Local dangers you grew up with

My brother. That SOB would beat the shit out of you if you looked at him the wrong way.

Mrs. Carlson in 224 B.

Oleanders - the earliest warning I can remember is my grandmother exhorting me not to go near the oleander bushes because they're poisonous. Next thing would be copperhead snakes. I remember playing croquet in the front yard and my brother warning me to be careful of the copperheads. The leaves had already started falling and they were camouflaged among the browned leaves.

Lead paint, lead in the tapwater, leaded petrol, mercury based dental amalgam restorations, drivers under the influence of alcohol and benzos, unvaccinated children, Mad Cow Disease and Margaret Thatcher.

Is that in the Northeast, R3?

In Alaska, it's most definitely bears. Of all sorts.

Hell, they're even in urban areas.

In Yosemite, you're told not to leave any food or garbage standing outside of your cabins, because it will attract bears.

Tornado sirens in Spring , Boy Scout Camp in the Ozarks, in one day I saw tarantula, copperhead and scorpion . Don't go to the "wrong " side of town.

Texas, r5. Galveston's nickname is the Oleander City. Copperheads are one of the four poisonous snakes of Texas.

Stranger danger!

When my father taught me how to drive, he also taught me how to deal with police so I would not be raped and/or killed.

R3, I got the oleander warning too. I rarely played outdoors with other kids. I was a loner. So the few times I did play outside, my parents warned me of the dangers of oleanders.

Obviously not local, but I recall as a child being terrified by polio and images of kids confined to iron lungs for life. Soon after, the great fear was spinal meningitis spread by mosquitoes and identified as a local scourge since we were apparently the meningitis capital of North America.

Latterly, we have been warned about giant hogweed , lime disease ticks, aggressive coyotes etc. etc. etc.

MAIDEN AUNT BRIGADE ALERT!!!!

Alligators and water moccasins

Queers who hid in the men's room at the mall and would cut a boy's peter off if they caught him.

Quicksand. I learned about it in my comic books.

I'm Australian. So pretty much everything...

Yeah, Australia seems designed to kill humans: box jellyfish, crocodiles, sharks, taipans, etc.

Don’t forget dingoes, R18.

The neighbor boys.

Midwest: we knew all about tornado sirens, and everyone understood flood warnings, although the 'River Rats' would continue to live right next to the river, and get flooded out every decade or so. We didn't have venomous snakes in my part of the state, but we knew to be very careful about raccoons, since they're the chief carriers of rabies in this area, and are very unpredictable, with or without rabies. Nothing exciting or exotic, though. Oh, and don't swim in the Ohio River if you don't want a communicable disease.

Refrigerators, the old kind with the latching door. For some reason we talked about them every year in grade school, and there were always horror stories about the little kid who crawled inside one and suffocated, and his parents didn't discover his lifeless body for days. I remember we even got handouts to take home that said to remove the door from any refrigerator we weren't using.

It didn't really make sense to me, because I always thought that if it was such a big deal they should have put a fucking handle on the inside--*poof* problem solved.

Nuns

I actually knew a kid who died in a refrigerator. He was playing with his younger sister and her friends in the summer between 6th & 7th grade and had them playing hide & seek. There was an okd refrigerator in someone’s backyard & he hid in it. The little kids didn’t find him so they ran off to play somewhere else. It wasn’t til dinner time the parents noticed he wasn’t there and the kids shrugged and were all “I dunno.” There was a search and they found him the next day. His name was David Ellison but he was fat and everyone called him David Elephant.

Another boy that same summer drowned in a hotel swimming pool upstate. The pool was crowded and the boy somehow got into the eeep end. He was grabbing peoples legs and they were pushing him away, thinking he was being a wiseass. He drowned. His name was George Roos.

Bears in Slovenia. There's a nearby hill that's swarming with them so most people stay away from it but I hike up there almost every day. I never actually saw one but I usually listen to music on my phone's speakers or sing out loud so they can hear me approaching in time and hide. And if I take my dog with me I never let it off the leash. Bears will attack you only if you startle them or if your dog provokes them, otherwise they'll flee the scene the second they hear you coming. Fear of humans is written in their genes, because we were such a threat to them throughout history.

They do occasionally come out of the forest to ransack garbage cans (especially when summers are really hot and there's not enough food for them in the nature). Some idiots even pose with them for pics when that happens.

Coral Snakes. Red touch yellow-kill a fellow, Red touch black-it won't attack.

Dodos

clowns

R25, Black bears seem like fradie cats but grizzlies don’t take guff. Polar bears are also tough as nails. What kind of bears do you have?

Velociraptors

Earthquakes and Godzilla.

Pedestrian tunnels. Our parents never said why, but we were not to use them unless accompanied by a trusted adult.

