# Scary as a child - never.... But NOW - yikes! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 22, 2004, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-as-a-child-never-but-now-yikes/281164 "2004-12-22T15:34:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2004, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-as-a-child-never-but-now-yikes/281164/21 "2004-12-23T18:52:40Z")
Og, dammit! And a previewd and corrected too (just “corrected” to the same coding mistake.) Grr. [The zipper.](http://www.stb.org/images/carnival/ride-zipr.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-as-a-child-never-but-now-yikes/281164/22 "2004-12-24T03:50:46Z")
I don’t know if this can actually be classified as a fear, but when I was a kid (around age 5 or so) I distinctly remember going to family functions and my dad giving me a drink of his beer. Nothing big really. Just a small drink here and there. When I was 10 we went to my aunt’s wedding and my dad really got drunk that night, so mom drove the family home because dad was smart enough to know when he had way too much to drink. I had never seen dad so drunk before and it really scared me… so much so that I never drank any alcoholic beverages since. I don’t drink to this day. ---
**Author:** ![Qwerty\_not\_Dvorak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/bcef8e/32.png) [@Qwerty\_not\_Dvorak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwerty_not_Dvorak)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-as-a-child-never-but-now-yikes/281164/23 "2004-12-24T05:22:06Z")
girls. Back as a kiddo in school I had wimmen falling off of me but now as a reformed nerd, just looking like an average white-collar educated joe i can’t find them anywhere to save my life. Plus now being a “grownup” with “intentions” to meeting a woman it’s a lot more nerve wracking to just walk up and start cold-talking them. ---
**Author:** ![Callmeteem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Callmeteem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Callmeteem)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-as-a-child-never-but-now-yikes/281164/24 "2004-12-24T15:37:19Z")
I used to walk along the railroad tracks to school. I’d even walk over a trestle along the way, leaving me no room to escape. Now–no way. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-as-a-child-never-but-now-yikes/281164/25 "2004-12-24T19:42:42Z")
When I was little boy Zamboni, I used to jump off of haystacks 15 feet high, into a thin pile of loose hay. Now, I can’t get close to the edge. I also used to jump over huge ramps on my bicycle. Now, it scares me. Somehow, screaming down freeways at 70 MPH is no scarier now than it was 15 years ago. 😉 And considering the number of traffic deaths around the world, it ought to be. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-as-a-child-never-but-now-yikes/281164/26 "2004-12-24T19:58:39Z")
> [@Eats\_Crayons](#): > > Inspired by [_Scarey now… never. But as a child…YIKES!_](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=292609) > > Got something that you enjoyed as a kid that, for whatever reason, freaks you out now? I have a strange phobia of ice skating. I used to _love_ ice skating as a kid. My mom enrolled me in a “learn to skate” program when I was a little wee one. Loved it! For several years in the winter I’d go skating every Saturday, and I was always proud of my brand new skates when I got them. > > But now?.. _shudder_ > > I don’t know when this happened, but one day a logically concluded that if I fell and someone skated over my hand, my fingers would be chopped off! :eek: I used to think this was a “silly and irrational” fear. For years, this irrational fear made me go pale at the thought of ice skating. > > Eventually it was proven _true_ to me! :eek: :eek: I’d been hit in the head in a martial arts class and had to go to the hospital to be sure I was okay. The kid waiting next to me was a little, 5 year old girl who had been ice skating. She had fallen one the ice and a larger kid had run over her fingers slicing one seriously and practically severing two others. _…feeling woozy_ > > She was very brave and when a surgeon was inspecting the damage asked, “Are you going to have to cut them off?” The surgeon said, “Well, this one can probably be fixed. We’ll try to fix the other, but I’m afraid that, yeah, that one will probably have to come off.” > > _woozy wobbling_ > > So… anyone have a childhood delight that became an adult fright? As a`child I used to play with spiders. I used grab them out of webs and carry them in my hands and play yoyo. Now they creep me out. Maybe it had to do with seeing “The Fly”? ---
