(re: Riders on the Storm) – more likely the rainstorm sounds at the start and end (or have I been whooshed?).
Sock monkeys.
Alice the goon gave me a shiver, too. Thanks for reminding me. :dubious:
As a 2 year old my parents got the brilliant idea of taking me through the scary Pirates of the Caribbean tour at Disney World. Every exhibit after that where the lights went out, I freaked the fuck out, including the Presidents deal.
For some reason, at about 8, I freaked out in showers and car washes.
Also remember in nursery school being freaked out by a lion puppet during a puppet show.
As a toddler, I hid behind the furniture whenever Archie Bunker appeared on TV. Today, he is one of my favorite TV characters of time.
At Boy Scout summer camp the older kids got a kick out of spooking the younger kids with tales of toilet spiders that would loiter under the seat and bite your ass if you sat down. These were pit toilets out in the woods at each troop’s campsite, so the presence of spiders was plausible.
Haven’t read the thread so maybe this is a repeat.
That “devil” on deviled ham/potted meat food product (WTF does that mean BTW?) did me no favors as a kid.
And if that wasn’t enough, the day my brother and I noticed that a swirly pattern in the wood paneling in our shared bedroom (above our bunk beds) looked just like the deviled ham dude didn’t help us sleep any better at night either.
Is there anything in life that doesn’t yet have a totally relevant XKCD cartoon?
Count me as another one who was seriously freaked out by fireworks when I was small.
Every summer when I was a kid we’d be packed off to spend a week or so each summer at my grandmother’s house in Bethlehem, PA. There was a lot of ivy growing up one side of the house, and it would be poking runners through the openings of the screen in the window next to the room where I slept. That was good for a few nightmares.
She also had an ancient model of toaster that consisted of an open platform that you laid the bread on, with no protection from the heating coils. I was terrified someday I’d fall onto to and suffer third-degree burns to the face, or something.
Then there was the collection of Toby mugs by the staircase; all these red-faced, leering gents flashing evil grins at you. What a creepy joint that was.
The place we lived at when I was little had a brick patio of sorts. Just some lose bricks embedded in sand. Some of these were the kind with 8 holes in them.
One 4th of July, someone set off one of those ash-snake things in one of those holes. There was this glowing snake coming coming out of the ground! I avoided that brick for the rest of our time there.
Our garage door had a closer where you had to push two glowing red buttons to get the door to close. In the twilight when it was still a tad light outside but pitch black in the garage it looked like two demon eyes staring back at you. I never went in the garage, always through the front door and around so I can turn on the light before closing the garage door.
I remember once, as a kid, I saw a continuous map of the earth, with multiple identical continents. I thought of the identical people in these places, leading identical lives. Freaked me the hell out.
Wind turbines.
Thank you, I’m glad I’m not the only one. Those have freaked me out for years. I hadn’t seen that XKCD, but that about sums it up! Whenever we’re on a road trip through the Midwest, my husband laughs at me, but I have to shut down when I’m surrounded by them. They are weird!!!
Funny, someone mentioned Phaedra. Different context, but I once did a ballroom dance performance with the background music being a weird psychedelic song “Some Velvet Morning” with Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra rhapsodizing about Phaedra. It creeped me out then, and still does now. (The music was not my choice, obviously.) Um. I guess it was a good demo of our repertoire, but…
You can see those very people in any mirror, you know!
I just found this bit that was apparently shown to kids… didn’t scare me then but scares me now… it surpasses Whiskey Tango Foxtrot level… maybe I should do a WTF on it tonight?
But on the map it was ENTIRE CONTINENTS being repeated ad infinitum, like in barbershop mirrors. Oh, the horror!
My aunt had one of those creepy kit cat clocks with moving eyes. I used to hate that fucking thing.
My folks had an old paperback of The Hound of the Baskervilles with a cover illustration of a huge black dog with red eyes. I had to make sure the book was hidden/turned backwards on the bookshelf before I could sleep.
Same thing with Helter Skelter (photo of crazy Charlie on the cover).
We also had the older furnace where the pilot light was visible. Freaked the crap out of me when I would go potty in the middle of the night.
And the ‘70s precursor to E.T. was Darby O’Gill and the Little People. Who the hell thought this would make a great kids’ movie? The banshee flying through the sky in her carriage scarred me for life.
I remember 10 years ago when I was watching the SpongeBob episode “Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy II”, I think I might have pissed myself when I heard “HAHAHAHA! STILL GETTING BURNT ON THAT TAIL PIPE, HUH, BARNACLE BOY?” And then when they show the Dirty Bubble right after that… I was freaked out. Fortunately the “You’re my favorite supervillain, can I get your autograph?” part ruined the fear for me.
It’s funny because now I’m 14 and he’s one of my favorite characters. I MEAN, THE ORIGINAL VOICE I ADMIT IS SEXY TO ME. NO, NOT THE CHARACTER! HIS VOICE!!!
Not all kids are the same. I used to love Darby O’Gill when I watched it as a kid, I didn’t find it scary at all (though I can see why “wimps”, as I would have thought of them at the time, would be).