Silly things that SCARED THE LIVING SHIT out of you as a child?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

Me: Johnny Soko and his Giant Robot, the Japanese monster show.

Not any monster, mind you, but the robot. That sphynx-face of his was the most scary thing in the known Universe to me when I was 2 to 4.

[King Of Paperboys]

1. Dishonest John from "Beany and Cecil"

My brother had a hand puppet of Dishonest John that my mom used to place on the bedpost. I was always turning his face away because he scared the living fuck out of me (Dishonest John, not my brother.)

[tekriter]

6. DJ, you dirty guy!

Hang on, Beany boy, I'm coming!!

Just watched a dvd of Beany and Cecil a couple of days ago...

[Burma Jones]

26. NYAA AH AHHHHHH

Thanks for the reminder

[redwitch]

2. the upstairs hallway

I was sure it had a trap door and scary things living under it at night.

[Kadie]

3. Batteries

My brother used to chase me with batteries telling me they would give me a big shock.

[daveskilt]

4. this cabinet my parents had on the landing halfway up the stairs

I was sure that a witch lived in it and the doorknob was an eye. If I stepped on the floor of the landing I would die, so i would always hold onto the rail and jump and swing around till I hit the stairs on the other side...until the knob on the top of the bannister broke off when I did it once.

[underpants]

17. "Mr.V" in the closet at the top of my grandfather's stairs

My self and my brother and several cousins made up "Mr.V" (vampire) who lived in the open closet at the top of the mainstair case. It ran the length of the house with the doorway sticking out, you HAD to stare at it the whole time walking up the stairs.

As soon as my younger cousin was old enough to play/be scared (I was off the hook at that point) we told him about Mr.V. We did such a good job that WE all got scared of "him". I never got dressed or undressed with my back turned to the closet again.

[MuseRider]

5. Clowns

VERY scary and the gorrila with a ruby in it's belly button form one of the old Tarzan movies. I like gorrilas now but clowns are suspect.

[cindyw]

24. clowns still scare me

[The empressof all]

27. Clowns are over rated!

They make me feel very uncomfortable

[LiviaOlivia]

45. The Mattel Jack n' the Box

I don't know if it's made anymore.

I had one and I had a blinding compulsion to turn to the crank and listen to :
"Here we go around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel..."

Every time the clown popped up I jumped. I still get the creeps when I hear that tune or see a clown.

[The empressof all]

50. Me too

I had a love-hate relationship with that horrible thing. I was always afraid I would get my finger pinched in it.

[mwdem]

78. always the clowns...

I've never liked them, and my children have never liked them. I don't know anyone who's ever liked clowns. Why do you think Steven King used a clown as the ultimate horror in "It"?

[matcom]

7. Wizard Of Oz

F*CKING FLYING G*D DAMNED MONKEYS :grr:

[pagerbear]

12. I used to get hysterical when it came on TV!

I still do, but in a different way.

[TX-RAT]

16. Man i hated those things

Still give me the shivers.

[The empressof all]

32. Those monkeys-boy

I watched this movie the other day with some kids and I have to admit that those monkeys reminded me of Condoleeza. I'm not sure which is more frightning though.

[funkybutt]

40. that really WAS scary!

glad i'm not alone

[gpandas]

71. first nightmare-flying monkeys n/t

[mrboba1]

8. getting in bed at night

I leapt from half way across the room to my bed so I wouldn't be grabbed by whatever was under there
(like anything could fit, it was so packed with junk...)

[TrogL]

9. US air raid sirens

from across the river

[hackwriter]

10. The Warner Bros. sign at the beginning of the cartoons

I kid you not. That nasty-looking logo that came looming out of the circle scared me to death. You know what else did? The Greta Garbo caricature that showed up in the Bugs Bunny cartoon in which "Baby wants rabbit stew" -- and "Baby" was Lauren Bacall.

I was a strange child....

[a_random_joel]

11. Clowns

Which segues to a great Jack Handey quote -

"To me, clowns aren't funny. In fact, they're kinda scary. I've wondered where this started and I think it goes back to the time I went to the circus and a clown killed my dad."

