Things that absolutely terrified you as a child.....

[lisaJN1986]

And still scare you all these years later?

I'll start... 😂

Oh werewolves. Did anyone else see that Nationwide episode with these people on who had some sort of amulet or small carved head and then saw werewolves. It was on after kids tv! Terrified me for years.

Wolves - I think this was from reading little red riding hood,etc

I also had a fear of getting locked in toilets and would panic if I the lock was stiff. I still feel a bit like this now!

Clowns’ faces.
I still find them super creepy.

No longer, but staying in a GM’s house where both a GF and a GGF had died not long previously. I was convinced they’d ‘appear’. They were both lovely old men so not sure why I was so petrified.
Not helped by said GM saying she’d seen the GF early one morning so soon after he’d died, she’d forgotten he was dead and thought he was bringing her the usual cup of tea!

I was telling dh this not long after we met, and he said, ‘So what did he say?’ (Then in dark and ghostly voice) ‘I’m sorry, dear, I’m afraid the tea’s cold this morning!’ 😂

A programme called Mystery and Imagination in the 1960's.
Being buried alive.
Going into the confessional box and shutting the door, it was pitch black in there.

These. Absolutely terrifying as a child, I always thought the car would be crushed and we'd never get out:

Sorry if that image is too big....

And lifts. I'm still scared of those though.

Lots of people saying quick sand. I remember watching an episode of The Virginian (now that’s an oldie) all about a horse needing to be rescued from quicksand. That scarred me. We went on holiday to Argyll a short time later. The was a sort of creek we were exploring, all strange, decayed trees and so boggy my sister had a welly pulled of in it. I was in such a state, I thought I’d be sucked under.

Escalators also scared me.

I also had a fear of getting locked in toilets and would panic if I the lock was stiff. I still feel a bit like this now!

Me too! I got locked in the cubicle in primary school and the Headmaster had to come and unlock it (no Safeguarding concerns in those days!), and ever since then I've panicked if the lock doesn't immediately turn.

Burglars / house catching fire / having to emigrate or even move / nazi invasion - think I was an anxious kid !

Suits of armour. Couldn't walk past one on a trip to a castle or stately home (& we went to a lot of them). They still feel a bit creepy - they would make great Dr Who monsters!

Two things:
The top level of double-decker buses. There was a terrible accident when I was 7, a bus driver forgot he was driving a double-decker and tried to drive under a low railway bridge. Tore the entire top level off and killed all the adults sitting there. Only a child survived because she was shorter. My DF was involved in the rescue, it really scarred him. That was in the 70s and I still hate the top of double-deckers.

I was at school when corporal punishment was fairly widespread. In Reception I got the words cane and cage mixed up and developed this huge fear of being locked in a cage as a punishment.

Ah, the 70s, not fond memories.

Spiders and school.

Swimming pool drains. I think one must've eaten me in a past life. Shudder.

The film 1984.
It was in black and white and god knows why my dm let me watch it.
As a punishment a guy had his face put in a tube and hungry rats were allowed to chew him. I remember the blood curdling scream as the camera cut away.
I’m still terrified of rats.

Being left in the car alone, while my parents (mostly dad) popped to the shop. They knew I was terrified but still left me.
Aah, the joys of the 70s/early 80s.

Tsunamis, although we knew them as tidal waves back then. When we went to the beach I was convinced we were all going to be swept away by one. Unlikely at Cleethorpes.

And, of course, quicksand.

@AllAboutMargot just wanted to say that Tsunamis and tidal waves are two very different things with Tidal waves happening every day.

The Man in the Iron Mask, where his beard would grow and suffocate him !

Ooh I forgot when I was small and Mum and I had to travel up from Kent for my hospital appointments. I really did not like the escalators. They seemed to go on for miles! Of course years later I would commute without giving them a thought!

Doubt many people will remember this chap - Freddy Garrity, from the 1960s band Freddy and The Dreamers, reduced me to tears of terror when he popped up on the TV
I recently saw him in an old film on Talking Pictures. I had to change channels.

Oh god - yes!!

My dad used to make "jokes" about the water coming in through the windows telling us we were going to drown

That scene from Children of Green Knowe where the St Christopher statue starts walking.

Hell.

I was brought up in a Baptist church whose minister was well behind the idea of the fiery pit and not shy in coming forward about it. Even the rather daring for its time pop group was allowed its brimstone moments.

I was literally terrified into being 'saved' at about eight.