I remember when I was about 5 years old spending the night at my grandmother's house. Spending the night at Grandma's was the most fun in the world because she would make cookies for me and then we would sit in "the big chair" (oversized la-z-boy recliner) and watch Carson and then whatever. Grandma would always fall asleep, so I would get to watch whatever I wanted.

Well in 1980 (when I was 5) Barbara Mandrell and her sisters had a show. They did funny skits and musical numbers and so it. It was on after Carson, and Grandma had already fallen asleep. During the show, Barbara Mandrell was doing this musical number about football. She was dressed up like a cheerleader and dancing around with these guys dressed as football players. Well to wind up the number they brought out this guy in an enormous oversized costume of a football player with a gigantic mouth. At the end, the football players picked up Barbara and put her into the mouth of this costume and down she went. ALL THE WAY DOWN! Now, being 5 years old and having just watched a beautiful woman being fed to a football monster on TV I immedately began screaming at the top of my lungs in absolute horror. It took my Grandmother forever to calm me down, and from then on whenever I would stay at Grandma's she would always make sure that we never watched the Mandrell sisters.

Incidentally, I found out that Barbara Mandrell is a big supporter of gun rights and has pictures of herself shooting in defensive firearms training classes on her website. She even took her 14 year old son to a 5 day defensive shooting class for Christmas.

Come on, nothing ever scared you guys when you were little?

Clowns.. And they still do...

I lived with my parents... scary enough.  

I had a similar experience at my Grandmas house when I was 6 or 7. My Mom and Dad lived in an area that couldn't get cable well into the late 1980s. So, when my grandma was available, my brother and I would go spend saturday nights at her house. Back in the mid-80s, USA network had a program every saturday night called "USA Saturday Nightmares". They'd show a movie, and then 3 hours of shows like the Ray Bradbury Theater, The Hitchiker, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and the like. We would un-fold the hide-a-bed, and sleep in the living room. This one Saturday night, they showed Night of the Living Dead. Of course, the house was out in the woods outside of town, right next to the river and the railroad tracks. When it was dark there, it was dark. I didnt sleep for about a week after that.

ETA- I too hate clowns.

Some people have a sexual fetish of being eaten / enveloped and digested by larger creatures (or creatures of the same size).  It is called vore.

Some people would rather enter through the urethra, often of a male.  This is known as "cock vore".

Perhaps Barbara Mandrell had this unobtainable sexual fetish/fantasy?

Just a little tidbit of information.

When I was young living in MO. we used to visit a relative and had to go over a fairly large steel grate bridge. You could see all th way donw to the water and man the sound it made with your tires driving over it was creepy.  That crap followed me in dreams years and years after.
I wonder do they still make those kinda bridges.

I used to get sleep paralysis a lot when I was younger, usually accompanied by some sort of bizzare hallucinations.  One particularly terrifying one that recurred for a few weeks was me falling off of my bed and going partially through the floor, sometimes getting sucked under my bed.  I would then look up and see myself in the third person.  It was terrible, and I had trouble sleeping for a while because of it.

I was 4 or 5 and decided to watch Sesame Street.
We had been robbed a few months ago and it was still fresh in my mind.
The super was on the fire escape doing work but I didn't know. He had to do something to our window so he knocked on the glass kind of loudly.
My mom said I was running screaming and scared shitless and she was like WTF just happened.

I hate dolls! You know the ones that Grandma made and then she made the fancy frilly dresses and then they would just sit on the shelves and stare at you!

Quoted: Clowns.. And they still do...

I used to be frightened of clowns.  Stephen King's "IT" didn't help this fear.  

I think that seeing Cirque du Soleil helped control this fear, because it presented clowns as the abomination that they actually are.  

Birthday party clowns hide their evil behind colorful makeup and a cheerful demeanor.  This only serves to mask their true evil, and only certain children can see through this mask.

Quoted: I hate dolls! You know the ones that Grandma made and then she made the fancy frilly dresses and then they would just sit on the shelves and stare at you!

Talking dolls are especially frightening, especially when their batteries are low and they activate without external stimuli.  I once had one tell me to "GETTTTTT OUUUUUUT" when I snuck into someone's room that I was not supposed to be in.  

My wife has a friend that is terrified of monkeys.  She won't even enter a room with a stuffed toy or poster inside. Nature Channel? She'll get physically ill.