[LDS Jock]

61. I love Jack Handey.. n/t

[gpandas]

72. pennywise-the scariest clown n/t

[a_random_joel]

13. Johnny Sako's robot is here to PROTECT you, my son.

[Wickerman]

14. O. J. Simpson

No shit - I was 5 and OJ was all over the news for his running back skills. I saw the Don Knotts movie, the Ghost and Mr. Chicken, where Knotts has to spend the night in the haunted Simpson mansion where there was a portrait of Mrs. Simpson that at one point had a pair of scissors protruding from her neck with blood dripping out of the wound.

Funny the way the 5 year old mind works. I associated Simpson with that horror flick (which is actually not a horror but a silly spoof of horror).

And, life eventually imitated art, I guess - with one caveat - the name of the mansion owners were actually Simmons. Shot that childish fear all to hell.

[ronnykmarshall]

62. Same there with the Ghost and Mr. Chicken

that music scared the crap out of me.

[Wickerman]

63. Creepy organ cliche!!

[m-jean03]

15. Seattle Center Amusement Park: "FLIGHT TO MARS" ride

This was a "haunted house" type- ride with really scary giant heads with mouths that opened and closed and eyes that looked around!! I swear they looked right at me!!!

I was scared to death just to look at those hideous things!!

MOMMMYYYYY!!! :cry: :scared:

[mrboba1]

18. Richard Simmons

[htuttle]

19. Swimming in deep water

I saw a old (sci fi) movie when I was 8 in which a deep sea diver was eaten whole by a GIGANTIC moray eel.

To this day, when I go swimming in a deep water, like Lake Michigan, for example, I keep imagining I see huge moray eel jaws emerging from the deep beneath me...



on edit: On second thought, maybe that's not such a silly thing to be afraid of...

[ashling]

20. A bootjack

A good friend of the family, Delton Schilling, made boots at the Olsen-Steltzer boot shop in Henrietta, Texas. (He made my first pair of cowboy boots for me when I was 3 yrs old - I still have 'em - both of my daughters have worn them)

He had a cast iron boot jack that was in the shape of a bug with its antennae being the prongs for catching your boot in. I used to cry whenever I saw it.

That and Republicans, but that's not silly is it - slimy, maybe, but not silly :silly:

On Edit: hell, they still scare the shit out of me!

[XNASA]

21. Garfield Goose

[Tina H]

22. James Earl Jones reciting the alphabet . . .

on Sesame Street. Also, the music video with the lullaby and the koala bears on Seamae Street (I was an avid S. Street fan).

[sus]

23. the opening credits of "monty python's flying circus."

man i hated that.

also the opening credits of "mystery." that chick on the tombstone screaming creeped me OUT.

[Donkeyboy75]

25. A chair my parents had.

Gave me nightmares many times a week for over a year.

I'm fucked up, I know.

[phillybri]

28. CLOWNS...

Truth be told, they still scare me... :scared:

[The empressof all]

29. Alfred Hitchcock Show Intro

When his shadow walked into his silhouette I would freak out and run from the room. I remember it well.

[Paragon]

30. Night prayers - the last line of the "Our Father" before being put to bed.

"Deliver us from EVIL."

OK, junior - now go to bed. Sweet dreams.

:scared:

[mrboba1]

35. how about this one

'If I should die before I wake'

How f*in' awful is that???

[Paragon]

36. Yeah, I think we did those two back-to-back.

No wonder I couldn't sleep as a tyke.

[tridim]

31. Lady Elaine from Mister Rogers

Mr. McFeely scared me too.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

33. Sleestak.

Remember them from Land of the Lost?

Looking back-What a lame show.

[MallRat]

48. Bill Laimbeer played one of them.

And apparently, a little bit of Sleestak must've rubbed off on him when he went to the NBA.

One of the dirtiest players I've ever had the pleasure to root against.

-MR

[murielm99]

34. Very large roadside billboards.

I was afraid of their sheer hugeness.

I remember being parked at a gas station in my parents car, and there was a huge Butternut Bread billboard nearby. I looked over at the picture of the huge girl biting into a slice of bread with her huge teeth and freaked.

