Jan 31, 2012
Childhood Fears Real And Imagined But Mostly Real
When Bossy was a girl she was told you could never look in the direction of anyone welding because your eyes would burn.
So basically Bossy spent her childhood navigating a cityscape of blowtorches, terrified even the smallest amount of peeking would result in the riotous downfall of civilization. Or Bossy’s retina in flames, whichever came first.
But then Bossy saw this:
And Bossy began to think along the lines of: If Jennifer Beals can dominate a blowtorch maybe Bossy could sneak a very small look.
Also in Bossy’s childhood, she was told if she stared at a full moon on a particularly clear night, she would fall into a trance that would deliver her unaware to the tip of a rocky ocean jetty.
For those keeping track at home, Blowtorches and full moons. Two things you’ll never catch Bossy admiring.
What are your childhood fears, real and unfounded? Do it in Ten Words, if you want. Bossy misses that!
Fave Fear: “Staring at a solar eclipse will blind you.”
__________
As a kid, I had a lot of fears. Some were rational: fire, extreme heights, my belt-wielding mom. And some not so rational: like if I cut my hand on something I’ll get blood poisoning, which will reveal itself by a red line crawling up a major vein to my heart. (Seems this happened to my maternal grandfather, resulting in the amputation of his right trigger finger.) Imagine the expression on the face of the school nurse when I spun that one.
Volcanoes. I lived in California and had been to Mt. Lassen (at least 200 miles away). I was terrified that the volcano would blow up. I even thought the distant roar of an airplane engine was an eruption. Now I live 90 miles from Mt. Rainier (waaaaaaaaay bigger than Lassen!) and lived through the real eruptions of Mt.St. Helens. I’ll take those drugs, though, thx.
Crimeny, I didn’t see the thing about 10 words. I miss it, too, Bossy!
Quicksand. I think Land of the Lost was to blame.
Boogie Man underneath bed will grab feet. Must dive in.
My cousin actually gave me this one – it still bothers me:
If toes hang over bed, George Washington bites them off.
(apparently, he hides at the bottom of the bed, with his wooden teeth…waiting…..waiting….)
Being chased. In the game of tag I was “it”….often.
Licking lips after smelling an oleander flower equaled immediate death.
This from a cousin, like helenel’s.
Going blind from reading in bad light. Didn’t stop me.
Lightning will hit the house. Pack suitcase for quick exit!
Woodchucks in Grandmother’s back yard could bite! Stay far away!
I’m a rule-follower so it seriously pains me to write this in more than 10 words but I must. At a very young age I overheard my grandfather say someone had lost control of his car and died a fiery death. Thereafter I viewed driving as a game of chance. You never knew when a car would decide to seize control and kill you.
Trolls Tarzan movies pits of fire my grandma’s canning yikes.
Cracks in the sidewalk. Sobbed all the way home from school one day convinced my mom’s back was broken.
Say “Rabbit Rabbit” on the first day of the month before you say anything else or the month is ruined. Courtesy of my grandmother, who also debunked Santa Claus for me.
Bears and Bridges. Still verrrrrrry scarrrrry
Get goose bumps around geese. And walking chickens. Pigeons too.
UFOs and Big Foot gave me nightmares. Still do.
Yes Bossy, the full moon sure can take you places.
This was a big one in my childhood, I believed that if you looked at a full moon while walking, you wouldn’t be in the same place when you looked away. I am still convinced that it takes you forward or backwards in time, even if just a tiny bit.
Stepping on the dark part of the stairs to get to my bedroom, nighttime shadows, leaches in the creek.
Night sirens howl
Pacing, panting dogs.
Always mean
Tornado’s coming.
Cuban missile crisis: “Russians going to bomb us at recess.”
Dog at house on corner – always walked in the street.
Pookie man in the well leaves adult fear of water
The dark (still), closet monster, nuclear war (thanks Threads movie).
Look in a mirror at midnight, see the devil standing behind you.
(Sorry, that was 12.)
Dark Water. Still can’t do it.
Going blind from doing other things, found it’s not true.
Rabid squirrels. Legitimate fear: squirrels ate hole in diaper bag!
Chewing gum on empty stomach results in holes in stomach
Junebugs. Confused one with a bear onetime. Long story.
Cresting a very steep bridge. No road on other side?
Enter water at your own peril if you don’t wait the full hour after eating. Kids stare at water for an eternity while driving parents insane.
Listen to soda cans for bees, tongue stung, swells, die.
Childhood: Quick Draw McGraw’s identical evil twin Quick Draw McDraw. Lifelong: crunchy bugs.
Eat watemelon seed, watermelon will grow out your belly button.
Must hold breath when driving by a nuclear power plant.
*still do this.
cut=lockjaw from tetanus. eclipse=blindness. wait 1 hour or drown.
Monsters under the bed & basement stairs, and peeping toms.
