Weird things that scared you as a child...

[user1491572121]

My DD is 12 and I was just absentmindedly singing "Frere Jacques" and she said "Oh that song! It used to give me nightmares!"

And I said why? I used to sing it to you all the time!

And she said YES! And it made me think of people drowning...

Apparently she used to hear it and envision a man in bed and then water would rush in and drown him!

What weird fears/thoughts did you or yours have?

The hair and yuck that came out plug holes

Terrahawks, werewolves, Maggie Murphy and the weird faces I used to think I could see in the artex on my wall!

Anyone dressed up as a mascot/character with a "head" of the character completely covering their face.

I also used to be scared of the bongs on news at ten and the Mastermind programme. That chair freaked me out.

Also what is it with pylons? I used to be scared of them but still don't like them now. I find them depressing somehow.

In public toilets I had to unlock the door before i flushed or else I might be locked in and the noise would "get me". I still cant walk upstairs in the dark(in my 50s) after watching some horror film as a teen.

The Thin Man and Peep-Peep from The Boy From Space. Every time we watched it at school I would be able to act him out in the playground but can guarantee I would be the only one sobbing in terror every time he came on. I can about it now.

The pumpkin head that went hop, hop, hop, on "Words and Pictures" terrified me. Also the opening sequence of the programme, "The Cedar Tree" - I'd hide behind the sofa. Mum and Dad would point out cedar trees whilst out and about in an attempt to help but I'd get hysterical.

I love both pumpkins and cedar trees now!

That a wasp near would crash through my bedroom ceiling on top of me while I was sleeping.

And one of Worzel Gummidges other heads. I think it was a turnip.

Wasp nest

Yeah..the thin man was freaky!

Spitting Image puppets. Still can't bare them now. Also the witch on Chorton and the Wheelies.

David Bowie in the Labyrinth. I'v only just been able to watch it. I'm 32.

Mum used to pull the plug on the bath with me still in it. I was terrified of being sucked down the plug hole!

The wallpaper in my room.... Flowers but I saw witches faces...

Rubarb after watching The Triffids on tv

My uncles friend who had a moustache

Chiropodists - my DM told me they ate children. There was one at the other end of town and I was terrified of walking anywhere near the shopfront, and at the same time slightly confused they were able to advertise the fact so blatantly. My mum has an odd sense of humour.

I remember a childrens TV programme about a house that had hidden rooms, and a skeleton was found in one. It literally freaked me out for months after and my poor dad had to spend many an hour tapping walls to prove there were no secret doors in our house

The Clifton House Mystery

The triangle gap left when mum wouldn't pull my curtains shut tightly enough.i used to imagine a big beady eye in there.

Zelda from terrahawks. Eek!!

The noise made by water draining out of the bath plughole. I think k my mum told me once it was a monster and it would get me if I didn't get out of the bath.

Helicopters at night. Grew up in NI so it was a regular sound and I was scared it was because the ira were nearby. For a long time I couldn't sleep about them and I remember Christmas eve thinking "nobody would do anything bad to anyone on Christmas eve" and feeling really secure.

Lychees. Dad liked buying whatever weird fruit he could find in the greengrocers. Peeled one for me and as I popped it in my mouth he told my mum they looked a bit like sheep's eyeballs.

My first cuddly toy as a baby was a seal (proved from pics) not sure why. I'm also not sure why I'd wake up years later convinced there was a seal attacking me in my bed...seals aren't scary!

Up to the age of 6 I remember buying new shoes being a scary experience - the smell of shoe shops; the gauge they used to measure your feet (see picture), the stiffness of new shoes, and assistant pressing down to see where my toes were.

Younger than this, I had a pair of red sandals similar to the picture: when I got up in the morning, I used to put my feet straight into them, without socks, and unbuckled, because I liked the feel. But my mum would then always want to buckle them up, and I didn't like this - it felt like my feet were being imprisoned, as I couldn't yet undo them myself. I once ran away when she approached to do so, and one shoe went flying off, Cinderella-style!

Marianne Dreams. A book that still scares me. Giant stones watch the house, but they move in closer....

Anyone dressed up as a mascot/character with a "head" of the character completely covering their face.
I too didn't like seeing faces covered, or even partly so: if someone I knew had their hair covered (perhaps with a swimming hat), sometimes I couldn't recognise them at all, this was freaky.

Also I was unnerved during my first game of pin the tail: not by doing it myself, but watching the other children having their eyes covered. I thought I'd be scared when it was my turn, but oddly enough I didn't mind being blindfolded at all.

ooh removing the plug while i wa still in the bath i hated that too

Ooh, yes, people dressed up as characters. Goes back to Yogi Bear in Blackpool one year. I grabbed his hand, realised it was a person in there (presumably I'd believed it was actually Yogi til this point) and the knowledge just repulsed me. Weird.

The judder man from the Smirnoff ice adverts

Hearing my pulse in my sleep used to give me nightmares about a ghost pirate. I was terrified of him.

Me and my sister were both terrified of the colour mustard as children, utterly terrified. Glad we're both over it now, because I really suit it.

A child sized porcelain doll my grandmother thought I'd like.. it was terrifying. It gave me nightmares for months. It was huge and had big beady eyes...