I could never be too close to a billboard.

[kaiden]

37. Darby O'Gill and the Little People.

n/t

[classof56]

38. The Witch in the Disney movie "Snow White"...

I'm pretty old! That witch turned me off to cartoons forever...although in my 20s I kinda liked Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and Boo Boo--that crowd! Hard for me to deal with Sponge Bob, et al--the ones my grandkids watch nowadays. I usually leave the room!

Tired Old Cynic

[radwriter0555]

39. My parents and my evil brother who kept trying to kill me.

Oh wait, they weren't silly.

Thanks to therapy, I'm over it now, and not angry any longer.

[FizzFuzz]

94. I can relate

My mother, 4'11", 250 lbs of sheer rage (when she wasn't emulating a saccarine TV mom)

Unprovoked attacks with scissors in the middle of the night? Yiiii.

Yep, therapy. Still angry but I've come a long long way.

[sniffa]

41. charLes manson was under my bed

i used to be so scared to open my eyes because i just knew he'd peaking his head at me... giving me those eviL eyes that made it hard to notice the swastika carved in his forehead.

another thing i used to be scared of: those white spots you get in your finger naiLs (caLcium deposits?). my sisters toLd me they were bugs that were working their way out from under my naiL, and when they got out they wouLd eat me.

i used to freak out watching my naiLs grow, knowing the bugs were cLoser to eating me.

[Pillowbiter]

42. Santa Claus

For some reason Christmas scared the poop out of me. I would hide under the bed all night.

PB

[underpants]

43. Freddy Mercury

I didn't even know what "gay" was or meant but I knew that whatever he was I wasn't.

Not that I care I'm just not.

[GCP]

70. Freddy?? OMG!!

He only got a litle bit scary in his butch phase - was it the teeth? :evilgrin:

[July]

44. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Which my father always HAD to watch. Hard to escape in a very small house, and Dad liked to watch "his" shows with us kiddies around, though he wasn't such an asshole that he would force us.

Something about that show . . . claustrophobic . . . dark . . . those "beeps" . . . I'm still scared.

[arwalden]

46. The Blob. --- The Green Wizard Head In "Wizard Of Oz"

[bif]

47. Outer Limits, Day the Earth Stood Still, Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte.

[Dogmudgeon]

74. Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte

I didn't see the movie until I was much older, but the song from it was a semi-hit, and every time it was played, I would run to my room and cry.

A few songs did that to me:
•Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte
•Thomasina (theme from a Disney movie from 1963)
•The Day (Jack Jones and Neal Hefti, IIRC)
•In My Own Lifetime (an old Herschel Bernardi song)
•Ue Amuite Arukou ("Sukiyaki")

The first week of first grade, "Buttons and Bows" and "Pass Me By" were being played on the radio pretty heavily. To this day, the songs fill me with a kind of weird dread, even though each of them is upbeat and happy.

--bkl

[devilgrrl]

49. Going down to the Basement

:scared::scared::scared::scared::scared::scared::scared:

[MuseRider]

51. I had a kid

that was scared of Beethoven. No kidding. They had a cartoon picture of Beethoven on Sesame Street with the music of the 5th and it would send him running and screaming.

[4_Legs_Good]

52. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

The movie. Especially the part where the guy gets stuck in the chocolate pipe or something like that.

Still kinda freaks me out 25 years later.

david

[JohnKleeb]

53. baloney still scares me

[flamingyouth]

54. Alice Cooper, circa "Love it to Death"

:shrug:
I love that album now, but I had to hide behind my dad's chair when he was on Dick Cavett one night.:D

[bif]

55. Huge silver "octopus" furnace in my grandparent's basement

That really used to creep me out. I swear, it must have taken up 1/2 of the basement. And when it fired up, the roar was something else.

[Arbustosux]

56. Day of the Triffids

the idea of being blind and hunted by them scared the bejeezus out of me!

[Speck Tater]

57. Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Saw it when I was 11 years old and couldn't sleep for 6 months!

