When you were a kid, what was the scariest thing to you--Clowns, Witches, Bats, Monsters or other things. Mine was the

[debm55]

flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz.How about you?

[no_hypocrisy]

1. My father.

No joke.

[debm55]

4. I am sorry no_hypocrisy. I know what you are talking about.

[Harker]

7. +33.

Same here.

I wasn't afraid of monsters because I was sure they'd be my friends.

[debm55]

19. sorry you are in our group Harker.

[Harker]

23. I ended his bullying behavior, and my fear of him when I was ten...

and after that it was merely a matter of disdain.



No kid deserves mistreatment.

[debm55]

47. Believe me I know.all too well.

[NoMoreRepugs]

10. Right there with you. I didn't make noise, play the radio or have friends over when Dad was home.

Amazingly I survived and didn't become a total sociopath.

[debm55]

21. Sorry, NoMoreRepugs.

[NoMoreRepugs]

94. I wasn't aware that wasn't normal.

[debm55]

95. Me either. I thought all families were like that. Short story . Mother, brother and sister were laughter on the couch.

I am walking to the kitchen to get a snack. Dad pulls hunting rifle from rack and aims it at my head, tells me he is going to blow my brains out The barrel is about a foot from my head. He goes down the basement with gun. Mother tells me at least he didn't pull the trigger I have since cut them out of my life. The rest are just as screwed up. I left at 18. .

[NoMoreRepugs]

97. Damn. Glad you are here to tell the story.

[Hotler]

74. Creepy spirits, bad juju type of stuff. The Exercist, the Omen trilogy stuff freaks me out.

[debm55]

79. Thank you Hotler.

[CanonRay]

51. Ditto, I'm sorry to say.

[debm55]

52. Sorry for you CanonRay.

[CanonRay]

53. I believe it was meant to be

so that I would learn certain lessons.

[debm55]

96. The only think I learned was how NOT to raise my son.

[OldBaldy1701E]

98. Yup. Hands down. (n/t)

[debm55]

99. Thank you Old Baldy1701E

[Arkansas Granny]

2. Spiders, and I've never gotten over it.

[debm55]

9. Thank you Arkansas Granny.

[Phoenix61]

3. I'm not sure what it was but it lived under the bed.

If you let your foot hang over the edge of the bed it would grab it and pull you under the bed and you’d never be seen again.

[debm55]

14. I had that fear also. I would start at the door and run toward the bed and and make a flying leap to the bed so I could

be pulled under.

[happybird]

43. I still keep all limbs firmly up on the bed

You never know.

Because of hip pain, I’ve recently started sleeping on my stomach (mostly– it’s a weird, precise position) and that took a while to get used to. Have always slept flat on my back, with a view of the whole room and anything potentially sneaking up on me.

We watched way too many slasher-type horror movies when I was young and VCRs first came out. Damn you, Video Den!

[debm55]

46. Oh I am so sorry happybird. I see your point.

[Island Blue]

5. I've never liked The Wizard of Oz either.

Probably clowns, although for a while I was scared of frogs because when I was about 8 or 9 years old I saw a preview (in the theater) for a horror movie called “Frogs” and it terrified me, lol.

[debm55]

15. Clowns still scare me.

[marble falls]

45. My only nightmare happened after my mother took me to see Wizard of OZ in the early fifties ...

... they heard me yelling "get off!" and ran upstairs, I had fallen out of bed and had a pillow on my back, grabbing a corner in each hand. I dreamed the witch was sitting on my back and I had an ankle in each hand, she wanted me to release her and I was telling her to get off my back first.

This was in Cleveland. Coincidentally enough, Margaret Hamilton was from Cleveland and was a public school teacher - another fear of mine -teachers!

[debm55]

49. Thank you marble falls. I was a teacher for 42 years. in fact Margaret Hamilton was Kindergarten teacher. I am sorry

about your nightmare. That is tough for a kid.

[Ziggysmom]

6. OMG CLOWNS! Shudder!!!

[debm55]

16. Agree even to this day clowns scrare me.

[StarryNite]

8. Oh those monkeys were really creepy.

I don't like clowns but I think I was okay with them when I was a kid. LOL
I'm good with witches, bats, and monsters, always liked them.

