What's a silly thing you used to be afraid of as a young child?

The boogie man.

Ghosts

Growing up. It still kinda freaks me out…

I used to be afraid that we ran out of words. I really thought that at some point we used all the words we were allotted and once used up, we could not speak anymore. Probably instilled in me by some ruthless babysitter that wanted me to shut my pie-hole.

@ru2bz46

Well, I’m kind of afraid of that and excited for it at the same time.

I used to be scared of the station ID from PBS, the US public tv network. The music from it, actually. It’s this atonal Moog synth thing. But only the 70s version. I still think it’s a little creepy.

I’d remember too many things and would run out of room for new things

@aprilsimnel

There’s still a certain musical sound that freaks me out even today. An example would be the theme to the Legend of Hell House. I also remember this other movie having a similar sound.

After seeing Little Shop of Horrors, I was afraid to sit on the toilet. I thought the plant would come up and bite my butt.

The wheelers of return to Oz, tell a lie I’m still scared.

Those horrid animatronic gorillas outside of car washes.

There was a car wash in my neighborhood, and it was across the street from the bank. Every time I would walk with my dad that way, I had to close my eyes and he had to guide me to the bank door. They are too freaky.

I used to think that my closet was inter-dimensional portal and that a gorilla was going to come through and take me into his home dimension.

I was also afraid of dentists so I trained myself to sleep on my stomach so they couldn’t get at my teeth.

Oh, @Dansedescygnes! I almost forgot about CLOWNS until this thread. Thanks! :’(

Beans. I once ate a lot, and got a stomach virus that night..I threw them up ALL over myself and my bed. I was so scared of eating beans after that.

I used to be afraid of the dark. I’m not anymore. Unless I’m in a cemetery at midnight. Then I’m afraid of the dark again.

Until I was 12 years old I thought I was pregnant. No one explained the concept to me. I didn’t understand how babies were concieved. Then when I actually took an advanced science class in school it hit me. I was also worried a watermelon would sprout inside of me. My grandfather always said “If you swallow a seed a watermelon will grow in your stomach” I was, and am to this day still afraid of the dark if I’m alone. Ghosts still scare me. No one is ever really sure if they are real, or based on evidence if it is even real. Just the fact there could even be ghosts scares me. When I was super young, I thought a witch was going to come put a ladder on the end of my bed, climb up out of the floor and grab me by my feet and take me into a portal. I had to sleep with my mother in her bed at this time and I always would hang on to her arm. So, if it did happen, she would be there with me. She finally asked why I always hold on to her at night. Once I explained she felt bad for even asking. Lol.

Someone told me when I was little, that spiders crawl into your mouth at night when you are sleeping and you end up eating them, which is why you sometimes wake up with a bad taste in your mouth. So I learned to fall asleep with a portion of the blanket tucked/wrapped around the lower half of my face, with my nose exposed so I could breathe.

I still sleep like this, because that’s how I learned to relax enough to sleep when I was little. I’m not worried about spiders anymore (well, not much).

I made the mistake of telling my fiance, and when he sees me snuggled in bed with my mouth covered, he’s all, “OH NO! A spider is going to crawl in your mouth!” and teases me. :)

Failure. That shouldn’t even be on a child’s mind. It’s more sad than silly, really…

I was always afraid if I dangled my foot over the edge of the bed the crocodile underneath would bite it off.

Chores.

I used to be scared that there were snakes living in toilets. I hovered.

There was a certain full-page engraved illustration in a huge old storybook that had belonged to my grandmother when she was little. It showed two dogs pulling the tissue paper off a mounted wolf’s head packed in a shipping box. The wolf’s head had big, menacing eyes and a tongue sticking out over large, sharp teeth. The two dogs were frozen midmotion with terrified expressions on their faces. Even though I could see that the wolf in the picture was not alive and it was a stuffed head, it scared me witless just to know that such things could be. (I already knew about wolves from Little Red Riding Hood.) The fact that the wolf wasn’t alive but looked alive made it all the more fearsome.

About two years ago I saw that picture again in that same old book, now yellowed and crumbling. Guess what—it’s still scary!

The book “Where the Wild Things Are”...That book creeped me out as a kid and it still brings back bad memories when I look at it now.

Falling off the bed.

The Blob after I saw a clip of the movie. I thought he lived under my bed.

The inside record sleeve of the Rolling Stones’ Goats Head Soup album (depicting a big kettle of soup with a severed goat head on top). You can see part of the image here, if you’re too young to have seen it: http://i3.ebayimg.com/03/i/001/41/ce/5ed5_1.JPG

@ru2bz46 I know what you mean. The album cover to Queen – News of the World used to scare the hell out of me.

