To ask what irrationally scared you as a child? *lighthearted*

[liverbird10]

My mother insists I was terrified of the Chef from Sesame Street as a toddler, I would howl whenever he appeared on screen.

I was also petrified by the 2ft Bugs Bunny my brother bought me.

A few years later, it was the Gorgs from Fraggle Rock. I seem to have got over that fear though, my fella resembles a blond one slightly.

Was anybody else round here equally odd?

The opening credits to the (mid to late 70s) itv programme, "The Cedar Tree". I'd be off behind the sofa as soon as they came on! I couldn't pass a real cedar tree without getting scared!
Then, one day, just like that, I watched the opening credits and... fear gone!
Bizarre.

Wind - trees blowing gates slamming , that kind of thing

Theme tune to are you afraid of the dark

Santa Claus! Mum tried to take me to a grotto in B&Q once and I screamed the place down

The moon! Used to be frozen with fear or scream when I saw it, thinking it was a bit eye watching me.

Woodlice! I screamed and ran whenever I saw one

Odd Bod from Carry on Screaming.

Swings! And I'm still terrified of them. I would cry and scream if anyone such much as suggested I went on them in the park - no idea why as I'd go on much 'scarier' equipment, big slides and so on. If DS wants pushing on a swing I have to grit my treeth to do it. My legs wobble and I go all shaky and panicky while I push him. Yeah, I'm weird

When I was vertu small I became convinced that there was a wolf upstairs in the dark in our house. Made the mistake of telling my Dad this - he thought it was hilarious to jump out on me going 'Rrrraaaaarrrr!' as I came out of the loo. That really didn't help.

The children wouldn't let me pull the plug out of the bath until they were well clear otherwise the plug monster would get them,

That was The Gurgle Monster for DS. He was also scared of the Fraggles.

Quick sand.

It's far less of a problem in my adult life than I was led to believe it would be

Grogar the goat from the My Little Pony movie. The thought still makes me shudder.

Planet of the apes!

I was quite scared of these and was convinced I could hear giant versions of them at night, wobbling their way over the South Downs towards my house.

Flap jack fairy .Me too!.used to run into my bedroom . OK if in before chain had flushed !

I used to be terrified of the upstairs part of my grandparents house. It had a very long dim corridor with a door at the end that nobody knew what was behind it. My sisters told me never to open it OR ELSE! The loo was upstairs (the old fashioned sort with a high flush and chain). My sisters told me to flush it quietly so “they” wouldn’t hear it. I used to hate needing the loo there!

As an adult I realised the door must have been a cupboard due to the layout of the house. And the corridor couldn’t have been very long at all!

My sisters used to tell me all sorts of bollocks!

Pink slime in Ghostbusters 2

Spiral stair cases. I'm still terrified of those stairs with gaps in them. I'm petrified of falling through.
I'm size 26 so fat chance of that, pun intended.

There was an episode of Dr Who with a green monster that reminded me of cabbage! I couldn't eat cabbage for ages after that. I can remember my Mum was quite cross!

Old-fashioned alarm clocks, especially the ones with bells on the top. They would tick loudly, to say nothing of ringing loudly! There was one in our kitchen, which was not used as an alarm clock, but my mum once threatened to set the alarm.

I remember this absurd story we read at primary school about a farmer, who was fed up with his dog spending all night howling at the moon, so he threw his alarm clock out of his bedroom window at the dog. The dog thought it was the moon, and promptly ate it! "One gulp, and the moon was gone for ever. It was hard, and round, and knobbly." Then in the morning, the dog was ringing. A scary alarm clock story!

Jaws! They showed us it at primary school and I was petrified I used to think a shark was going to come up the plug hole in the bath. And had nightmares about that body that popped out. My Mum wasn’t impressed.

Bertie Bassett
The Honey Monster
Wonder Dog (that's a bit of an obscure one. Finding out in later life that wonder dog was actually Simon Cowell in a costume has definitely diminished the fear)

And a very odd and specific one. My dad used to take us to the speedway and I was terrified of the way the starting line would spring up. It was something to do with the sudden jerking movement but I used to dread it and close my eyes until the bikes had set off.

The old doctor who. Specifically the episodes where people went mouldy and died

Also going upstairs on my own. And I still avoid looking into a dark bedroom as I turn a light on.

Quatermass and the Pit.
It was serialised on TV approximately 1959-60 so I was 9-10.

In the first episode there was work going on at an Underground station, by somewhere called 'Hobbs Lane' (Hobb has 'devil' connections). There had aways been rumours, legends almost, about 'supernatural' type sightings in that area.

The men doing the work came across an inpenetrable wall. They tried everything to break through it but couldn't, then suddenly it cracked open to reveal a chamber. One went inside and there were the most ghastly looking creatures, covered in cobwebs attached to the ceiling and wall of the chamber; one of them fell to the floor. The man was terrified but Mr Bernard Quatermass, a scientist who did work for the government (don't remember why he happened to be there) had also come in and he said, "It's all right, they're demons. They're dead now and have been dead for a long time".

That was enough for me. I think it was on on a Monday night but from that time on until the series finished I went up to bed before it started. It had the most frightening theme music and I would hear it whilst in bed, terrified.

The Count from Sesame Street!

A Bob Dylan album cover, I have no idea which one but it has lots of colours on it which for some reason stressed me out

Earwigs. My bastard cousin told me that they'd burrow into your ears while you slept and eat your brain.

The cupboard where the fuseboxes were on the ground floor of the flats where my nan lived. The same bastard cousin told me that a nasty dwarf lived there, that he hated children and would try and capture any that walked past.

I used to run from the front door to the stairs and leg it up them really fast, so the dwarf couldn't catch me. One day, workmen were doing some work on the electrics and the cupboard door was open when we arrived at my nan's. I had a complete fucking meltdown and refused to set foot over the threshold.

Luckily, that cousin moved to South Africa and we lost touch aeons ago. Luckily for him, that is - I'd tear him a new one if I was to meet him now.