What's something odd that you were scared of as a kid?

Conversely, I feel like I've become more uneasy on escalators as I've gotten older.

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Some more odd bits that scared my bro and me when we were little.

• Excited dogs. He got over it pretty much, I...prefer eyeing dogs from a distance. I do enjoy looking at pictures of them, though.
• I had a folding pop-up doll house. Somehow I found the pendulum within the dollhouse's grandfather clock unnerving, so the flap was taped shut.
• In Super Mario World, there's a scene in which Mario tries to blow up Roy's castle, and it finally blows when he tries to check. That scene disturbed us when we were little, so much that when we got to that part, we would close the doors of the entertainment center to hide the TV screen until it comes to pass.

Edited by Berrenta on Jun 18th 2023 at 8:41:28 AM

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No idea why but as a kid I was scared of dandelions.

I used to be paranoid that the fire alarm would randomly go off when I was in a public building. To some extent, I still kinda am...

Cold turkey's getting stale. Tonight I'm eating crow.

I was afraid that the sound of flushing a toilet in a public restroom would signal to monsters to come attack me. I don't know WHY, maybe because it was a loud noise in an otherwise empty/quiet setting.

WarioWare: Smooth Moves has one particular microgame that used to scare me into not playing. It involves a woman falling from the top of a building, and you (in first person) have to reach out with your arm to grab her and save her from falling. I've never exactly done the greatest with heights, so...

Ever wanted to see the most inexplicably horrifying intro to a game ever?

I used to be scared of the thunder in Valley of Bowser in Super Mario World.

I went through a phase where I was worried about breaking my skull.

For every low there is a high.

I used to run up the stairs after I was done playing in the basement because I thought that if I didn't, evil pirates would catch me.

Why it was pirates, I have no idea.

Cold turkey's getting stale. Tonight I'm eating crow.

I think I used to be scared of escalators as a kid. I'm one of many people who used to have that fear, evidently.

Oh, I believe in yesterday

Before I get into the stuff that I've already typed on this site, here are some new things:

I used to be scared of seeing fan blades start spinning automatically. This fear started when I saw such a fan at a pool hall. Later, while visiting my paternal grandparents in their camping trailer, I went outside to blow bubbles (I think). I told my mom that I would tell her when I was done, and that she would tell me if the humidifier fan was on or off, since I wanted to come back in while it was on.

I also used to be scared of seeing clock hands, other than second hands, moving. This was why I was unsettled by the beginning of Alex's hallucination in Madagascar. I was also unsettled by the way the second hand moved when everything was in slow motion in the Cold Opening of the Arthur episode "The Long, Dull Winter". I remember a time when my parents tried to help me face my fear: a long-gone digital camera video showed my dad holding a wall clock and saying something, and the next video showed me being afraid and looking away from the clock.😢

Ever since I got the nasty surprise that was hearing the clothes dryer buzzer right there in the laundry room, I was afraid to be in the same room, or maybe even downstairs in general, when it went off. In a home movie that my dad made for insurance purposes, I can be heard humming and saying that I'm covering my ears in case the buzzer goes off.

And now, on to things I have posted before.

I was afraid of the illustration of Just Go to Bed where Little Critter's dad says, "The bandit chief has caught you, so put on your pajamas." I refused to have that book read to me since I first saw that picture, presumably at age 2. At school in Grade 1 or 2, I finally read the book and saw the picture again.

I was scared of many things in videos, including:

• A storyboard image of Tigger saying "Hoo hoo hoo hoo!" at the beginning of the 1996 VHS of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
• Tigger saying "Yuck!" while eating honey in the same movie.
• An old man puppet who asks where the props are at the beginning of The Donut Man video "The Best Present of All".
• The Goliath puppet in "The Donut All-Stars" singing the last line of the "David and Goliath" song. This one and the aforementioned robber mask illustration were probably my two biggest toddlerhood fears!

Are we human, or are we dancer?

