things you heard as a kid that scared the bejeezus out of you but no one knew

The other day I heard part of an old This American Life episode. Ira Glass was interviewing his production manager, Seth Lind, about Seth waking up one night when he was six years old and watching The Shining with his uncle. It scared the crap out of him, to where he had nighmares and sleeping problems for two years. During the segment, he calls his uncle - who has no memory of watching the movie with him - and his mom - who remembers him being upset but had no idea how messed up he was from the experience.

That story made me think of a conversation I had with my mom. It came up when she started dating an old boyfriend, a few years after my dad died. I was in my 30's at this time. She decided to share a conversation she had with the boyfriend about her sex life with my father. After screaming over whatever it was she was saying until she stopped, I explained to her that she never had sex with my father. She tried to throw the evidence of my and my siblings existence at me as proof that they had to have had sex at least four times. I had a comeback for her, though. I reminded her that she had told me where each of us had come from and while I didn't remember all four, one of us was found on the railroad tracks. I had been left on the doorstop by the gypsies. I very clearly remembered where I came from.

My mother had no memory of telling me this story. When I told her that I had believed it and that it had scared the hell out of me, she laughed and laughed.

I also remember hearing people talking about some guy who murdered his wife, only the guy was always described as a chiropractor. I didn't know what a chiropractor was, but I figured it must have something to do with being a bad person. I was scared of chiropractors for years.

 

Well, the Shining terrified me -- also at 6 -- but my parents did know that. Redrum.

Same for Salem's Lot the miniseries, which kept me awake for about two years after it aired. That damn Glick boy scratching at the window. But again my parents knew about that; they still carry the guilt for allowing me to watch it. As well they should, Dr. Phil would not be happy.

So the thing for me is probably our old neighbor Dewey. We lived in the trailer park in our small town when I was a kid and Dewey -- that's all I knew him as -- lived two trailers down. He was arrested several times for terrorizing people in town; chased a woman around with a knife. One day the cops finally swarmed his place. I don't remember that day but my dad remembers being more scared of seeing the local doofus cop running around the trailer - and telling dad to get inside -- while toting his shotgun than he was of Dewey. Dewey never returned after that day; the rumor was that his trailer was filled with knife marks from where he'd fire it at the walls.

My mom told me that Dewey had been sent to the neighboring town and if he ever appeared back in our town he'd be arrested. At first this comforted me. But at night I'd think about it and wonder, wait, how can they keep him from coming to town and killing us? There aren't barriers up. I lived in fear of Dewey marching back with his knife. A few years ago I asked my mom what she meant by her tale and she didn't remember saying that about Dewey and acknowledged that there would be no way to keep Dewey from returning.

There is one thing that is more terrifying that I still have no idea if it was real. I'm sure it wasn't, but god damn it did it feel like it at the time and I can still remember the feeling 32 years later. Again in the trailer, I'm 5, and go into my older sister's bed because I had a nightmare. I swear I woke up in the night and there was a man standing over us in the bedroom. Dewey? A kidnapper? My dad? No idea. It's such a vivid image. I told my folks that maybe 10 years ago and they had never heard that story and my sister was freaked out because she believes in things that go bump in the night.

 

The Amityville Horror scared the shit out of me.
My older sisters would threaten to put the movie in and play it when I was misbehaving.
All that ghost/haunting/demonic stuff bothers me to this day.

 

"We're nightmares. Pipe dreams are under the bed."

lol

 

The end of the remake of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers scared the ever-living fuck out of me when I was 10 or 11.



I still cringe a bit when I see it.

I think it was the hopeless ending that it presented as much as than the surprise shocker.

 

That's the part that fascinates me. It seemed clear to me that Seth's mom had no idea how frightened he was. My mom didn't think I actually believed her little creation myth. She thought it was a funny story that would amuse me for a little while. She had no idea that it worried me for years - would the gypsies come back for me? would my parents leave me on someone else's doorstep if they got tired of me? Of course, once I grew up and realized how crazy my entire family is, the gypsies started sounding like a terrific alternative.

 

Went to a birthday party as a kid, maybe 9 or 10, and the parents of the Birthday Boy let us watch a movie -- The Omen. Who the fuck shows THAT at a kid's birthday party? Anyway, that scared the crap out of me, and coupled with my Catholic school days cemented my lifetime fear of anything related to supreme evil. I won't watch a second of any of those movies. I'd rather watch speeches from the DNC.

 

Anything to do with the end of the world.

 

I watched Attack of the Killer Tomatoes with my older cousins when I was maybe six or so... It scared the fuck out of me and afterwards, for the next day or two, my cousins would roll tomatoes down the hall when they knew I was there... 32 or so years later, they still give me shit about it...

Christine scared of the shit out of me. I was 8 or 9 when that came out and saw that in the theater with my aunt and my older cousins.

Beyond those two, I don't really remember being scared by that many movies as a kid. I remember one of my friends' parents letting us watch Poltergeist at a sleep over when I was in fourth grade or so and some of the other parents were pissed, but I don't remember being that scared.

 

Watching Duel messed me up even more than the average kid. At the time my granny drove a Plymouth Valiant, and Dennis Weaver in that movie looked like my Uncle Ed with a mostache. No telling how many nightmares that damn film gave me.

 

'The Exorcist' had me believing my bed was levitating at night.
Ouija and the Bloody Mary stories scared the crap out of me.


Saw a film strip in school that included a shot of a caterpiller's head magnified. As a result, caterpiller's skeeve me out to this day.