Legacy of getting the BeJeezus scared out of her by the flying monkeys in the "Wizard of Oz".

The clown fear was set when I saw the drawings that John Wayne Gacey did in prison.
The bastards freak me out all the time.

I remember being bitten in the face by a neighbor's retriever when I was about four or five - for no apparent reason.  I wasn't trying to play with it, or even particularly near it - when it suddenly broke away from the lady and went for me.

No serious harm done, but I suppose it was pretty traumatising for a little kid.

"I don't believe in Bloody Mary"
"I don't believe in Bloody Mary"
"I don't believe in Bloody Mary"

Woody

Quoted: The clown fear was set when I saw the drawings that John Wayne Gacey did in prison. The bastards freak me out all the time.

Hey kids, you wanna see a balloon trick?

Quoted: Some people have a sexual fetish of being eaten / enveloped and digested by larger creatures (or creatures of the same size).  It is called vore. Some people would rather enter through the urethra, often of a male.  This is known as "cock vore". Perhaps Barbara Mandrell had this unobtainable sexual fetish/fantasy? Just a little tidbit of information.

Quoted: Quoted: The clown fear was set when I saw the drawings that John Wayne Gacey did in prison. The bastards freak me out all the time. i22.photobucket.com/albums/b343/ebolamonkey/Johnwaynegacyclown.jpg Hey kids, you wanna see a baloon trick?

fuck you

My father did a Michael Jackson when I was about 5 years old.

He was in the Navy at the time. Took me aboard the carrier...think it was the USS Independance...
Held me over the side of the boat...it was a Loooong way down... freaked me out...

No TV reporters, no newspaper articles..just one freaked out little boy and his father

Quoted: My father did a Michael Jackson when I was about 5 years old.

Be thankful that he did a "Michael Jackson", not a Michael Jackson.

If you know what I mean.  

I myself was thrown off a houseboat unwillingly at an early age by drunk family members.  

Quoted: Quoted: Some people have a sexual fetish of being eaten / enveloped and digested by larger creatures (or creatures of the same size).  It is called vore. Some people would rather enter through the urethra, often of a male.  This is known as "cock vore". Perhaps Barbara Mandrell had this unobtainable sexual fetish/fantasy? Just a little tidbit of information.

Don't you love the internet?  I googled it just to make sure it actually existed...yeah, it does.  

5 years old and for some stupid reason I jumped into the deep end of the pool. Nearly drowned and didn't go back in the water for several years.

Quoted: Quoted: My father did a Michael Jackson when I was about 5 years old. Be thankful that he did a "Michael Jackson", not a Michael Jackson. If you know what I mean.

Oh God no...

Shoulda known that was coming..

Second most terifying experience...

Six years old..had to get some teeth pulled..

Mom told me it would not hurt...

So I hop in the dentist chair...mom wisely left for the waiting room...

I opened my mouth and before I knew it the fucking dentist shoves this long assed needle in my mouth..didnt even warn me, or numb the area where he stuck the needle.

It was the most God aweful sharp pain I had ever felt OWWWWWWWWW! I could probably heard screaming in the waiting room.

So this fucking jerkoff dentist wants to give me another shot...I clamped my mouth SHUT.

He tried to pry it open...no fucking way I was opening my mouth for that asshole!

So he finally agrees to pull the teeth...That part didnt hurt at all...

After that I was TERIFIED of going to the dentist...

I brushed my teeth every damned day...God forbid I get a cavity..

After I got out of the house, I did not go to the dentist for seven years...

Had to get some work done a few years ago, and the receptionist promised to hook me up with the best doctor in the place...the same one her cowardly husband sees...
Fortunately, this guy knew what he was doing...drilled the shit out of my teeth and didn't hurt a bit

I still have wisdom teeth, they aint getting those... Hell no...

Quoted: Second most terifying experience... Six years old..had to get some teeth pulled.. Mom told me it would not hurt... So I hop in the dentist chair...mom wisely left for the waiting room... I opened my mouth and before I knew it the fucking dentist shoves this long assed needle in my mouth..didnt even warn me, or numb the area where he stuck the needle. It was the most God aweful sharp pain I had ever felt OWWWWWWWWW! I could probably heard screaming in the waiting room. So this fucking jerkoff dentist wants to give me another shot...I clamped my mouth SHUT. He tried to pry it open...no fucking way I was opening my mouth for that asshole! So he finally agrees to pull the teeth...That part didnt hurt at all... After that I was TERIFIED of going to the dentist... I brushed my teeth every damned day...God forbid I get a cavity.. After I got out of the house, I did not go to the dentist for seven years... Had to get some work done a few years ago, and the receptionist promised to hook me up with the best doctor in the place...the same one her cowardly husband sees... Fortunately, this guy knew what he was doing...drilled the shit out of my teeth and didn't hurt a bit I still have wisdom teeth, they aint getting those... Hell no...