[debm55]

22. Thank you StarryNite. Yes those monkeys and clowns still get to me.

[Diamond_Dog]

11. I was afraid of the dark and afraid of spiders as a child

And I’m still afraid of spiders and the dark. So I guess I haven’t progressed any.

[debm55]

24. Hey I would never eat at McDonald's because of the creepy characters. Especially the clown.

[Haggard Celine]

12. I've always been more afraid of

real live people, like serial killers. I think witches are cool and goblins are kind of cute.

[debm55]

25. Thank you Haggard Celine. I included because for some bats and witches are a common fear. I am more scared of clowns

then witches.

[sinkingfeeling]

13. Okay, I hated The Buster Brown TV show's character Tige. He didn't look

like a dog to me, just scary.

[debm55]

26. Thank you sinkingfeeling. I agree. I liked the RCA dog.

[Ocelot II]

17. Those flying monkeys were pretty disturbing.

I didn't like dark places at night and always had a night light. I've never been afraid of spiders or snakes, but when I was pretty small I was scared of dogs because a neighbor's dog snapped at me. I wasn't actually bitten, just scared; but for a long time I had this memory of a huge black dog snarling at me. Later I was informed that the dog was a cocker spaniel but when you're three years old a small yappy dog seems big and scary. It took awhile to get over that but now I love dogs (though I've only ever had cats).

[debm55]

27. Thank you for sharing with us, Ocelot II. I used a night night too.

[WestMichRad]

18. School bullies.

[debm55]

30. Back then I had a school bully, I even remember her name--Jane Russell. I went to a small Catholic school which meant we

were in the same grade and same room until I skipped a year. She made life miserable for me. There was no such thing as telling the parents or teachers. back then .

[50 Shades Of Blue]

20. GHOSTS!!!!

I was afraid of clowns too!

[debm55]

32. thank you 50 Shades of Blue, I was more afraid of clowns. I thought all ghosts were friendly like Casper.

[UniqueUserName]

28. GOD! My folks were Evangelical Judeo-Xtian---Nothing more scary. . .

. . .than that guy. And yes "He" is a GUY ---according to them.

[debm55]

35. thank you UniqueUserName. . With the long white hair and sour face. You know what else scared me. the eye in the

triangle at church painted on the ceiling.

[Cartoonist]

29. Martians

War of the Worlds was a major contributor to the fear, but aliens and UFOs were everywhere.

[debm55]

36. thank you Cartoonist I agree. There was one movie I saw that was about Martians , The head Martian was like an octopus

witha a human head. They would put these things on the back of peoples necks. I don't remember the name . But I was totally afraid.

[Cartoonist]

39. Sounds like The Puppet Masters by Robert Heinlein

The movie may have a different title.

[happybird]

31. Spiders

Those damn flying monkeys.
Mirrors (the movie Watcher in the Woods traumatized me and many my age).
Clowns can all go die in a fire.
Sharks (another movie seen too young. Thanks, Jaws.)

These days I still have arachnophobia, which makes living in the middle of the woods fun!

It takes me several days at the beach to get comfortable going into the water past my knees. A young woman being bitten and losing a leg in Avon on Cape Hatteras while we were vacationing in the next town over didn’t help that fear.

I got used to not looking in mirrors in case someone else is reflected back. It’s just a habit now.

Clowns just skeeve me out but don’t induce the heart-pounding fear they did when I was small. Same with the stupid flying monkeys. I appreciated the heck out of that clown scare several years ago, when people dressed up and silently lurked near roadsides and apartment complexes.
(probably because none were lurking near me lol)

[debm55]

37. Thank you happybird. I am glad you got over some of your fears.

[Midnight Writer]

33. Walking skeletons. I blame Jason and the Argonauts and Ray Harryhausen.

[marble falls]

34. A nurse with a needle in an ER. By the time I was eight I had had stiches seven times (including from being ...

... hit by a car) on my head, and two weeks after being hit, I cut the tendon for my right thumb while capturing grasshoppers with a glass jar, resulting in an almost four hour surgery to reconnect it.