I already mentioned these in the "weird stuff you did as a kid" thread, but here are the TV show scenes that scared me as a kid:

• The ending of the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Naughty Nautical Neighbors" where Squidward's house collapses after Spongebob and Patrick drank too much soda.
• Two scenes from The Simpsons episode "Natural Born Kissers":

-The part where the family eats at a plane-themed restaurant and it moves around like a real plane causing the family's food to go flying everywhere. -The part where Homer leaves the freezer door open all night and the family wakes up to a mess of spoiled food (I was so paranoid about this happening as a kid after seeing the episode I had a nightmare about it!)

• The scene in the Family Guy episode "He's Too Sexy For His Fat" where the exterminators shoot up the Griffins' house.
• The ending of Arthur's nightmare in the episode "Arthur's Mystery Envelope" where the titular envelope pops out of the house and DW comes out of it saying "Didn't you tell Mom yet?"

Because I've always been a bit on-edge about disease, Sick Episodes scared me as a kid, to the point where I'd get a bit paranoid about whether a character would get sick. Sometimes, especially if the one who got sick wasn't a main character, it'd make me afraid of that character for a few days afterward.

For every low there is a high.

I used to be scared of pool vacuum cleaners.

Oh, I believe in yesterday

@Mr Toodleoo: I also was afraid of the dryer's buzzer as a child, and thus I avoided being in the basement whenever it was running because I couldn't tell how close to the end of the cycle it was, and I don't know if the kind we had then even had a timer. As an adult who still is easily startled by sudden loud noises, I still don't like to be in the basement of my house when my dryer's buzzer goes off, but doing my own laundry and setting it on a timer gives me control over it so I know when to expect to hear the buzzer and avoid being in the basement.

Edited by Rainbow on Jun 28th 2023 at 8:20:32 AM

In the summer of 2007, while watching PBS Kids in the morning, I turned off the TV for a bit between Arthur and Curious George because I was scared of the following promo for WordGirl.

Eventually, this promo was replaced with one where Arthur talks to the audience, which showed a different WordGirl short each time. Just like with the first promo, I watched it in full the first time, then turned off the TV for a bit every other time. I don't know how long it was before I actually started watching WordGirl and enjoying it.

Are we human, or are we dancer?

Not me but my younger brother was scared of the Unicron figurine from the Armada line. I used it to keep him out of my room.

Edited by ChicoTheParakeet on Jul 23rd 2023 at 9:09:48 AM

The Chinese dragon. I don't know why. I recall getting so scared when a giant puppet of one came into the mall dad and I used to frequent (and yes, it was Year of the Dragon at the time).

i can't believe nor even fathom that he visited his friend! the audacity!

The Rumor Weed from Veggietales. I had lots of creepy/weird dreams about her as a kid. One where the Mother Weed chases Scooter (the carrot cop) while acting like a T. Rex, another where a headless version of the smaller weed devours Bob and Larry (offscreen), one where Alfred/Archibald screams as a bush grows vines that grab him...

The store Spencer's when I was about 8. I apparently saw something in there that scared me so badly that I ran out of the store and refused to even walk on that side of the mall for quite some time.

Never did figure out what I actually saw. Just because it's funny, I sometimes joke that I may have wandered into the back of the store by mistake.

Cold turkey's getting stale. Tonight I'm eating crow.

When I was young, I was terrified of Robosapien. The smaller ones were fine, but the full size versions made me run for some reason. My mom even says I went very fast just to get away. I even had a dream where I was on a bridge and below the bridge was a pit containing two Kaiju size Robosapien were marching.

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My younger self used to be terrified of the way old Sesame Street episodes from 1969 to the 70's looked. It's probably because of how grainy and dark they look.

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I was afraid of a certain store too. I was eight, and I was running in a toy store, because, y'know, eight-year-olds do run in toy stores. But a Grumpy Old Man pushing a toddler (his grandkid I think) in a stroller yelled, "Next time, I'm gonna run you over!". So, for a while, I was scared to go back to the toy store for fear of the old man being here and running me over with the stroller.

For every low there is a high.

When I was small, I was always scared of Mr. Clean.

EBS tests on TV and the radio also gave me the willies when I was younger.

Lemon curry?

I was also shocked and scared of the EBS tests.

Edited by Demetrios on Aug 1st 2023 at 1:35:45 PM

I smell magic in the air. Or maybe barbecue.