I get a prescription for valium when I go to the dentist. Just something about having someone else's dickbeaters in my mouth that creeps me out.

tag for the morn

we had an older neighbor who had a count chocula mask who would wear it and stare in our back window at night, I was always to scared to say anything, didn't know it was him till months later. He was some neighborhood teenage bully. We were only maybe 6.

Quoted: we had an older neighbor who had a count chocula mask who would stare in our back window at night, I was always to scared to say anything, didn't know it was him till months later. He was some neighborhood teenage bully. We were only maybe 6.

HOLY SHIT BATMAN!

Seeing my cousin  "Auschwitz" thin, when I was about 6 years old from cancer.  My Mom and the other god-damned Aunts kept talking about him, cancer, and talking about his impending death.   Scared the living shit out of me, IMHO it would have been better if all I knew was he was just sick.

Nearly dieing from anaphylactic shock when I was 7 wasn't no picnic neither, pretty scary when you swell up and literally can't breath.

It's an add but for Dr. Frige

Was wading in the creek when I was 7 or 8. Was with my older brother catching frogs and stuff. Fell over a really deep drop off. Couldn't swim. Nearly drowned. My older brother nearly tortured me to death every day of our lives growing up but he saved it that day. I learned how to swim real fast after that.  I also remember when he was like 17 and I was maybe 12 he came home higher than a kite on pot. He offered to make a couple of PB n J's. This should have been a tip off but I said sure. He kept asking how mine was and I told him it was fine. He messed up and got the booby trapped one. About 2 inches of peanut butter and no jelly. It was great!!!

I remember opening the front door of my parent's apartment when I was 3 years old, only to have a pit bull shove it's face through the door and try to bite me...

Good thing the chain thing kept it from getting in.

I didn't like dogs for a long time after that.

OK, i'll bite.


I was about 9 years old and a good swimmer.  We were on vacation in Cape Cod, MA.  As always, I go screaming towards my old man at 6am to go to the beach.  Poor bastard would always get up and take me... like every morning.

As usual, we go out to the sand bar if there happens to be one.  It started disappearing so it was "time to head in."

Well, fuck me.  Tides are a bitch.  Took about 45 minutes to go about 75 yards to shore.  My old man kept pushing my ass forward and I ended up getting a lead on him.  I distinctly remember diving down to the bottom and swim/crawling towards shore, under the waves for the most part.  I also distinctly remember the fact that for every bit I swam with the wave, I'd get sucked back 90% of it.  This was measured by means of the rocks I was clawing at on the bottom.  I'd go up for air, look around, go back down.  No sign of dad.

There were two people on the beach and I remember calling for help... who the fuck ignores a high-pitched child's scream for help??  WTF.

Anyway, I finally make it to shore, crying my brains out.  I don't know if I knew what death was, but I knew I was in a bad spot.  My old man was nowhere to be found.  After about 10 minutes, he literally washes up on shore.  The man could not move.  He crawled... fking crawled up another 10 feet and just laid there.  After a long, silent rest we both went back to my cousin's cottage (where we departed from.)

He never said anything about that day but my mom would quietly explain that it scared the living shit out of him... to use her words.

I still love the ocean, but I am NOT fking with undertow/tides/waves anymore.  And to this day I'll never understand why a tide "coming in" will suck you out to sea.  That's BS.

Sorry for the length.


- BG

I guess when I was little I was terrified of the garbage truck.  

I remember going to church one time when I was very young.  Went with this neighbor girl that I would hang around with.  That place scared the living shit out of me.  How can they get away with scare tactics like that?  Over and over chanting that you will burn in hell if you don't drink their special Kool Aid or whatever was supposed to give you enlightenment and so on.  That literally scared the hell out of me.  Now that I think about it maybe it was a cult.  Anyways I was too young to remember details.  I just wanted to watch looney toons all the time.  Hell, i still do.  I need to see an ACME anvil flatten something about now.  

