching witches and numerous large loudspeakers on top. I was cringing as we walked in front of it but just had to sneak a look at it. I totally freaked out, looked down, grabbed my mother's hand and started dragging her away from that nightmare. We had gone a few feet and I was beginning to think I would survive it, looked up at my mother and ... it was a total stranger. I double freaked out and started screaming. My parents rescued me and laughed it off but that feeling of horror-filled abandonment had staying power.

[salinqmind]

I was afraid of tons of things when I was a child. Too many to list! But I will nominate The Twilight Zone TV show for actually warping me. Everything about it scared me - the weird opening with the spiral and the floating eye, the awful scary music, Rod Serling pontificating with his hands clasped in front of him, all leading up the ultra-scary shows themselves. Frightened the bejesus out of me. One with a busted robot, wires exposed. The one with the old woman living out on a farm, getting mysterious phone calls, and the phone line was traced to...a line going into a grave! The one with Agnes Moorehead fighting off tiny spacemen. OMG the one with the monster on the airplane wing!! TO THIS VERY DAY I can't watch The Twilight Zone if I am alone in the house. Or at night when everyone is sleeping.

[etv78]

Two stories:

1)As a kid, I was deathly afraid of Darth Vader. Now, I intellectually know it's a guy in costume, but I still won't watch the original trilogy.

2)I'm (still) soewhat afraid of the Statue of Liberty (I was 8 when she had her Centenial)

I also get queasy when around tall buildings (around, not inside) And when seeing large stuff up close on TV. (Mom thinks me seeing/experiencing the world seated distorts my perceptions)

[Kenm]

Originally Posted by etv78

Two stories:

1)As a kid, I was deathly afraid of Darth Vader. Now, I intellectually know it's a guy in costume, but I still won't watch the original trilogy.

This clip will drive away all fear.

[etv78]

Originally Posted by Kenm

This clip will drive away all fear.

LOVE that movie!

[SiXSwordS]

I consider this stupid only because I only saw only about two minutes, but when I was seven or eight they showed Helter Skelter on TV. I only saw the very opening scenes and there wasn't much to see, but I knew something was very, very wrong. If I remember correctly, it was shown in two parts and when the teaser came on the next night, I started crying and and I was sure my family was going to be murdered while I slept.

I think it was around that time that I woke to hear my parents having sex. I thought my mom was being murdered, so I went into the kitchen and got a pair of scissors and went and knocked on their door. I guess I thought I was going to save her.

Incidentally, I later read Helter Skelter and really enjoyed the book. I've also got a pair of sharp kitchen scissors I keep handy, just in case.

[benbo1]

Originally Posted by Malthus

There was a deeply traumatizing safety commercial that aired in Ontario, about the necessity of wearing eye protection while working. It featured a guy pounding with a hammer on some sort of metal spike (not wearing safety glasses), and finally the pounding detatches a mental splinter that flies through the air in slow-motion straight at the screen (with ominous soundtrack) ... and then you see the worker writhing in agony and clutching his eye - the agony of having a metal splinter shot into the guy's eye was very graphically displayed.

The commercial was certainly effective. It gave me nightmares for years - but I always wore safety glasses when working!

Oh God yeah, the famous Canadian safety PSAs - best is the guy getting blown up by the acetylene torch -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwCyVku1HvI&noredirect=1

Who knew Canadians could be so graphic & morbid?

[benbo1]

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea - where the giant squid attax the sub. Naturally, this led to me reading in the Encyclopedia Britannica about squid attax - including one in WW2 where 1 pulled down survivors of a UBoat torpedoing.
So when I would go swimming at the beach, I'd feel something slimy on my arm or leg (probably seaweed), and I'd instantly freeze up thinking it was a squid gonna pull me down.

[Icerigger]

Street Cleaners. I can remember when I was five or six so terrified of those yellow trucks with their huge swirling brushes, they could sweep you right up! I always ran into the house and hid behind the sofa until the monster passed our block.

[Malthus]

Originally Posted by benbo1

Oh God yeah, the famous Canadian safety PSAs - best is the guy getting blown up by the acetylene torch -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwCyVku1HvI&noredirect=1

Who knew Canadians could be so graphic & morbid?

Those are pretty graphic, but subverted a bit by humour - the one I was thinking of I think aired in the late 1970s or early 80s and was played totally straight. I did a bit of looking around, but I couldn't find it online. Anyone remember the one with the metal splinter in the eye?