It started at three.

[debm55]

38. Thank you marble falls. I never had stitches. I think it was because I was so afraid of getting stitches.

[marble falls]

40. Gotten them, given them, including to myself. I can handle blood and guts, but if a child or animal is ...

... involved I am no longer able to hack it. The sight hypodermic needle against skin will make me drop out.

[debm55]

42. So sorry.

[marble falls]

48. No sorry needed. I did the best I could until I couldn't. My life in sum is better than the parts. I thank you ...

... for your concern!

[Farmer-Rick]

41. Actually it was the tornado that scared me more

That tornado was on this side of the rainbow and it could kill you. It killed the wicked witch, it could kill you too.

[debm55]

44. Thank you Farmer-Rick . Excellent reasoning.

[GPV]

50. The T-Rex lurking outside bedroom window.

[debm55]

54. HAHAHAHHAAH Thats funny but if it was an inflatable I would be scared too.

[Basso8vb]

55. The melting faces from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

That scene scared me. I was still 9 when that movie first premiered.

[debm55]

57. Oh that would be a terrible thing to see at even my age.

[displacedvermoter]

56. Rats

[debm55]

58. The first home I lived at near an open dump would have rats running all over. I would run in the house. Some were very

large .

[SheltieLover]

59. Air raid sirens

I detest the ruskie govt.

[debm55]

60. I remember those too. We would cover our ears and run into our homes or schools.

[SheltieLover]

61. It was terrifying as a little kid.

Fking pariah state.

[Mr.Bill]

62. I'm right there with you, Deb.

Those flying monkeys scared the shit out of me. I still remember them tearing the shit out of the scare crow. I was very young and didn't understand he was not a real person.

[debm55]

63. Hi Mr. Bill . Yes, his arms were in one place and his legs in another. I was mostly afraid when they carried Dorothy

away.

[jmowreader]

64. Really big rooms with very high ceilings

?420202030100PM

This is the City Hall in Spokane, WA. It used to be a Montgomery Ward store that my parents liked to shop in a lot.

One of the floors on this building housed the Sporting Goods department. The floor was completely open and the ceiling was high enough that they could display 16-foot aluminum boats leaned up against the wall, with several feet between the boats' bow and the ceiling. I went in there once and my family never forced me to go in there again.

[debm55]

69. Thank you jmowreader for sharing your post . Those are very high rooms, I would be scared too.

[surrealAmerican]

65. other children.

That and, eventually, nuclear war.

[debm55]

70. Thank you surrealAmerican.

[Different Drummer]

66. When I was a kid, two things scared me.

1-Clowns

2-The Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Supermarianation program "Fireball XL-5." I couldn't have been more than about three or four when it was on. The marionettes on it were so lifelike that, in my childish mind, I thought the marionettes had been people who were turned into marionettes and the thought such a thing could happen was frightening to me. I was older when I saw the Andersons other Supermarionation programs, and those didn't scare me.

[debm55]

71. I don;t remember the space show, but those marionettes sure looked creepy with those eyes

Last edited Sat Oct 26, 2024, 12:32 PM - Edit history (1)

[Different Drummer]

86. They definitely were!

[Elessar Zappa]

67. Ghosts!

I was always afraid of ghosts in our house. I definitely believed in them. Then at about age 12 the fear went away and I stopped believing. 20 years later I’m in a hotel reading on my bed and a ghost of a young woman appeared in front of my bed for a good ten seconds. I wasn’t asleep or hallucinating. So I’m back to being a believer but now I’m not scared of them.

[debm55]

72. That is very scary am glad though you are not afraid. I would be.

[ailsagirl]

109. I've never seen a ghost but I have always been afraid of any place that's purported to be "haunted"

[True Dough]

68. Even as a young boy

I feared the IRS!

[debm55]

73. They are scary for sure

[sakabatou]

75. Spiders

[debm55]

80. Thank you sakabatou

[moniss]

76. The vast majority of my family.nt

[debm55]

81. Sorry

[Emile]

77. Ghosts

Maybe it was my imagination, but I swear when I was a little boy I saw a female ghost staring out at me from a window of the old apartment house next door.