Our nuns were very dangerous, especially the menopausal ones. They wore heavy robes, breastplates, habits. Hot flashes turned them violent & treacherous. You always had to be on the lookout for unstable behavior. One dare not provoke them

Dogs

Deadly -- water moccasins, black widows, copperheads, rattlesnakes, and sinkholes in the river Daily -- chiggers, mosquitos, poison ivy, ticks, yellowjackets, wasps

GEESE ATTACKING ME. I HATE GEESE

We had to check in our jackets and shoes before putting on for redback spiders. And lift the toilet seat and check. Green ants were avoided as they packed a nasty bite. Snakes - you never leaned up against a car in case they were in the wheel arch and we were taught never to lift wood big pieces of bark etc. Saltwater crocs, Box jellyfish - our teacher was killed one day swimming. The tiny little jellyfish and cone shells made the beach not fun. Oh and the hammerhead sharks. If we heard the school Buff bell ringing we had to get up high onto the jungle gym or where ever we could because the Water buffalos were near through town. Ticks - we had to have daily tick checks.

[quote] the great fear was spinal meningitis spread by mosquitoes and identified as a local scourge since we were apparently the meningitis capital of North America.

Where is the meningitis capital of NA? I'll be sure to stay away.

[quote] aggressive coyotes

Is that only in hiking areas, or are coyotes everywhere?

[quote] Alligators and water moccasins

All bodies of water, or only some? I'm assuming everywhere in the Southern U.S.

[quote] we knew to be very careful about raccoons, since they're the chief carriers of rabies in this area, and are very unpredictable, with or without rabies

I've never seen a racccon. Do they just roam about like squirrels, or do you have to be in their habitat?

[quote] don't swim in the Ohio River if you don't want a communicable disease

Ew, seriously? Would that also apply to most major rivers in the US?

[quote] Coral Snakes. Red touch yellow-kill a fellow, Red touch black-it won't attack.

Thanks. Good (and easy) way to remember.

[quote] Pedestrian tunnels. Our parents never said why

Probably because you can get trapped in them by strangers on either end, and then assaulted, mugged, or worse.

[quote] Deadly -- water moccasins, black widows, copperheads, rattlesnakes, and sinkholes in the river Daily

Where is this?

Oops meant were near or in town - for 37

Omg R37, where are you from?

It all sounds terrifying! I'm guessing you must be in Australia or Asia.

Water buffalo are only found in a few places in the world.

Our grandparent's ranch was in Central Oregon and there was a patch of sagebrush near the house. We were warned not to go in there because of ticks and rattlesnakes. Did we go in there? Of course we did. Came out with ticks that needed to be removed and ran when we heard the warning rattle from the snakes. Good times!

R40 I grew up in Arnhem land Australia - good guess

Mosquitoes do not carry or transmit spinal meningitis

Mosquitos carry St. Louis encephalitis. Bats with rabies. Brown recluse and black widow spiders. Hornets and wasps. Lightning. Rocky mountain spotted fever, polluted water, polluted air, christmas tree fires....

Snakes in the blackberry bushes. Didn’t stop me from picking blackberries

The basement staircase had monsters living under it but I was too fast for them.

I grew up running in the chat piles and swimming in the waters of Tar Creek, the EPA's number one toxic clean up site at one time.

Sounds dreadful R47. I hope you have regained your health and were able to move away.

Horses - mother saw a kid get kicked in the head as a child and made us fear them.

Strong undercurrents - we lived near the Pacific Ocean in Northern California. Watch out for strong undercurrents! They'll grab you and take you far out to sea where you'll drown and get eaten by sharks. Plus, the water is really cold.

Fireworks - mother saw a kid injure his hand by holding on to one for too long. Never do that!

Foggy, foggy nights. So hard to see and dangerous for drivers. Be careful!

Earthquakes - we had plenty but not afraid of them as long as you stood in doorways or hid under furniture.

Devil's Slide. Along the coast route from SF to Santa Cruz is a steep and slippery slidey cliff over which passed a very skinny section of Highway One called Devil's Slide, very close to the edge. As you pass you look out over the sea, far below. Everyone talked about it and once in a while a car or hiker sailed off the edge. It was the stuff of my childhood nightmares. Me in the back seat, my young parents in the front as we flew through the air after plunging off the side. A bypass road was built a while back and you can walk on a trail there now.

Tornados

Growing up in Walnut Grove, MN, I learned to fear many things, particularly the outdoors. If there weren't locust plagues, there'd be tornadoes; if there weren't tornadoes, there would be blizzards; if there weren't blizzards, there would be clown rapists.

And indoors was no better: even if you survived the frequent fires, someone might use your sister's baby's head as a battering ram during them.

And forget about praying to God for help. Sure, He'd hear you if you were trapped in a blizzard. But He'd also hear you if you wanted Him to kill off your baby brother in an idle moment, and then you'd have to find a nearby mountaintop (which is hard to do in Minnesota) to work out your guilt with God embodied in the guise of Ernest Borgnine, of all people.

look, Devil's Slide is truly a scary and amazing place.

If you go into a bathroom stall and hear weird noises coming through a hole from the stall next door, don't stick your ear up to the hole.

Oleander and Trumpet trees are poison.

Fire ants in the south.

Australia sounds like hell...green ants?

Paper cuts

Sticking your tongue on a frozen pole.

Don't do it.

Mormons.

A couple of minor 'Downton' type estates locally were left abandoned and decaying in the 70s and provided multiple opportunities to explore and encounter near death experiences for us kids. Of particular interest were the air raid shelters with wrought iron ladders leading down into scary depths of dripping dampness and darkness. Also village pervs - too many to avoid.

