What was the most random thing you were scared of as a child?

[ClassicStripe]

Me and DP are watching Mr McMahon on Netflix and it reminded me that when I was a child me and my sister were really scared of Hulk Hogan. We didn't have a clue about wrestling he was just on a poster at our cousin's house.

I’m scared of robots, probably started with daleks, but fifty odd years later I can’t be in a room with a life sized one.

and the witch from Lizzie Dripping. She scared me

and alien abduction. For years I thought I was going to be taken by aliens in the night

and the dot on the tv when you switched it off (thanks to the film Poltergeist)

BashfulClam
Sparklers, absolutely terrified of them. Even when my held her hand next to it to show me the sparks were harmless i’d cry and scream. I was only 4 though and eventually trusted them.

The man in the butchers who made my cry. I refused to go in and would stay outside after that.

Did you see that advert in the 80s with the girl with the bandaged hand from sparklers? That scared me to death!

This thread has reminded me that I was scared of my own shadow as a child. I think I was scared of more things than I wasn't scared of tbh! 😂

Yeah that advert with the girl with the massive bandaged hands haunts me to this day 🤣 I've passed that on to my DC

Daleks 70s style.
Some public information films of the time.the most famous being..Dark water..

And like previous posters...quicksand, spontaneous combustion and pylons!

Tomato ketchup. The smell still freaks me out but i used to be terrified of getting it on me, god knows what I thought might happen.

I was also terrified the video player would randomly set on fire every night after a fire safety video at school showed one on fire. I would go round switching every appliance off until i was in my early 20s much to the annoyance of my parents.

Automatic doors. I was terrified they would close suddenly and I'd be squished in between them.

And octopuses. So many nightmares being chased by an octopus!

To echo others:
Quick sand - I thought this would feature much more in my life than it has.
Worzel Gummidge - wtf was that
Edna from Willow the Wisp.

Special mention to the horrible scooter people off Return to Oz and the princess with all the heads.

Spaghetti Bolognese, chili, anything that had mince in. Looked like it contained worms to my 4 year old self.
Weetabix, as above.
Same as someone else upthread: Jaws in James Bond, grandfather was a fan, had the films on a lot, I was terrified.
Sand
Getting clothes wet
Worms
Cellars
Men with beards

Was quite a nervous child 🤣

Those information films have a lot to answer for. Pylons, quicksand, railway lines etc.

I used to be scared of the song "These Boots are made for Walking" because it sounded threatening. Which it kind of is.

Cyberpunk on Dr Who.

*Cybermen

I've just remembered a couple more, The filters around the edge of a swimming pool, I was scared they'd duck my hair in and scalp me. Also Vampires.

Panpipes.

And wild rice. The idea that rice could be wild scared the shit out of me. I was convinced it would give me rabies.

So many things, monsters under the bed, ghosts, deep pools in caves, caves, heights, moths, cutting myself on milk bottles (thanks to an illustration in a first aid book), wasps, bees, falling out of windows (DM’s cousin was killed when a gust of wind pulled the window he was leaning out of). I am remembering even more random things now I have started thinking about it.

I was a very imaginative, sensitive child and my parents both had jobs where they saw a lot of death and were always warning us about dangers. I was also very advanced verbally and in my reading so probably knew more about things that were a bit too old for me than most children.

I am still quite scared of some of my list, but used to hide it from my own children so it would probably surprise people these days.

@MissMogwai
This just popped into my head too. Return to Oz, those with the wheels on all fours and the masks! Christ, I can still see it now 😱

Daddy long legs
The witch from Chorlton and the wheelies
The theme tune to Tales of the Unexpected (actually I don't think that one is random - it's still fairly terrifying)

The rain, I remember my mum having to pick me up from school because it was raining and I was obviously freaking out. She also had to check for black clouds and promise it wouldn’t rain if we were going out 😂 I still don’t like heavy rain to this day, gives me a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach

Omg! So pleased I’m not crazy 😂 it would have been the 90s but the tiles were there when he moved in so possibly older

I think it was the movie witches. There was a scene when they were speaking about a picture a little girl was sucked into (or put into, i cant remember too clearly). What I do remember, is if I saw a landscape painting of a garden/field or any kind of outdoor space, I’d run away because I didn’t want to get sucked into the picture 🫣.

When you turned the television off and it made a dull "pop" noise and the picture sort of disappeared leaving one point of light in the centre of the screen .

Mrs Doubtfire

When I was eight or nine, I went through about a year-long period of being absolutely terrified that I would swallow my tongue. I would only fall asleep on my side so that it wouldn't fall down my throat. This was after my grandfather told me (foolishly) about a footballer who swallowed his tongue after hitting his head or something. It affected me so profoundly that even now I often clamp it between my teeth when I swallow 😣

I was going to say I was sure the film with the wig you take off to reveal a bald head was The Witches. Awful film! I loved the book - it seemed less scary on the page!

My sister used to see the "eye" in the sink and thought it was a frog.

I was terrified of tree roots - you know how sometimes they have grown and cracked the tarmac around them? This made me not really trust that they wouldn't spontaneously reach out of the ground and grab me and pull me under. I remember completely refusing to walk past certain trees and adults being exasperated with me but I really thought I was risking death!

Also toilets - all unfamiliar toilets were scary.

Michael Jackson in the Thriller video.

Some gargoyle light fixtures my grandma had.

And black and white TV's.

Daleks in Dr Who, petrified!