I had two framed pictures on my wall: one was titled “Le petit chaperon rouge” figured out it was a weird (to a four-year-old) way of saying “Little Red Riding Hood”, and the other was whatever the French phrase was for Little Bo Peep (anyone know this offhand, not to dredge up horrible childhood memories, mind you, just curious).
The first was a watercolor-and-ink drawing of a forest, with the little girl in the foreground, her cloak and hood made of felt (simple 3D effect), and the wolf, also in felt) standing up, leering out from behind a tree, where all you could see was the wolf’s face and the paws around the tree. The other was LBP in a meadow surrounded by her sheep, her skirt and the sheep both made of felt (again the 3D effect)
At night, I KNEW the wolf and the sheep’s jaws were moving, and they were talking to each other across the pictures, but I couldn’t hear anything, like a secret language. The wolf didn’t say much, but the sheep talked a lot.
I read the novel “Jaws” that someone had left behind in the cabin on the lake we were staying at one summer. Nevermind that this was a man-made freshwater lake, I was convinced that a giant shark was hiding somewhere in it and didn’t want to go swimming the rest of the summer.
That was also the summer I read Animal Farm by George Orwell and was angry that the pigs could be so mean to the other animals, especially the horse.
I could read the big books, but that didn’t mean I understood them.
Toilet snakes.
Twenty-seven words of clarification: Not the plumber’s tool. The snakes that lived in the sewer, just waiting to chomp on some delicious small child that happend to sit on their toilet.
Jack-in-the-Boxes. Not the restaurants (that would be a quite rational fear), but the toys. Those horrible boxes–you cranked and cranked them, and “Pop! Goes the Weasel” played more and more slowly until–bang! Out pops a clown.
Ohhh, who could have invented those infernal monster toys?
Sometimes, I had to sleep over at my babysitters house and the room I slept in had BOTH these dolls which she kept sitting on the window seal. At night the moon light would hit their faces just enough to give them an even more ominous look.
They still kind of creep me out to be quite honest.
Glad I’m not the only one with this childhood phobia. It’s a movie designed for kids featuring a creepy hairless moleman, with a glowing finger and a voice creepier than Hannibal Lector, being mercilessly hunted down. What the hell was Spielberg thinking?!
I’m 25 and I still refuse to see that movie and get shivers everytime the themesong plays.
Whenever reruns of the Patridge Family would be on, I would run shrieking in terror when the opening sequence played. I have no idea why those day glo birdies scared me so, but they did.
I don’t know exactly what I was afraid of, but I was never able to go to sleep without at least a sheet covering me to the waist. I was safe if I was under the covers. Except of course, that I couldn’t stretch all the way out, because what if I did, and my feet touched something under the sheets! :eek:
Aside from the normal everyday fears of bridges and lightning storms…I have two very vivid fears from my childhood.
Bugs. Nope…wasn’t afraid of actual bugs. I was afraid when I killed a bug. You see, if you killed a bug, all the other bugs would smell your scent on that dead bug on the sidewalk and come after you. Yep…all the bugs in the world were going to kill me.
The Sesame Street border in my room. It ran across the top of the room. On any normal day it didn’t scare me. It was just at night. My room had a window facing the street and when cars went by, the light from their headlights would hit the blinds on my window and cast a weird shadow that moved from one end of the room to the other across the border. The effect was each of the characters being “lit up” and in my mind…coming to life. Scared the crap out of me.
I hated it when we stayed in the car to go through the carwash. (Do people still do that?) I curled up in a ball in the back seat because I really thought those big rubbery scrubbing things were going to consume me.
“Afraid of a Carpet Remnant” - now that’s an epitath if ever I heard one!
And Guinastasia, I had a friend in college who would file her teeth with an emery board every time she went out, like putting on lipstick. I still can’t figure out what that one is all about.
I was afraid of a statue in the bathroom (why so many frightening things in bathrooms?) of a monkey contemplating a skull, a la Hamlet, at my best friend’s house. I hated staying over there!
I’ll second the escalators. I’m still kind of afraid of those, especially since I’m so uncoordinated.
My parents used to take me swimming at a place that had a deep (14 Foot) diving pool. I was so afraid that either an alligator or a shark was at the bottom.
I had the worst nightmares from the Muppet Show because of Beaker. The most horrible things would be happening to him, he was aware of how horrible and painful they were, but all he could do was squeak–and the eyeless scientist didn’t seem to know or care about the pain he was in.
Also (still) irrationally afraid of dead bugs, disembodied bug parts, or accidentally killing a bug. I used to just catch insects and toss them outside, but now I have a husband who does all the killing for me. If I see a dead bug or part of one, I give it a wide berth until someone else can pick up the carcass and dispose of it.
Tunnels - I was always afraid that the car wouldn’t fit into the tiny tunnel that was way down the road, and when we got into the tunnel, I was afraid we wouldn’t get out, that the road would end in the tunnel and we would get stuck.
Always had to go through the Lehigh Tunnel to meet up with relatives in PA. Thank goodness we only went there for Easter and weddings (the latter didn’t happen too often).
We should start a support group. E.T. scared the bejeesus out of me too. My parents thought I liked the movie, and they bought me an enormous (ok, maybe a foot and a half tall) stuffed E.T. creature. It would watch me all night. After a few nights of pure terror, I stuffed it in the closet. I was about to fall asleep when I remembered that that’s where he stayed in the movie! In the closet, with all the other stuffed animals! Terrifying stuff. I think he ran away at some point, and is currently traveling the country looking for me. Or he got thrown away. Yeah, that’s it.