Scorpions (grew up in Las Vegas)

mainly , my family.....

Grew up in Colorado - lightning above the treeline, forest fires, bears, mountain lions, coyotes, rattlesnakes, ticks (they give you Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever), and drinking from mountain streams (which can give you a host of nasty bugs).

In the San Francisco Bay Area, us kids were warned about...

Rattlesnakes, yellow jackets, the undertow, swimming in the ocean for too long because your lips would turn blue, bears up in the mountains, traffic, East Palo Alto, dogs and racoons with rabies, and the Zodiac Killer.

Snakes - Always walk with a heavy footfall in long grass, snakes sense the vibration and keep out of your way. Spiders - Hold a stick in front of your face to catch the webs if you're in scrub, check shoes before you put them on Redback spiders - Check under the toilet seat before you sit down. Blue Ring Octopus - Don't touch them and don't put your fingers into any crevice in a rock pool. Magpies - Don't make eye contact, once you have been swooped avoid going near their nest again, they will remember you. Use an umbrella if you have to pass that nest Never pick up logs or stones etc with your bare hands, even from the woodpile, use the gardening gloves and check for spiders before you put the gloves on. Keep away from the blackberries or wear gloves, you know your grandfather caught tetanus from a blackberry thorn Never stand behind a horse If the mud crabs escape from the sacks in the laundry and start running across the back yard get up on the table and squeal for help

Pedophiles and Michael Jackson R32.

Colder winter climate. Back then, seems they would let snowbanks between the sidewalks and plowed portion of residential streets grow 4-5 feet high before taking them away and repeating the cycle. Which made for all sorts of fun digging tunnels and crawling through them. Until your parents realize what you’re up to and tell you the story of the kid who got shredded by the giant snowblower machine.

It's astonishing that so many of us survived. Rabid raccoons indeed.

Black people.

R60, don't forget flash floods, rattlesnakes, abandoned mine shafts, and whoever kidnapped Cary Sayegh.

Don't play in the front yard; you could be kidnapped.

Use margarine instead of butter; the latter will give you a heart attack.

Before eating any of the Halloween candy you've collected in a pillowcase from neighbors you otherwise trust, let Dad look through it for any syringes, razor blades and rat poison; throw out any homemade items like popcorn balls and candied apples.

When I used to lay out by the pool, Fire Ants would swarm me, biting, and leave everyone else alone. I never understood it.

Being kidnapped.

Everyone I knew was terrified of this.

The Port Authority men's bathroom

Definitely snakes and spiders, and in the summertime, sharks and riptides. To this day I still turn my shoes upside down and shake them before putting them on

My brother after a pineapple and milk binge

R63, there are rattlesnakes in the Bay Area? I had no idea.

R3,I was born in Galveston too. Oleanders, copperheads, Brown recluses, and jellyfish.

What's a brown recluse?

Anyone non-white living in Trumpland, R78?

My mother's temper.

R24 that is depressing as hell.

A brown recluse is an innocuous looking small brown spider that packs a nasty bite. Most people don’t realize they’ve been bitten until their skin starts rotting.

My current location is overrrun with coyotes. Lots of pets have gone missing. One woman was approached while walking her dogs at dusk. It seemed unafraid of her and steadily crept forward. Small dogs are a tasty snack.

Alligators. Don’t let pets close to the waters edge.

The Mississippi River. Mostly because it was polluted and filthy, but also because of treacherous currents and undertow.

Agent orange in the river and Satan worshipers lurking around at the outskirts of town.

Oleanders are no joke. They were planted as highway and rest stop beautification. (They are gorgeous). People would use the long straight branches to grill hotdogs and got poisoned, some fatally.

Remember the little roadside cross signs that marked where a person was killed in an automobile accident, not the creepy roadside memorials, the ones the State put up? My Mother was a walking encyclopedia on those things. Even one we passed she knew all the details, and had a cautionary tale to tell. Best of all there was a tree on the highway going out of town where the high school band teacher died, and you could see the scrapes and gouges on its trunk. She just fucking lived to drive past that tree and tell that gruesome story.

It's a miracle I ever got a driver's license given the second-hand horrors I grew up with.

Any "CONFIRMED BACHELOR."

Don't go to Newberrys without a dime for the toilet

Don't get into cars with strangers

Liberal draft dodging Hippies.

Moonies. That weird cult in the 70's. They used to go door to door selling crafts. My parents were terrified I'd be kidnapped and/or recruited.

R43 This was not a scientific report ; this was peer group fear mongering. For all I know spinal meningitis may have actually been encephalitis but the former sounded scarier. Clouds of mosquitoes were involved and the city used to send trucks to "fog" the neighbourhoods with insecticide. By the way - I grew up in Manitoba. I remember my mother lamenting that for most of the year it was too cold to sit outside and when the weather warmed up the mosquitoes made it a nightmare. Too true. We would go to the Whiteshell Provincial Park where we were confronted with bloodsuckers in the frigid waters of Falcon Lake - there was no escape from local dangers.