[woofless]

58. Grandpa had a cabin on Beaver Lake

in Derry, NH. When you flushed the toilet an electric pump motor came on to supply the water to the toilet from the lake. That thing scared the shit out of me as a kid. I would hold it for days rather than flush that damn toilet. Silly.

[LDS Jock]

59. the sleestak on "Land of the Lost"

I haven't seen it in years and its probably really cheesy looking but at the time it scared me bigtime.

[Mojambo]

60. Puff the magic dragon cartoon

Yeah I know, it's ridiculous but that dragon scared the hell out of me.

[Lestat]

64. Carnies.

:scared:

[Sequoia]

65. Quicksand!

I was around 7 and saw a western show with a bad guy getting swallowed up by quicksand while the good guy sat on his horse astride the quicksand and he just let the bad guy get sucked up and didn't offer any help, just sat there and watched him. I was pretty shocked since a "good Christian" should've saved him and hauled him off to jail. I was terrified I would be wondering around and fall in with no one to save me and that night just cried in fear. This insane fear would creep upon me from time to time and I just couldn't shake the feeling and never wanted to go on hikes. Finally when I was around 11 it occured to me if I did die I go to heaven and shouldn't worry. No fear of it since then.

[arwalden]

66. "You're Gonna Burn In HELL, SINNER! Accept Jesus!! Do It Now, SINNER!"

Yep, that kind of fire and brimstone talk scared the shit out of me.

-- Allen

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

67. Is that an exact quote? And if so, were you a child? (nt)

[arwalden]

68. Baptist. South Georgia, USA.

Yes... that's how they talk.

[daveskilt]

69. a sign I saw this week on a south georgia church

"friends don't let friends go to hell"

also

(the classic nonsense of...)

"learn about the REAL creation of adam and eve not adam and steve."

poor poor allen growing up in GA

[EstimatedProphet]

85. Is that Grace Baptist?

They always have such wonderful signs. Here's another one of theirs:
AIDS cures sodomy
Fun bunch of happy-go-lucky folks...

[FizzFuzz]

97. how horrifying

Allen, I am so sorry this happened to you. And in the name of religion which is supposed to be a support and safe harbour.

My mother used the bible on occasion to torture me though it wasn't her focus as yours seem to have done. She loved the "Thou shalt honor thy parents" thing. The bible sure is the perfect vehicle for hate-crazed psychopaths.

[laruemtt]

73. the skull doorknob

on the basement door at home in brooklyn

[slutticus]

75. Thunder and Lightning...

[Dogmudgeon]

76. Dragonflies and Cats

Because some adult idiot told me that ...

a) Dragonflies would sew your lips, nose, eyes, and ears shut, and you would die.

b) Cats had a habit of slashing babies' throats to steal the milk they were drinking.

Wonderful stuff.

--bkl

[4_Legs_Good]

80. The cat one is true!!

I hate bugs, actually, but I've always thought dragonflies were cool - kinda fantastic, in a way.

david

[Dogmudgeon]

86. Cats really slash babies' throats?

This I gotta hear!

--bkl

[4_Legs_Good]

91. Just kidding, just kidding

But I bet they're plotting it!

:)

david

[Dogmudgeon]

93. *Whew!*

Had me going for a minute there.

Had Snopes.com all ready to search when the thunderstorms roared through. I had thunder, lightning, and throat-slashing cats to contend with in my mind this evening.

Good thing my Lucky Kennedy Half-Dollar (the one my weird cousin drilled a hole in the head of) was at the ready!

--bkl

[catzies]

77. Dad.

n/t

[4_Legs_Good]

88. That one makes me want to cry.

Gawd, I hope I don't f*ck up as a father.

david

[FizzFuzz]

96. hey catzies, mine was my mother

I don't call her "mom" and I don't capitalize the M.

I'm sorry for you and all of us who had this particular ride.

But it makes us deeply thoughtfull, and committed to improving ourselves, I think.

[nini]

79. the nuclear bomb drop and cover drills..

first friday of every month at 10AM

All I knew was that was going to save us from a Russian nuclear bomb but everything else around us would be burnt to a crisp :eyes:

[TexasBushwhacker]

81. "The Haunting" and "Alfred Hitchcock Hour"

I remember that door creeking and bending as it was being pushed on by the "ghosts" in the original "The Haunting" that starred Julie Harris and Claire Bloom.