Couple guys tried to kidnap me when i was around 12 or so. Came down the street in their car, real slow, when they got close they asked "if i needed a ride". I was two houses down from mine, and my first thought was it would be impossible to open the door before they got to me, and even if i did, now they know where i live.

So i took off between a couple houses and hid in this guys hot water heater shed, just big enough for me and the water heater. Closed the door and waited for a few minutes while i heard their car screaching around. I didn't hear any grass or leaves so they didn't get out of the car.

After about 5 minutes i guess, i just went home. Parents FREAKED out.

I was about 9 years old, at a 4th of July party at an irrigation pond.  Folks had a dock that went out into it, and a diving board.  Well, the diving board was pretty far out there, and the water was really muddy, so I thought I'd dive off the side of the dock halfway out.

Too bad for me that the water was about 3 feet deep at that point.  My arms buckled and I hit the bottom hard, headfirst.  Now I'm three feet underwater and for some reason, I can't move my legs.  I'm guessing that, when I hit, I exhaled, because I wasn't floating to the surface either.

So I did the only thing I could at that point.  Used my hands to claw my way through the mud along the bottom so I could get my head above water to breathe.  I made it.

My legs worked after a few minutes, and I had to be really careful about bumps and stuff for a few years, because they would really hurt my back.  I had horrible drowning dreams for years, and to this day I get freaked out by murky water.  Not clear water.  Just murky.

Got severe sulfuric acid burns as a kid and spent 6 months looking like a mummy. I was 4 and found a bottle of plumber's solution that the Janitor had dropped near the playground of our complex. We were living off post in Las Vegas as my Dad was stationed at Nellis AFB. I was too young to understand what happened and couldn't tell my parents what I did to myself. My Dad ran out of our apartment and found the father of the little girls I was playing with and he gave him the bottle of acid I had. My mom stayed home with me while he was trying to figure out what happened, and when she saw my wounds getting bigger by the minute she put me in the tub with baking soda and that saved my life.

I remember the trip to the hospital, laying across the back seat naked with a blanket over me. We were pulled over by a motorcycle cop for speeding and got an escort to the base hospital. The whole thing is very fresh in my mind, the doctors, the smell of the burn cream, the infected puss in the weeks following. It was horrible, and I knew even as a 4 year old that it was very serious. I just had "that" feeling.

The Janitor was fired and I got flowers in my room every day from the owner of the complex. My parents didn't believe in suing unless there were medical bills gone unpaid, but this was on Uncle Sam so he made out ok. The following months were really tough for a 4 year old.... Couldn't play, couldn't do anything but not disturb the bandages. I was lucky to get burned at such a young age-my chest was burned from my abdomen up to my breast/shoulder area, and about 60% of my torso width. My right leg got a large spot as well. The scars shrank as I grew older and I now just have one the size of an egg on my rib cage and one that's dime-sized on my leg.

My Next-Worse story also happened in Las Vegas about the same timeframe. I was bitten by a ghost spider and got very, very sick. My mom was home alone with us as Dad was at work that night because the base was having excercises. We only had one car and Dad took it to work, so Mom went next door to borrow our neighbor's car. She was passed out on the couch from booze and pain-pills, so mom left a note and took the car anyway-she wouldn't wake up.

When we got to the base, the guards wouldn't let us in. They had the place decked out in concertina wire and roadblocks and told us we'd have to drive around to a gate on the other side of the base to get to the hospital. This was something like 30 miles my mom tells me, I don't remember much but tossing my cookies in the car and shivering real badly.

Glad I don't live in Vegas anymore!

Dave

Quoted: Come on, nothing ever scared you guys when you were little?

I used to be convinced as a really young kid that I could sense some overwhelming kind of "evil"  force outside our house.

When I was around 5 I was convinced that I had seen my father taken over by some alien being and that I had found my real fathers abaondoned "skin husk" in a 55 gallon barrel. Really weird dream. We didn't have TV yet, had never seen a movie with that sort of theme, so I don't know where it all came from.

A fewe years after that I was maybe 8 or 9, we DID have a TV by then and I watched a movie called "The Shuttered Room". Its a 60s knock-off on an HP Lovecraft story IIRC, and had images of a person chained up in an attic their whole lives, some woman squashed by an elevator, and someone being buried alive in a coffin. FReaked me out big time the two or three times I saw it as a kid. I caught it later as an adult and yawned my way through it.

