Weird things that scared you as a child...

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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?

I was terrified of the Soda Stream advert on TV. It would have been early to mid 80s. There was a horrible, creepy man who used to hiss 'get busy with the fizzy!'. I would hide behind the sofa with my fingers in my ears.

Does anyone remember a kid's programme from the early 80s about a bunch of children living on an island and there was always the sinister presence of a massive ship with sails and a man on board with a beard that tormented them? I can't remember the name but I remember it was scary as hell and the music was eerie too.

And yes, those public information films frightened me so much. I don't even like driving over train tracks and I'll never fly a kite - just in case there's a pylon nearby! 🙈

And don't get me started on Nosebonk! Truly terrifying! The kid's TV programmers must have hated children!

*Noseybonk

Escalators because of the public service announcements I think a rag doll got ripped to shreds in one.

The song Bohemian Rhapsody. I used to hate that coming on the radio. Still do.

Going upstairs for a wee at my Nan's. Massive old house. I would run up and down as fast as possible.

In a book my parents had when I was young, there were photos of villages that had been abandoned to make way for reservoirs etc. I think it was this one (or similar) with the church spire sticking out that made me breathe fast and shallow (still freaks me out)

Mannequins or dummies as I called them when I was six. They absolutely terrified me to the point of nightmares. There was one in particular in BHS I found especially scary; it was just the expression on its plastic face. It was always the women dummies that frightened me the most. I was less bothered by the man mannequins. The child mannequins were almost as contemptible as the women ones. Utterly horrid and vile. I still hate the wretched things forty years later. Thank goodness they're not as commonplace as they once were.

The other thing that scared me rigid was the chair at our old dentist surgery in the 1970s. Strictly speaking, chairs. One pale blue, the other in the surgery next door was pale pink. Oddly enough, I found the blue chair to be the more threatening of the two even though the pink one was otherwise identical. Nothing could persuade me to sit in them voluntarily. They were very workmanlike, businesslike, no frills metal and vinyl mechanical beasts that made a creepy humming noise when they moved up and down or tilted back and forth. I've since discovered they were made by Siemens, a byword for basic, unattractive, German industrial machinery in those days. I think they were somewhat dated even in the '70s and both had thankfully been replaced by much more modern and less scary chairs by 1981. But even now, I still have stupid dreams about the blue and pink horrors, though not to the extent of nightmares.

Sorry to go on folks. Some things from your childhood you just don't get over.

Actually anything under water that shouldn't be there!

I was terrified of the Hoover pre school, and used to have to make an equal noise to compete with it. I didn't much like the hairdryer, either.

But the worst thing was in one of the comics my brother used to get, where there were aliens that put wrongdoers in an execution like machine that would send them somewhere where they would float forever in a sea of dust. I was a morbid child, and used to dwell on it, repeating to myself "for ever in a sea of dust"

Penny - Oliver! is on now

The window cleaner. Terrifying. I think he used to wave at me. I hid under a table and cried till he'd gone.

All of the Pink Floyd video to 'Another Brick in the Wall' but especially this bit....

That Church Spiral is both creepy and fascinating.

Just think the other part of the Church is under water.

I'm still terrified of the hoover.

babyspider here's another one. Imagine swimming next to it (shudder)

Awwlook, are you my cat?

In one of my towns shopping centres the lift was beside a small fountain/pool that people used to throw coins into. So when the lift went up, it overlooked the fountain, I was always frightened that the lift would break and plunge into it.

The crystal maze...I just found the concept scary.

Showers. Specially big old showers in sports changing rooms. And massive old pipes down alleyways.

I mean, anything could come out of them!

My great grandma lived hours away from us. When she came up she stayed in the same room at my nanas. I never ever went in that room as i was scared she haunted it and I'd see her ghost ....but she wasn't even dead!

My sister use to cry at the pull up nappy advert that went "mummy wow, I'm a big kid now"

Also when a young teenager I use to hate and be so scared when I heard the 999 tune and when that guy nick on crimewatch said 'don't have nightmares....do sleep well'

Pylons here too - I think it's from a program in the 1970s where aliens used electricity to travel. I am also terrified of 'big electric' ... Substations etc.

Escalators - advert for the dangers of escalators with the dolly

Milk - watch out there is a Humphrey about

Nuclear war - protect and survive - tbh this has been re awakened in me and I had a panic attack recently based on trump and the North Koreans

I used to be convinced that if I went into the bathroom without the light on, Texas Pete from Superted would be sitting in the bath waiting to get me.

Watched an episode on YouTube recently, turns out he's a total non-entity!

Flushing toilets!
If a toilet was blocked and the water would rise up I'm pretty sure I braced myself for death.

And when the Telly would go off and just whine . ( yes I am that old) I would scream apparently and cry ' the Telly's going mare'....

I hated swimming lessons but would get really anxious towards the end hoping they wouldn't let the sharks out early. I must've been in my teens before I discovered that The Sharks were the swimming club that used the pool after our lessons & not actual sharks. I'd scan the water before getting in too, just in case they'd forgotten to put one away! I never went into the deep end but I was convinced there was a gate in the wall of the pool that would open to let the sharks get some exercise. No idea why I thought anyone would want to keep a bunch of sharks in a small tank & exercise them in a chlorinated pool, it was just an idea I got in my head when quite young after being hurried out of the pool to make way for "the sharks" & it never occurred to me to question it!