[Eve]

Originally Posted by SiXSwordS

I think it was around that time that I woke to hear my parents having sex. I thought my mom was being murdered, so I went into the kitchen and got a pair of scissors and went and knocked on their door. I guess I thought I was going to save her.

Incidentally, I later read Helter Skelter and really enjoyed the book. I've also got a pair of sharp kitchen scissors I keep handy, just in case.

. . . Just in case your parents ever have sex again?

[Eve]

Originally Posted by etv78

I'm (still) soewhat afraid of the Statue of Liberty (I was 8 when she had her Centenial)

I also get queasy when around tall buildings (around, not inside) And when seeing large stuff up close on TV. (Mom thinks me seeing/experiencing the world seated distorts my perceptions)

Ooooh, you just reminded me--this enormous (more than eight feet tall!) head of Constantine still gives me the heebie-jeebies (I didn't even want to Google-Image it!) http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient...emperors_6.jpg

[Antigen]

Originally Posted by SmellMyWort

Those PSAs with the ominous music warning about the dangers of high voltage wires (shudder). And add me to the list of those traumatized by Rescue 911.

I had almost forgotten about those PSAs. Remember Astar, the robot who jumped through all that machinery and then put his arm back on at the end? That thing gave me the creeps!

I was also a victim of Carrie. My mom decided I was a wuss who needed to see a scary movie, and since Carrie was one of her favorites, we sat and watched it together. It wasn't that bad, really, except that bit at the end that made me jump. The bad part was that night as I was trying to sleep, I left my bedroom track lights on, but low, with the dimmer switch. I didn't have a nightlight, you see. Well, just as I was falling asleep, there was a loud POP and one of the light bulbs flew out of the socket onto the floor. I was up and screaming within a split second!

[flodnak]

Pretty much the entire oeuvre of Sid and Marty Krofft.

It wasn't easy, growing up in the '70s.

[TruCelt]

Originally Posted by flodnak

Pretty much the entire oeuvre of Sid and Marty Krofft.

It wasn't easy, growing up in the '70s.

Amen!

And speaking of movies, I still get the shivers when I think of "Jeepers Creepers." It was absolutely cheesy and stupid and fake, and it scared the willickers out of me.



Oh wait, I was 39 when I saw that. Does that count?

[Heracles]

I had swimming lessons when I was a kid (maybe 9-11 years old, as I went through the intro class 3 times). At the end of each lesson, we had to jump from the low diving board into the deep end of the pool. The instructor would supposedly catch us with a pole and haul us to the edge, but always pulled out the pole to force us to swim. So I had ample moments of panic in the water, and afterwards I felt betrayed, humiliated, etc. I never learned to swim back then, I just learned to flail and scream that I was drowning.

No obvious trauma, just bad memories. And a rational knowledge that I had to avoid the deep end, of course.

This year (age 44) I decided to fix this. I found a great swimming school for adults that was more "touchy-feely" and "find your own pace" than "jump-in-or-else". The first lesson was fun and painless, but that night I didn't sleep, I had constant vivid recalls of those terrifying and humiliating sessions from 1980.

I was worried that the sleepless nights would reoccur every week, but they didn't. The other lessons went fine, and now I can swim in a limited way, including the deep end. No diving boards, though.

[Eyebrows 0f Doom]

Originally Posted by orderfire

My younger brother and I voluntarily traumatized each other with the reference book "Spiders and their Kin". We'd sit side by side on the couch and would take turns flipping the pages and having to put your hand on the next picture of the grossest, most hideous, hairy, disgusting, horrible spider. I'm sure I'll come up with some others.

Oh geez, I used to do the same thing!

For me it was the animated version of "Watership Down." There was a prologue before the film, The Tale of El-Ahrairah, and the scene of all the rabbits being killed and then the Black Rabbit of Death jumping at the camera freaked me the fuck out. I don't know how old I must have been. 7, 8 maybe? And then the scene showing all the rabbits being buried alive and cramming the warren tunnels, suffocating and dying, holy crap! Terrifying!

Also the animated film of "The Hobbit." The scene where the dwarves are with the goblins and Bilbo falls down into Gollum's cave was so scary! Especially because of the songs! In fact all of the music in that movie was pretty terrifying! Actually that's still kinda creepy!