What scared you as a kid?

Tornados even though I live just north of NYC and we RARELY had tornados.

Growing up.

Two characters from the movies scared me. The WICKED WITCH of WEST from the Wizard Of Oz and the CHILD CATCHER from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

everything

R3 yes! I was going to say the Child Catcher. Instead I chose to be cool with my r2.

This

Old people.

The threat of nuclear war

The episode where they shot JR in Dallas.

An episode of Charlie’s Angel where a murderer stangles women with dolls.

Michael Myers, the ocean (specifically sharks in the ocean, I was OK with lakes), bridges (which I am still a little iffy), and heights in general (which still bother me).

I watch those YouTube drone videos of mountains and just become really uncomfortable (when I know I am sitting at home). Years ago, when I went to the Sears Tower, it took me a solid 15 minutes to edge up to the glass to take in the view.

I read a book about extinct animals, and one of them was a pterodactyl. It showed a sketch of how big it would be in the context of a farm or city of today.

The book also stated that you never know boys and girls, sometimes we find out an animal is not extinct at all!

I was convinced flying dinosaurs were lurking in the trees ready to snatch me and my pets and fly us away screaming to their nests.

I read a story in one of my mother’s magazines about a kid sleeping in a barn on a summer night with some friends. He was completely covered by the sleeping bag except for his thumb. A bat bit him there and he got rabies. I tried to sleep under all of the covers for ages afterwards

The Oompa Loompas

and that was even before one became President of the United States.

That thought of Grammar Nazi watching my every move.

LOL @ R14. The threat is real!

When I was around 8 years old, I turned on the tv looking for cartoons and instead saw the opening scene to Macbeth, 1948 Orson Wells version. Scared the shit out of me for years. I was with a playmate and we both just stood there paralyzed with fear. I saw it in my nightmares for years. Watch the first minute and you'll see what I men.

^mean

My father

[quote] and heights in general (which still bother me). I watch those YouTube drone videos of mountains and just become really uncomfortable (when I know I am sitting at home).

I know exactly how you feel. I’m the exact same way. Ironically, though, as a kid I LOVED heights.

Now I don’t even like being as tall as I am.

Quicksand! The threat was real and imminent, if children's television of the time were to be believed.

Nuclear war - I grew up in the 60s and 70s.

Volcanoes

My mother

I was deathly afraid of opening my eyes underwater. In particular, I was terrified of the black lane lines. Like, petrified. Something about the way they squiggled and moved above water, yet were completely static and foreboding underwater, unnerved me beyond belief.

Social Media

Wow, r22. That’s actually fascinating.

I’m also glad you posted a pic because I couldn’t figure out what you meant by black lane lines.

That’s cool.

Went to the Lincoln Memorial when I was 7 yo. Abe gave me nightmares for months.

I wasn't fond of the drain either r24 ...

Drains creeped me out too!!

R1 in 1967 in the 4th grade my family moved from Cleveland to Kansas City. The 1st spring here was terrifying, esp the sound of the sirens going off! And the big nearby Topeka tornado had just happened a year early with eerie black and white footage of it! Yikes it scared me!

R25, sounds like megalophobia, fear of large objects, including statues. I had the same thing when I was younger & still have to some degree. Large statues, exhibits, would scare me. Went to The House on the Rock when I was a kid and the room with the life-sized whale sculpture freaked me the fuck out. It's three stories tall.

Speaking of The House on the Rock, I was also scared of their animatronic circus orchestra, which was absolutely bonkers. Related to that, I went to a birthday party at Showbiz Pizza and was terrified of the Rock-A-Fire Explosion band. I remember the curtain opening, all the kids ran up in front of the stage and started dancing, while I hid under a table.

r6, that's not the same trailer from that film that terrified me. This was it (Rosie O'Donnell once mentioned how terrifying it was on her old show.)

Old men with nose hair.

Rosie O'Donnell with nose hair.

Plushy suited characters in / outside of amusement parks - ie., The Magic Mountain Trolls, the plushy Hanna Barbera characters outside of Marineland, Disneyland characters where you can't see their face.

Heights, and especially combined with a see-thru or grid floor - or stairs with stone or iron grid slabs - oh the horror. Frozen to the side rails trying to will one leg above the other. The Magic Mountain tower with its iron grid floor with holes in it. Horrible.

Cockroaches.

I used to have dreams my dad was a giant and trying to step on me, and was a huge shadowy towering figure. I don't know what that was about.

This, which my grandparents kept in their downstairs toilet during the 1980s. I never wanted to use that toilet, besides it didn't even have a door.

Loud Vacuum cleaners (especially after watching mr mom), the old man on the Quaker Oats carton, Lou ferigno as the Incredible Hulk, Dee Snider in his twisted sister garb, Jeff goldblum (after watching The Fly), AIDS

my mother...a raging nightmare of a women

r37 = Christina Crawford

Burglars. I used to have planned hiding spots I thought they wouldn’t be able to find me.

R35, I’m laughing my ass off but I can’t figure out what the fuck that thing is.

😂

My mother always bought the National Enquirer and there was almost always some story about someone spontaneously combusting so that fueled my nightmares. Also, the Bermuda Triangle. My parents went to Bermuda and I barely slept the entire time they were away thinking they would be disappear over it.

Monsters that were under the bed. The only way to be safe was to be covered except for my face...God hep me if a toe was exposed

I agree with R8. But today's children have much worse to fear. Many may someday be confronted with an opinion they don't agree with.

Scooby Doo episodes. Seriously.

[quote] Also, the Bermuda Triangle. My parents went to Bermuda and I barely slept the entire time they were away thinking they would be disappear over it.

They were. The two people who came back were actually deep state operatives from a different species who were studying little gay kids.

Divine!

Thank you, r46.

Oh, you meant that big broad. Never mind.

Another Abe Lincoln vote here. The old pics of him terrified me.

[quote]Scooby Doo episodes. Seriously.

The Headless Horseman episode scared me so much that I called my father at work. He was so annoyed with me.

Mannequins used to terrify me as a kid whenever we had to go into a store that had them I'd cling to my mom and try to keep my eyes on them at all times in case they moved.

Tornados. Especially because I grew up in the midwest right before weather radar systems started getting more sophisticated. The one in Xenia, Ohio scared the shit out of me.

Charlie Chaplin always scared me.

Interestingly, as an adult, I find Stan Laurel and Harold Lloyd much funnier.

I saw Jaws in a movie theater when I was 10. Sometimes I’m still scared about swimming in the ocean.

Our family had a lake cottage, and I was deathly afraid of a muskellunge swimming up and chewing my toes off.

I found them scarier than sharks.

I would get up in the middle of the night when the house was dead quiet. I'd sit in front of a mirror at my desk in my room and try to make the scariest faces I could with my reflection, which I could only half-see in the dark. Really creeped myself out sometimes. Just thinking back about it is weird.

Rides at Disneyland.