I was afraid of dogs because an older kid I trusted said you couldn’t always tell when a Dog was rabid. 11 years later I got over it when I realized I could take on any dog empty handed and kill or wound it.

The album cover to Aerosmith – Nine Lives always freaked me out when I was little. I still don’t really know why.

1. This life-sized Raggedy Ann doll that my grandmother got me. I had recurring nightmares that it tied me to an electric chair in this old shed behind our house. Creepy as hell.

2. “Bob Dog” from Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. I know, I know—but one time the guy in the Bob Dog suit fell three feet off the ground (during an episode encouraging the importance of safety while using ladders) and I freaked out. After that I winced whenever Bob Dog took the stage.

@FGS. They’re actually making a movie based on that book. Where the Wild Things Are.

I loved watching Lamb Chops as a child. Apparently there was one episode, though, where Lamp Chops turned herself inside out (she’s a puppet).
I was traumatized according to my parents.

@Bluefreedom You’d think I would be excited to see something like that….nope. That damn book ruined it for me.

@FGS The Sacramento Ballet did a Where the Wild Things Are last halloween (or the year before).

Skeletons. I had a encyclopedia with a full-page illustration of a creepy skinny bones. I couldn’t even look at that page. I kept the book shoved under my bed. One day I got real brave and decided to face my fear head-on. I got the book out, slowly opened to the horrible page… and found my Dad had taken a pencil and drawn a smile on the skull. A ragged, toothy smile on that face without a face, empty sockets staring back at my suddenly bloodless gaze.

After I finished crying, I gave the book to my mom. I didn’t want it anymore.

I lost a lot of sleep worrying that an airplane would crash into our house.

I made sure my hands and feet never dangled over the edge of the bed, in case something reached up to grab me. I also used to think someone was hiding under my bed with a big knife and would stab me through the mattress if I didn’t sleep in just the right position.

The closet doors had to be shut all the way, thanks to an older girl in my neighborhood who told me a story about an evil spirit that could come out of the closet and literally suck the life out of you.

I was also scared of the book “Cujo.” It was on the bookcase in the living room when I was a kid, and the picture on the cover completely freaked me out. I couldn’t tell what the picture was supposed to be—it looked like half-decayed jaws to me. Then one day I looked at it and realized it was a snarling dog, partly obscured by fog. It wasn’t as scary after that.

And finally, spiders. That one’s stuck with me. I used to have nightmares about giant spiders eating my family, and I still can’t stand the little buggers.

@aviona I can’t imagine what Sherry Lewis was thinking having Lamb Chops turn herself inside out! That would totally have creeped me out! I’m surprised you were ever able to watch it again after that.

@FGS, how about those creepy guys in In the Night Kitchen? Milk in the batter, milk in the batter, we bake cake and nothing’s the matter. Nothing’s the matter?! Hello, Mickey is baked in the cake! That always wigged me right out.

@PupnTaco, your story made me feel sad for you! I can totally imagine my sons having the same reaction!

My dad used to have a book called Pulps , it was a compilation of pulp magazine covers from whenever pulp magazines were at their peak. There was one picture in there of these horrible looking creatures with shrunken or elongated heads and grotesque bodies and the cover said “Things that were once men.” Oh man I still get chills when I picture that!

Speaking of album covers, how about this gem from the Scorpions? I was in high school when it came out and it still horrified me!

After going to a circus and having a drunk clown’s dentures fall out in my lap, that pretty much did it for me on clowns and dentures. (dentures, I understand – sometimes, they are necessary, okay, fine.) Clowns…still can’t stand them.

@SuperMouse Yeah, my wife has thing with eye damage, so anything like that creeps her out even now. I remember being disappointed with that cover because it just didn’t fit with their other album covers (nothing about the eyes).

the common house fly
I would run away in terror, and of course they would follow me.
Now they just gross me out, especially if they’re in the kitchen.

ahaha @mcbealer that’s hilarious. They are kind of scary, especially up close.

The blue-green bathroom in the basement….

Creepies lived under my bed. If I got too close, they’d reach out out, grab my ankles and pull me under. I jumped from my doorway to my bed. I still refuse to dangle my legs over the side of the bed for fear that it may entice the creepies to come back…

@Dansedescygnes that was on an episode of the rugrats! they went into chuckie’s stomach and everything to try to get the seed out. crazy.

i used to be really scared of this tree in my backyard. at night, i thought it looked like a monster. my mum had my father cut it down. hahaha
also, my brother used to tell me that there was a wolf outside the window in the living room! oh my gosh i was so scared.