What objects do you remember being scared of in childhood?

[wanderings]

Rationally or otherwise? Some of mine were:

Seeing a toilet with the seat up - it looked like an open-mouthed monster, and I remember it being at my eye level too.

Shoes with buckles, especially when someone else was fastening them on to my feet, because I couldn't get them off myself. Velcro ones were OK though.

Lifts, especially the old-fashioned ones with metal gates instead of sliding doors, now quite rare.

Balloons. Even now they bring me out in a cold sweat, because they might burst.

The toilet.

I'm still scared of lifts. I had a lift-based misadventure when I was four and I'd rather walk on hot coals than go in a death box.

Mirrors at night, I felt like they were watching me. And I was terrified of people looking at me through windows for some reason. Even if I knew the person! That lasted til I was nearly 20.

Nuns. Convent educated!
They still terrify me.

From being around 4-9yo:

Excavators and other heavy machinery. Weirdly not snowploughs

Massive lorries (still wary of them).

The lectric box in my boxroom - especially if there was a storm, i was conviced it would blow up if lightning hit it (i was 5yo).

The u-bend in sinks, i didn't like the fact that you could see water when you were brushing your teeth. I got scared of drains later, aged around 12yo, because i was reading Stephen Ling's IT

Our shed, it was just sinister and smelt horribly of creosote and there were always earwigs around it.

One of the upstairs windows at primary school as someone said you could see the ghost of the headless butler walkkng about.

We lived next to a graveyard, never once felt spooked about that.

Oh god yes the pressure cooker - it was terrifying.

Also escalators.
And train lines. Johnny won't need his trainers anymore.

Bertie Bassett

(specifically, I had a cuddly one and would be convinced it moved)

And bridges with slats in so you could see what you were going over.

My mother is scared of some of these ^^ and also spiral staircases and a whole bunch of other things and "made us" scared of them by her total overreaction to them. I mean - stairs, really - which in turn has made me not want to pass any anxiety onto my children. Oh lets go and look at that huge dog that could eat you in one gulp, kids

Seeing someone with their face partly or fully hidden. For example: people in Santa costume with mouth hidden under their beard; crash helmets; swimming caps (someone's appearance changes completely if their hair disappears); even other kids blindfolded for playing games. I didn't mind when it was my turn though.

Luminous hands on alarm clocks, or those with bells on top. I think I would have found Gro-clocks freaky!

Escalators.

Agree with Nuns and Lifts!
Where I lived there was a path that had a light on it. The light was a square shaped thing behind a grille, rectangular, looked like a robot coming to life. Terrified a small child in the 1960s!

I think these are all from the toddler years.

My mother's dressing gown hanging on the back of my bedroom door -- which looked like the silhouette of a witch at night in the dark. Never occurred to me to take it down during the day, though.

An ad for fabric conditioner which featured a woman wrapping a toddler in a bathsheet, which used to terrify me for reasons I'm unsure about.

The theme tune to 'Black Beauty', 'Galloping Home'.

A cheap colour print of a (probably 19thc?) painting of a little girl dancing forward out of a dim background with her dress full of flowers. It hung in the very dark hall of my grandmother's house, and was hard to make out, and I found it absolutely terrifying.

I have really vivid memories of being terrified walking down the underpass from South Ken tube to the Science Museum etc. - I was convinced that a tube train was going to come down the tunnel any moment.

The dark.
Sweeping brushes.( DM used to put one at the foot of the stairs I daren’t go past it.)
Santa ,DM couldn’t take me anywhere where there might be one.
Apparently I was told he would never come to our house,when I was under 2. I was terrified.

My nan has paintings up in the bedrooms and I was always convinced they were alive and moved at night.

My grandparent's pendulum clock. The ticking, so loud! Still not keen on noisy clocks now really and would never have one in the house.

Mannequins. I used to have nightmares about them. I used to feel they might come alive and get me! I still eye them suspiciously!

Clowns (still am). Screamed the circus down and had to be taken home.

Porcelain dolls.

Sand. First beach holiday was not a success. Still not a fan.

Mirrors at night.

Deep still water (pretty sensible I suppose but I always used to feel like I was in it looking up at myself).

Gratings in the pavement, especially large pnes with narrow wobbly bars.

Basements. And furnaces. The house I grew up in had a furnace in the basement, which was the pinnacle of terrifying for me.

A blue plaster on the finger of the waiter in Pizza Hut. I remember hiding under the table in sheer terror at the blue plaster

Also my cousins rubber witch. He used to put it in front of his bedroom door so i wouldn’t go in and annoy him

A wicker work monkey with glass eyes, that sat on my Granny’s bookshelf. Actually had nightmares about the sinister little bastard, long after she’d passed away and the house had been sold

Monks. I had one of those things you put round sets of slides in - Viewfinder, I think it was called - and a Black Beauty story to go in it, in which there's a scary monk that flings back his hood to reveal a grinning skull. NO clue why that was marketed for children To this day I don't like anyone with a hood up obscuring part of their face. I also still hate masks, clown make-up, big dark sunglasses or even heavy 'normal' make-up - anything that changes or hides someone's face makes it genuinely difficult for me to communicate with them because my head goes all funny.

Rubber gloves - looked inside one once and the row of dark finger-holes just looked so sinister that I wouldn't go near them for years. I still don't use them.