Another scary one was "An Unlocked Window" on the Alfred Hitchcock hour. I remember watching it with my cousin. It was nighttime and raining, and it was in the story too. The story involved two live-in nurses. There is a madman on the loose, preying only on nurses. Then the lights go out and when checking all the doors and windows, they find one that's unlocked .....

If you saw this one I KNOW you remember it. Interesting trivia - the score was done by Bernard Hermann, most famous for the score of Psycho. The house that was used for the exterior shots was the house used in Psycho too.

[Malikshah]

82. Fruma Sarah from Fiddler on the Roof

Had nightmares after I saw the movie--creeped me out.

Sleestacks from Land of the Lost
Clowns in general
The toilet--ok--I'm weird, but loud noises freaked me out--

[Lars39]

83. Going downstairs/upstairs, to and from the basement.

With hard to reach lighting, I just KNEW there was someone hiding down there. :scared:

[northofdenali]

84. A draft coming through the window or door.

Mom always shivered and said "Eww, a draft!".

Scared the piss out of me!

[Sequoia]

87. ...oh, and "The Fly" with David Headeson (sp)

where he was the fly with the white head and the spider came crawling up to him while he cried "Help me, help me", and finally Vincent Price smashed 'em both with a rock. Went to bed with a light on for weeks.

[geniph]

89. Giant ants caused by irradiated sugar

Damn THEM! anyway.

[GreenPartyVoter]

90. The T-Rex outside my bedroom window.

Seriously, I was sure there was one out there.

[daligirrl]

92. Cows' Udders. ..

I know that's weird, but when they showed us in second grade where milk came from, I freaked. . . it was so weird to me. It took me a long time to even be able to have milk in cereal.

Clowns are a close second. My mother used to force me to go to parades or the circus.

[Bossy Monkey]

95. Street sweepers (the machines, not the people)

Scared the shit out of me when I was 5.

[SarahB]

98. The little gnome in the Cascade dishwasher detergent commercials.

:scared:

[ForrestGump]

99. Cybermen and cybermice from the old "Dr Who" (with Jon Pertwee)

Used to freak me all the way out when I was maybe seven to eight years old. The Daleks did a number on me, too. Was never a huge Dr Who fan, and never bothered with the show after Jon Pertwee left, but I caught a few of Pertwee's latter work when I was a bit older and at last appreciated the humor in the show. Before that it was just scary.

[Interrobang]

100. Overhead lights in bedrooms...

I can remember when I was about three, waking up and being <i>convinced</i> that the overhead light in my room was going to fall on me. That's never gone away, really, just kind of gotten less severe. I also had a thing about closets. That one's still with me. The closet door's got to be <i>closed</i> before I can go to sleep, and so does the bedroom door.

I also used to be terrified of this macrame owl my mom had on the wall, because in the dark, its bead eyes would pick up a glint from any ambient light, and it looked like the damn thing was watching you.

Even now, anything that "looms" in the dark in a certain way bugs me. Some nights, catching a glimpse of my oven door from my bathroom mirror (and the way that dark square in the middle just seems like something nasty's going to show up in there!) causes me to run for my bedroom and sleep with the light on (and the door shut!).

As an older child, I can remember being totally freaked out by the movie <i>The Secret of NIMH</i>. Man, there's just some things they shouldn't show in school...

Edit: I can't be arsed to change that *standard* HTML, but whose brilliant idea was it to make DU use nonstandard tagging?!?!

[neebob]

101. The next-door neighbors' Chihuahua, Carol.

I was scared to death of Carol and wouldn't go outside if she was out there. If I was already outside and she came out, I would run inside. It's funny because she never got anywhere near me. She just barked a lot. Fear of Carol ruled my life at least a couple of years.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

102. The furnace

The way it would roar when it came on...

Oh, and the illusion I'd have in the dark...that items of clothing hanging on the back of my door were moving toward me.