There's a Bogeyman in the Closet

[elfgrove]

So guys...
What things were you scared of as children?
Or things you believed in then, that you don't believe in now?

I mean things like... monster under the bed, bogeyman in the closet, tooth fairy, mushroom rings?

(This part is important!) What were the stipulations associated with it?

Like... The monster under the bed would only eat you if you hadn't brushed your teeth, or couldn't get you if you were wearing shoes. The bogeyman in the closet was afraid of light. The tooth fairy only came when you were asleep, or only took "good/clean" teeth. Etc.

Sorry part research, part curiosity.
This doesn't have to be stuff you believed, but things you heard that others believed.
I'm trying to get some ideas.


EDIT: Whoa! Whoa peoples! I didn't mean to ask for your genuine scary or scarring fears here!
I just wanted the, "When I was a little kid, I believed a monster lived in the tree. If you walked under this tree while whistling, the monster could grab you."

I didn't mean to get the real fears. I wanted the things that went bump in the night when you were in elementary school and such, and why you thought (at the time) they didn't get you. What you could do to avoid them. As well as the good things like Santa and the tooth fairy.

The closet monsters, dolls and statues coming to life, Santa, dead people behind shower curtains, aliens and skeletons under the bed... these I can use for ideas.
I didn't mean for you guys to pour out your real fears here.

These were supposed to be childhood folklore, bedtime and ghost stories.

Comments

[slai.livejournal.com]

Hi Becky,

Let's see. I've been scared of:

• Going to the bathroom in the woods especially with no toilet paper!


• The car wash's spinning brushes coming down upon me in the car.


• Bugs of all sorts everywhere and anywhere.


• Being trapped in school/college forever due to some technical error in my total credits.

I think those plus falling are the constant fears over my life. If I think of any more, I'll post them ;)!

[elfgrove.livejournal.com]

Thanks Sonia!

Actually though, I meant more like childhood fears or belief of imaginary monsters/fairys/etc.

[slai.livejournal.com]

Hi Becky,

Ummm, those are my childhood fears except for the last one about being trapped in school ^^;.

[slai.livejournal.com]

Hi Becky,

I cried when we went to the car wash and had to sit inside the car ^^;.

[elfgrove.livejournal.com]

Ah geeze. I'm sorry about that.

I was just thinking more along the lines of elementary school folklore type things, yours sounded more like plausible fears or phobias.

[slai.livejournal.com]

Hi Becky,

That's okay ;)! My fears and phobias as a kid were a bit weird ^^;! Who needs to be scared of pretend monsters when there are spiders and bugs running on the walls looking scary just being there with their multiple legged bodies O~O?

[asatira.livejournal.com]

Hmm. That's tricky. I know my brother had a fear of ants. My biggest fear came from the deer's head my grandpa had mounted in the room Henry and I stayed in when we were little (it used to be my uncle's room when he was growing up). I also had moments when my imagination got the best of me in, of all places, art museums. There was an exhibit of African art, and the museum decided to put two figurines high up on a wall, to stimulate being hung as in execution. A few years later, I kept imagining the figureheads on the walls of a nautical museum would come to life. Mind, these were HUGE figure heads, 10-20 ft.

[asatira.livejournal.com]

I do still have a belief in Santa, and it's due to one Christmas Eve when I was little. I was in my parents' bed for some reason, and I swear, I heard sleigh bells. Not from out the window, more like it was above me. I refuse to believe it was my parents.

[sonya-08.livejournal.com]

omg, that happened to me.
I swear I heard sleigh bells over my roof and I ran out to find both of my parents in the living room.

[pyro-ike.livejournal.com]

I was afraid of something being in my closet, so I would always get on the bed first and reach just inside the door to turn the light on. This was all punctuated by the time that my dad actually hid in the closet, and waited for me to do so to jump out. XD

I've also always been suspicious of shower curtains being left closed, especially when I had to use the bathroom in there. Anything could be behind there!

Childhood fears are fun. :D

[pyro-ike.livejournal.com]

Oh, and fire! (Yes, ironically enough.) For a while I was afraid of the house burning down when I was asleep, because a fire alarm went off during nap time in Kindergarten. I think I actually got therapy about it, and then got to see the firemen set off the alarm for the next fire drill. :P

[eldanildiel.livejournal.com]

I was afraid of big brown spiny cave crickets when I was little, 'cause one jumped on me once and after that I thought they all wanted to jump on me and sting me with their spiny legs. (Actually, I'm still scared of that...)

I used to be scared to go in the bathroom when the shower curtain was closed when I was little because I thought skeletons or inferi/zombies/reanimated dead people (I didn't really know what to call them, I just thought "dead people") would hide back there and jump out to get me when I went to the bathroom.

I was also scared of monsters under the bed, but once I was in bed and under the covers they couldn't get me, so if I had to get out of bed at night I'd jump way far out from the bed and then jump back in when I got back 'cause they won't actually come out from under the bed, they just grab your ankles from underneath when you go to get back in.