**Author:** ![ninetypercent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9de0a6/32.png) [@ninetypercent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ninetypercent)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-as-a-child-never-but-now-yikes/281164/27 "2004-12-25T07:05:18Z")
> [@lee](#): > > Carnival rides. I am still not afraid of going fast or upside down or in circles, but the thought of getting in a contraption at a carnival is scary. I see that people have died in recent years and so the thought scares me. Even though they look really fun. A little more than 10 years ago I was at an amusement park that had a ferris wheel near the front entrance. I was eating some ice cream at the shop beside the ride when I heard the sound of a what I thought was a glass shattering. I looked towards the sound and saw the man who had just fallen from one of the top seats. His friend followed suit before my head was completely turned. They were drunk and rocking the seat back and forth, but that does not change the unease I feel towards those type of rides. It goes beyond yikes. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-as-a-child-never-but-now-yikes/281164/28 "2004-12-25T09:01:14Z")
This Ferris wheel story intrigues me, what happened next? ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-as-a-child-never-but-now-yikes/281164/29 "2004-12-25T11:31:13Z")
> [@ninetypercent](#): > > A little more than 10 years ago I was at an amusement park that had a ferris wheel near the front entrance. I was eating some ice cream at the shop beside the ride when I heard the sound of a what I thought was a glass shattering. I looked towards the sound and saw the man who had just fallen from one of the top seats. His friend followed suit before my head was completely turned. > > They were drunk and rocking the seat back and forth, but that does not change the unease I feel towards those type of rides. It goes beyond yikes. I’ve been on a Ferris Wheel once. Just once. Even as a kid, I was scared of those monstrosities but my sister finally managed to convince me to ride one once and she then started rocking the damned thing like you just mentioned. If I hadn’t been so scared, I’d’ve thrown her out of the seat personally. Those things frighten me horribly. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-as-a-child-never-but-now-yikes/281164/30 "2004-12-25T12:57:36Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Those things frighten me horribly. Any type of carnival ride scares me. They’re taken apart and put back together so many times, that I just imagine a diaster happening at any time (usually when I am on one). I also am afraid of roller coasters. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-as-a-child-never-but-now-yikes/281164/31 "2004-12-25T16:37:58Z")
> [@Agrippina](#): > > Any type of carnival ride scares me. They’re taken apart and put back together so many times, that I just imagine a diaster happening at any time (usually when I am on one). That thought never occured to me as a child. And I don’t think it would have bothered me if it had. I mean, I can take apart my Leggo creations and rebuild them and they’re just as good as before. So you take apart a ferris wheel and put if back together… What’s the problem? But NOW, I know different. Sometimes I can actually _see_ parts that seem fatigued to the naked eye, and nothing seems to fit _quite_ right, like the door that was no longer fitting squarely in the jamb of the Zipper in my above post. Brrr. I probably wouldn’t be as worried with a permanently stationed ride, say like at Disneyworld, because they are not torn down and rebuilt every two weeks by a bunch of carnies whose engineering and/or mechanical skills may be dubiously acquired. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-as-a-child-never-but-now-yikes/281164/32 "2004-12-25T17:06:12Z")
There was this one hill I used to take my bike on as a kid. The slope must be at least 50 degrees! It’s about 60 feet or so from the top to the bottom. I look at that hill now and think, “boy, was I _stupid_ to go down that thing!” Rock concerts. As a teen I ignored everyone who told me that going to them would damage my hearing. Nowadays, I’m more concerned about these matters and I don’t want to have to wear hearing aids when I am older. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-as-a-child-never-but-now-yikes/281164/33 "2004-12-25T20:29:38Z")
My good friend Technicolour\_Yawn offers this adult-acquired phobia: Snow forts. You know when the plow creates a huge mountain and the end of the parking lot? She and her friends used to tunnel through, building multi-level catacomb structures. Now she can’t stand to look at kids doing the same. All she can thing of is “they’ll be buried alive!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scary-as-a-child-never-but-now-yikes/281164.md?page=1)