[debm55]

82. That's scary Thant you Emile

[lark]

78. Nothing Haloween realted scared me, Halloween was fun and so were the costumes.

What scared me were the zombies in Walking Dead - freaked me out bad. Guess zombies could be Haloween, those weren't scary, just the ones in the movies.

Later - when reading the Shining - I became terrified at night of the hedges that completely surrounded where I was living. Had to quit reading the book at night, couldn't sleep.

[debm55]

83. Thank you lark. I will let you in on a secret. I live in the Pittsburgh area.and was a zombie in Carpenters Night of the

Last edited Sat Oct 26, 2024, 09:10 PM - Edit history (1)

Living Dead. Was not in the one filmed at the Monroeville Mall.

[lark]

84. I didn't see that one. I wouldn't watch anything zombie related until Walking Dead came on.

I wouldn't even watch it for years. When I finally started watching 4-5 years ago, I'd always avert my eyes during the mass zombie scenes, made me way too anxious.

[debm55]

85. Then you missed me.

[malthaussen]

87. Other kids.

It's sad, but Hell was other people for me when I was a kid. None of the things that are supposed to be scary bothered me a bit (I neither liked them nor feared them), but the other kids were a constant problem.

-- Mal

[debm55]

88. Sorry Mal

[Mad_Dem_X]

89. I've always been afraid of people without heads

Ever since I was little, if I saw a movie that had a person with no head, I would just freak out.

[debm55]

90. Thank you Mad_Dem_x.. I would freak out even now. I really don't like creepy or gory movies.

[Mad_Dem_X]

93. Me either!

I like films with suspense, but anything gory is a nope from me.

[NNadir]

91. Invaders from Mars.

I didn't sleep for a week after the movie so titled came on the little black and white TV we had.

[debm55]

92. OMG That is the one I asked about up thread. The head in glass ball with the octopus type body. People falling in the

sand pit and have these things put on the back of their necks. Is that the one you are talking about? I can still remember all the creepy details but couldn''t remember the title. That frightened me so much.

[crosinski]

100. Anything mutated by radiation!

When I was a kid in the 60’s, it seemed like nearly every monster in every movie had been made that way by radiation.

[debm55]

101. Thank you crosinski. I do remember the mutated monsters. Do you remember the giant lady. I can't remember the name of

the film. Was it the Attack of the 50 Foot Women or something like that??

[WheelWalker]

102. The iron lung. Second place to the creepy mortician dude at the funeral home down the street.

[debm55]

103. I was always afraid of getting polio because of the iron lung.--the real one.

[WheelWalker]

104. I'm referring to the real one. Like the one my friend, Patti across the street was in. Is there another besides that?

[debm55]

105. No I was afraid of the real one. that people with polio had to stay in. the thought of staying in that was very scary to

me. I am sorry about your friend Patti. I had braces on their legs and cousins with polio on the faces.I lived in Pittsburgh where the research was done at UPMC and the vaccine was developed Many phamplets were put out of the the result of gettin it. I am sorry.

[Srkdqltr]

106. When i was young, in the 50s i had an atom bomb dream that scared me. When i saw Terminator the begining of it was very

Much like my dream. Scared me that time too.
I saw Wizard of Oz in a theater when I was about 13 or 14 with my brother sister and 3 or4 cousins. When the monkeys flew they were all on my lap. I doubt I really saw them.

[Lunabell]

107. Vampires!

When I was about 8, I had a high fever and hallucinated that a vampire was standing over me as I slept. I just knew if I turned over, he would bite me. I stayed curled in a ball with the covers over my head until the sun came up. I was terrified!!

[debm55]

108. So sorry Lunabell. Did you watch something that gave you the thoughts about vampires or did it come with the fever?

[Lunabell]

110. I don't know.

But, vampires are my monster.

[soldierant]

111. Santa Claus.

Whch doesn't make me special. The estimates are around 40% of children fear Santa Claus.

[debm55]

113. Yes they do. Especially young children. Thank you soldierand.

[dai13sy]

112. Mine has always been clowns. They are freaky and ugly

[debm55]

114. Thank you dai13sy. I agree.