What odd fears did you have as a child?

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I remember I used to be terrified that I would be sucked down the drain with the water if I stayed in the tub while it was emptying. I also thought I would be sucked underneath the escaluator if I didn't jump off in time.

I've been fortunate to date that neither of these horrifying tragedities have be fallen me yet.

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@Linkat,

I was afraid the witch on the train (and her gorilla) would get me.

1 Reply

@chai2,

there's a witch on the train? Gorilla I could see -but a witch?

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Those freakin flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz.

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@George,

And clowns and ventroliquist dummies...

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@Linkat,

Linkat wrote:

there's a witch on the train? Gorilla I could see -but a witch?

I know I've related this here before, so I'll try to give bullet points.

Nightmare.
Woke up (in my dream) in the middle of the night, was not home, but sleeping next door at my grandma's house (she lived on 2nd floor)
Had to go to bathroom, so went downstairs to use that one.
Was about to go in bathroom when I saw a light further down the hall, so went down there and found my mother standing in that sickly looking flourescent light, making potato salad.
She kept saying "have some potato salad! have some potato salad!"
I hated potato salad.
I told her I was going to the bathroom.
She said "you can't. The witch and her gorilla came on the train, and are in the room you have to go by to get to the bathroom. have some potato salad!" (somehow I had managed to walk by them the first time without them noticing)
I took a banana and put it under my baseball cap to distract the gorilla.
When the gorilla grabbed me, and reached under the baseball cap, and the banana was gone!
I woke up.

For the rest of that summer, every time I heard the train coming, I had to make a made dash to the house, and touch the front door knob to be safe.

I couldn't eat potato salad for years.

Years later as an adult I had the same dream, but when the gorilla grabbed me, I grabbed it head and it came off. It was one of my brothers in a gorilla costume.
I woke up laughing.

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@Linkat,

My dad had weekend custody of me and my brother and sister. I recall very early memories (and a similar first dream I remember) where he was driving with us in the car and I would get the sense that he was in the process of kidnapping us.

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@Linkat,

Quote:

What odd fears did you have as a child?

When I was 8, I was home alone (a lot).
I felt uneasy about defending the place, if that became necessary.
( It never did; it was in a good naborhood. )
This discomfort ended when I acquired a .38 caliber revolver
for self defense and home defense. Then I was tranquil.

David

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When I was a little kid I was afraid of the riots after the Rodney King verdict. Even though I was very young I still remember driving in the car with my mom on the freeway from Los angeles to Orange County and fire and smoke was everywhere. I was petrified, my mom told me it was just another forrest fire but later I realized what it actually was.

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When I was a kid, if I went out alone, after dark, I always felt there was a lion after me, practically nipping at my heels. It did no good to know it wasn't real. I could just about feel it closing in.

I had recurring dreams.
1. I was in a room with a larger than a man spider.
2. I jumped from crumbling ground to crumbling ground, endlessly.
3. I was falling but never making contact with the ground.

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Instead of retyping it, I'll just copy this old post from another thread on a similar subject.

Butrflynet wrote:

Nah, not irrational at all. I begged my mom to let my brother and I see Hitchcock's movie The Birds when we were very young. After days of begging and temper tantrums she finally decided to take us and then, when we were scared to death, made us stay and see the whole thing to the end so we'd know that everything turned out alright.

To this day, about 45 years later I still have a phobia about Bodega Bay. I'm just fine with birds and every other symbol of fear in that movie but the town itself, gives me the heebee jeebees. I've tried forcing myself to get over it by driving by the town, determined to drive right through main street, but I couldn't talk myself into getting over to the right lane in time for the exit ramp and then kept going without looking back.

It's irrational but it's mine. Yours is spiders. The difference is my phobia doesn't crawl around my house with all its relatives.

I was thinking that looking at it as a photo op might get you in a mindset that would help you get close enough to smush it with camera in one hand and rolled up newspaper in the other.

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When I was young I lived in rural Kent. There was an annual Mayday fete at a nearby village, where they would re-enact the story of St. George and the dragon. It was a big papier mache dragon with lots of human feet poking out from underneath, but to my 3 year old eyes it was real.

I had a series of nightmares about the dragon, in which I was St. George and had to fight the bloody thing. It went on for years, but it never stopped me wanting to see it again every Mayday.

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@izzythepush,

Is that related to labor ?

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

It's nothing to do with the wonderful Socialist holiday given to us by Jim Callaghan, but a traditional celebration to welcome the arrival of Summer. (I know it's not officially Summer until the Solstice, but that's when they start to celebrate it.)

This sort of thing.

http://web.ecomplanet.com/KIRK6479/ServerContent/MyCustomImages/KIRK6479CustomImage4683308.jpg

http://www.cotswolds.info/images/ralph/morris_dancers.jpg

I think I might have spotted you there.

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@chai2,

The polar express must be a terrifying movie for you...

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@Linkat,

Linkat wrote:

I remember I used to be terrified that I would be sucked down the drain with the water if I stayed in the tub while it was emptying. I also thought I would be sucked underneath the escaluator if I didn't jump off in time.

Both are very common....

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i was terrified that i would grow up

so far that particular fear has not yet come to pass

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@DrewDad,

OH my - that is how I remembered it and came up with this topic....

For some reason I wanted to look up Fred Rogers (I'm very odd) - and I found out he had an episode speaking about the drain fear thingy.

Now I have another odd fear - Fred Rogers is haunting me.

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@DrewDad,

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@DrewDad,

DrewDad wrote:

Linkat wrote:

I remember I used to be terrified that I would be sucked down the drain with the water if I stayed in the tub while it was emptying. I also thought I would be sucked underneath the escaluator if I didn't jump off in time.

Both are very common....
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t30RvpRm_vM[/youtube]

What actually HAS happened tho,
is that a little boy's entrails (inside out) were sucked down a pool drain.

The drain pump was turned off in time
and his entrails were re-installed in a hospital.
He probably did not like it; lucky he did not drown.

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What odd fears did you have as a child?

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