I think I was scared of the dark, too, but that was less specific fear.

Oh! And I used to believe that all of my stuffed animals and dolls would come to life at night, so I was afraid that if I didn't give them all equal attention, they'd come to life and get me, so I'd hug all my stuffed animals before I went to bed. (Yeah, I was a weird little kid...)

That's all I can think of right now! ^_^

addendum

[eldanildiel.livejournal.com]

All the good stuff I believed in then, I still believe in now. Like magic, elves, fairies, all the amazing stuff that boring people just can't see.

[reverie-shadow.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I've always been afraid of closets and being confined in close-quarters, but that's due to a past childhood memory that I really don't think is appropriate to talk about.
Back in high school someone closed a locker door on me. You know how that joke goes. We were just playing around, but then something in me snapped and I started screaming and crying until I freaked them out, and they let me out.

I've also been terrified of the darkness. When I was little I'd be kept awake by certain sounds in the night, like someone was constantly walking around in the house, and whispering in my bedroom. So I always made sure I had a light or something, because I always felt like it protected me.

Another thing was that I was afraid of getting out of bed at night, because I had a nightmare (was it a nightmare or a daydream? I can't remember) that I got out of bed and stepped on a bunch of skeletons. Yes. I was pretty young when I thought these up. And a whole lot of others. Ugh.

[nutshot.livejournal.com]

I had a fear of blenders because Paul would hold my hand in one with it on while dropping little bits of fruit in it...... hmmmm but thats not really imaginary.... the blender i mean, my brother might have been.

hmmmmm i dont know ...im afraid of garden hoses...thats scary (wooooooo) scaaaaaarryyy

[elfgrove.livejournal.com]

I've said it before, and I will again, your brothers were mean to you growing up.

Hahaha. Garden hoses. Thanks.

[rjshrop1984.livejournal.com]

I'm araid of snipers... those aren't imaginary though. But they can't get you if you keep an eye open for them.

[elfgrove.livejournal.com]

...haha. Thanks. I think there's a lot more to worry about if snipers are a real concern.

[rjshrop1984.livejournal.com]

But i did fear snipers as a child. I just didn't think they were targeting me. You know you'd be afraid of a sniper!

[sonya-08.livejournal.com]

I had a loft-style bed with a desk and closet under it and I was always afraid that there were aliens in my room so I was afraid to look over the edge of my bed. Not seeing them meant I was safe somehow.

oH man, I almost forgot my worst fear...I was TERRIFIED of quicksand. I had only seen scenes in movies or something and misunderstood. I thought ANY sand could turn into quicksand and I was so afraid I would find a patch of it and die. I remember my mom saying once that she put sand in my room or something to help me get over my fear and the thought of that made me scream.

I also had, and still have a fear of balloons. When I was little my family and I ate at a restaurant that was closing the next day or something so the staff was going crazy popping balloons and it was so jarring. I HATE being startled, so when I am in a room with balloons I am always afraid they will pop.

[anglachel.livejournal.com]

I had a similar fear of aliens when I was a kid. Sometimes I would decide which side of my bed I would sleep on so they couldn't reach across to me(I always had this antique queen size).

[drathorin.livejournal.com]

I used to be scared of having my head uncovered while I slept as a kid. Because I thought monsters could slip through the darkness and grab me if I didn't have the blanket covering my head.

Something made me think covering your head with something physical like a blanket could keep the boogey monsters out of it.

Silly huh? :b

[asatira.livejournal.com]

If you want ghost stories, there's the story of the Red Lady who resides in one of the buildings at Huntington College, in Montgomery. Supposedly, she was this college student who loved red, so everything she owned was red. Then she died violently (can't remember how). And now one of the floors is closed off permanently, and if you turn around three times in one of the girls' locker/restrooms calling out "Red Lady", she's supposed to appear.

[nemo00612.livejournal.com]

when i was little i heard a story about a creature who had lost his tail, so he went around to all the houses at night and cut off any limbs that he saw hanging over the side of the bed. as a result, i always made sure that my hands, feet, etc. were all safely inside the borders of my bed.

[xaynie.livejournal.com]

When I was younger, I was scared of there being a demon under my bed who would suck me underneath it. So I would make sure that my feet were never dangling off my bed, otherwise the monster would grab me by the ankles and I would never see the light of day again.

I was also scared of monsters coming in the old fashioned way through my bedroom door. So I did a couple of things

1) Made sure my dog slept with me. figured if I had a guard dog, if something came for me, she would bite the monster and wake everyone up with her barking. i heard when I was younger that dogs have great hearing, so if something came for me, she would hear it and wake me up in time for me to hide.

2) I slept not facing the door. For some reason, I figured that if I did not see it coming, it wouldn't hurt as much. So if a monster got me, I would just wake up in hell (this is where I thought monsters lived) and not be traumatized by the actual violent struggle.