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 Sandeman. Scared me SHITLESS! When I was a kid, there was a massive poster on an advertising hoarding near the local shopping centre and I was absolutely terrified everytime I had to pass it.

bridges - bloody hated going over them, always have this image of it breaking (still do now tbh)
the plug hole - I was convinced I would get sucked down
hoover - mum used to say it hoovers up toys and children for fun
loft hatch - convinced something would come down and drag me up

I was also terrified of the 'rag'n'bone' man

The plug hole in the bath. I was scared of getting sucked into it bottom first if the plug were to be pulled

Still have to stand away from then now in the shower!

The outside fire escape. It was drummed into us so heavily not to go near it that, had their been a legitimate cause to use it, I may have preferred to have died in the inferno.

The eyes of the Mysterons and Daleks.

Fans and the Channel 4 News theme. I have no idea why.

Big drums, like in marching bands, still scare the bejesus out of me

Thought of another - the water filter inlet on the school swimming pool. Rumour had it that you could get stuck to it or that it would suck your swimming costume off.

Davros - leader of the daleks 😱

Fuck off fuck off fuck off fuck off! Not Davros or daleks or cybermen. No no no no no. Terrifying.

Gasmasks too. Shit me right up.

hoovers
balloons
thunder and lightening
the loft hatch

I was terrified of the book 'The Elves and The Shoemaker' I was a bookworm but I hated this book, maybe something to do with the image on the cover? I made my mum hide it from me.

When my mum said "good night, don't let the bed bugs bite" (shudder)

The silhouette of the bushes through the blinds outside the patio door during a storm. Always made me think of creepy hands reaching up to open the door.

Glad to have shared out the B.B. phobia

Also, speaking of Thomas the tank - when he fell in a mine!! [scared]
And Yy to the hoover.

I'll add one for DS2 - the streetlight outside our bathroom window

Toilet cisterns - I still hate seeing their inner workings, it makes my skin crawl.
My grandpa's didn't have a lid and I could never use it!

We used to have a toilet with the overhead cistern. One day my nana pulled the chain and the whole thing dropped on her head. She must have had a massive concussion but never went to doctors or hospital.

Not me...but my sister was scared on men with hats on. A bit of a bummer when our Dad was in the RAF and we lived on a military base.

For years and years.. right into my twenties.. I had nightmares about one particular corner of the living room in parents house. It seemed to have a big brown blob that lived in it. Even in full daylight I wouldn't go near that corner. Eventually I broke it down to a really nasty old great aunt who used to visit us and who always dressed in brown. She had bristles and warts, stunk to high heaven of booze and the whole family was terrified of her. Once I had worked out why I was scared the nightmares stopped.

Flip flops....used to think someone was following me!

We lived in a rented Victorian house and had a deer's head on the wall in the hall. The glass eyes seemed to follow you.
The loft hatch at top of stairs, my friend said it was a ghost trap.
The earwigs in the conservatory, same friend said they could give you an electric shock.
Friend was a bit older than me so I believed her!

I was scared of some kids tv shows, ones that featured puppets, especially if they had just dots for eyes. I didn't like a programme called Mortimer and Arabel because of how the puppets looked. Some illustrations in children's books such as Roald Dahl and Allan Ahlberg books used to scare me too because their eyes are just dots. Weird I know!

Open wardrobes

Stray dogs and foxes with rabies we were convinced they were hiding all around. On the rare occasion we saw a fox we knew it had rabies We were experts having seen the series The Mad Death

People dressed as other things. Clowns.

They day Ronald McDonald came to my McDonald's is seared into my memory.

I turned around from talking to someone and the fucker was spread eagled against the window inches away from my head.

I went and hid in the loop until he'd fucked off again.

The drawing in the title of Vision On:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_On#/media/File%3AVision_On_logo.jpg

A 70s Dr Who character whose face peeled off to reveal clockwork behind.

Fire of any kind.