I had a lot of nightmares as a child.

But real stuff that was scary, where to begin, I was one of those unfortunate children who was always getting myself into trouble.

We had friends who lived by the sea. One day I was on the beach with their dog and the stupid dog went up the storm drain. There was a grating some distance up it and the dog got trapped behind it. I went in after it (I must have been 9 or 10) and, in trying to free it, got trapped myself. Now, the tide started coming in and would fill the pipe, when the tide was in, the pipe was completely covered. I was terrified as the waves rolled into the pipe and back out again. Nobody knew where I was.

It was my dad who saved me, he crawled up the pipe and kicked out the grating. He was a soldier, the biggest, toughest guy you'll ever see and that was the only time I'd ever seen him look scared.

Quoted: I had a lot of nightmares as a child. But real stuff that was scary, where to begin, I was one of those unfortunate children who was always getting myself into trouble. We had friends who lived by the sea. One day I was on the beach with their dog and the stupid dog went up the storm drain. There was a grating some distance up it and the dog got trapped behind it. I went in after it (I must have been 9 or 10) and, in trying to free it, got trapped myself. Now, the tide started coming in and would fill the pipe, when the tide was in, the pipe was completely covered. I was terrified as the waves rolled into the pipe and back out again. Nobody knew where I was. It was my dad who saved me, he crawled up the pipe and kicked out the grating. He was a soldier, the biggest, toughest guy you'll ever see and that was the only time I'd ever seen him look scared.

HOLY SHIT!

You win!!!

Quoted: HOLY SHIT! You win!!!

I have many more stories, like I said, I was an unfortunate child in that I didn't have enough sense not to get into trouble.

When I was 3 or 4, my dad got an assignment to photograph a hot-air balloon race.  One of the teams let him fly with them, so my mom bundled up all of us kids to go watch the ballons launch at o-dark-thirty.  

They filled all the balloons, I was OK with that.
Dad got in the basket, I was OK with that.
They launched the balloon, I was NOT OK with that.  

I was sure that my dad was leaving and I would never see him again.

He said he could still hear me screaming "No!!!  Come back Daddy!!" at about a thousand feet up.  My poor mom  had to literally drag me to the car and convince me that everything would be OK.  

Quoted: I have many more stories, like I said, I was an unfortunate child in that I didn't have enough sense not to get into trouble.

Me too!

I almost got hit by a train when my foot got caught in a switch track when I was 7.  Train coming and I couldn't get my foot free.  I knew damn well I wasn't supposed to be anywhere near the tracks.  I'm almost 30 now, and trains still look sinister to me.

Quoted: Quoted: HOLY SHIT! You win!!! I have many more stories, like I said, I was an unfortunate child in that I didn't have enough sense not to get into trouble.

How did your dad find you????

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: HOLY SHIT! You win!!! I have many more stories, like I said, I was an unfortunate child in that I didn't have enough sense not to get into trouble. How did your dad find you????

They got worried when I didn't come home for lunch, he looked outside for me (the beach was like the front yard of their house) and when he didn't see me, he came looking. I guess he just looked everywhere until he found me, he was afraid that I'd been abducted. My freedom was severely curtailed after that incident.

Blizzard of 78'.

My brother and I built a large snow fort in the front of the yard.  My older brother kicked me out of it once it was completed, so I built a larger and nicer fort in front of his.  I heard a strange rumbling sound.  I was in my fort when the snow plow came by.  The large yellow blur missed me by inches.  I stared out into the street and considered the implications.

I moved my fort.

Can I just leave it at between my genetic donor and my first step dad that I learned every thing not to do to my own children?

I was afraid of the Pizza man.  I thought he was hiding in dark rooms.  

Quoted: Can I just leave it at between my genetic donor and my first step dad that I learned every thing not to do to my own children?

Ewww.

Quoted: Quoted: I have many more stories, like I said, I was an unfortunate child in that I didn't have enough sense not to get into trouble. Me too! I almost got hit by a train when my foot got caught in a switch track when I was 7.   Train coming and I couldn't get my foot free.  I knew damn well I wasn't supposed to be anywhere near the tracks.  I'm almost 30 now, and trains still look sinister to me.

A cousin of mine and I used to make a game out of standing between trains as they went by.