( I still run up the basement stairs)
Falling into pond while ice skating; getting trapped under ice.
old car overturned in river; someone die a watery death?
Make sign of cross when hear ambulance, or I’m next.
Russians dropping a nuclear bomb on New York and my not making it to the fallout shelter (read school corridor) in time. Seriously. Awful.
A bat flying into my hair resulting in a shaved head.
Rapid squirrels – crossed streets to avoid them in deathly fear.
Sorry “rabid” – my mother scared the bejeebus out of me and ruined my love for squirrels forever
–>Swallowing gum and it stays in stomach 10 years.
–>Going blind by sitting too close to television.
Lighting in the window at the end of the hall.
Sharks in the closet. Impossible; still, I close that door.
dirt basements. bodies definitely in them. Current fear
If the cows are lying down, it’s going to rain.
Always hold breath driving across bridges, or they’ll fall down.
Evil faeries dance in my hair every night, causing tangles.
Ostriches are a big deal – hence, the Iran Ostrich Crisis.
Gorillas are terrifying, which is why we have gorilla warfare.
Don’t swallow watermelon seeds, they’ll take root in your belly!
Lightning in area – hang up the phone, before you’re zapped.
Inhaling those delicious fumes at the gas station. Turns out those fears were founded. Good thing I only took little sniffs.
White line fever…driving late at night when you are really tired. Sure to crash and die. Nothing to do with drugs.
OMG, I had to comment on #14 – I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO DID THAT. I learned it from Nickelodeon’s “tv host” Stick Stickly (the popsicle stick) and have done it ever since.
sniffing pesticide residue from crop duster fog. i was right.
Dogs with rabies…after watching Disney’s “Old Yeller”.
Didn’t the moon outside his window transport Max to the land of the Wild Things in his dream? They had a wild rumpus, which looked kind of like us partying at a Beru concert in the 80’s……
Childhood fears: Snow tires lined up under workbench in garage, CBS logs with the giant eye and the man with the deep voice who loudly announced “THIS IS CBS” for station ID, dreamt a wall sized ginormous spider one night and refused to sleep in my bed for about a year (took blanket off bed and slept on floor outside parent’s locked bedroom door), Sorry, there was no way to deal with those in 10 words or less.
Continuing suspicions as attempt to overcome other childhood fears/issues: basement at night, large crunchy bugs, snakes and hairy spiders.
logo, not logs.
Lightning in the window at the end of the hall.
(I misspoke when I wrote “lighting” not “lightning”)
Make faces…. and your face will get stuck like that!
Ok, I’m one of those people that read your blog….well because it makes me smile, but I never comment. This post has made me want to finally share. So here it goes in just one word or probably more to follow……JAWS!!! Yes, JAWS…dun dun…dundun…dundudndudnudndundun….After watching this sadistic thriller I could no longer even swim in a pool. I would go under water and every time the music would start playing in my mind growing louder and louder. I also had a water bed, didn’t we all back then? Which I could no longer sleep in. Too funny! Then, I just watched something the other day about sharks being in lakes…..WHAT???Great..and so it begins all over again. LOL! Oh and another movie my parents should have never let me see because hellooooo….I was a child. OK a hormonal teenager which we all know is even worse. The exorcist! Now that movie made Jaws look like a disney movie. I’m also catholic. Lets just say I couldn’t get near the church or a priest for a long time. Plus, pea soup was never one of my favs….LOL. Thanks for all your great posts. They make me smile or relate to you in some way.
Jackie, JAWS got me as well. My parents wouldn’t permit me to see it in the theater (smart, they were) because they knew it would freak me out. Nobody saw it coming when I attended a pool part at the Y a year after it came out, and got to experience watching JAWS on a big screen at the edge of the pool…WHILE I WAS FLOATING ON AN INNER TUBE. With twenty other twelve year olds. And yes, there was the requisite sadist who slunk around under the water grabbing our feet and thrashing our tubes.
I haven’t been back to a Y in thirty years.
Wolves, quicksand, and pirates (in Ohio!)
I was afraid of space aliens abducting me and performing torturous experaments on me while awake. I was afraid of the apocolypse coming and burning me alive. The obvious ones,I’ll leave out,but these are just A couple. Sorry about this being more than 10 words,Bossy,but I’m not that creative today. I haven’t eaten breakfast,and I’m still thinking about having to find the swirl line to get into heaven. :/ ;D
That snakes could slither faster than I could run…blame my sister. Ok, it was 12 words but I about had a heart attack when I was 7 yrs old when I came across a garter snake in my backyard in Atlanta. I just knew I was dead, the snake (all 5 inches of it) was going to catch me, bite me, poison me, then eat me leaving no evidence of my existence. I made it inside in record time and wouldn’t go into the backyard again for months.
Vampires will bite my neck if not under covers always