Irrational childhood fears

[KathyK]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Tracy" <neonsister at a...> 
wrote:
> Since it's Halloween season and time to talk of all things scary, 
> here's a topic.  What basically harmless things scared you as a 
child 
> (for example, a certain toy or household item)?  I remember being 
> frightened by:


My irrational fear that just won't go away no matter how old I get 
or how hard I try to ignore them is *spiders.*  How I loathe those 
creepy crawley creatures.  Just thinking of them skittering around 
is making my skin crawl.  I can't even sleep in my bedroom if I see 
one sitting on the ceiling on the other side of the room.  So I 
either spend an uncomfortable night sleeping on the floor of another 
room or, more likely, spend half the night staring at the thing 
willing it to move lower so I can catch it without touching it 
(can't squish 'em, either) and dump it outside.  

My other childhood fear was of this life size Santa Claus doll that 
resided in the attic of my old house.  It was there when we moved in 
and we kept it because for some reason my parents thought it was 
funny.  They sat it in the living room for Christmas for a few 
years.  When my father passed away, decorating for Christmas took a 
new turn and there was no more attic exploration.  Santa was 
thankfully forgotten by all but me.  I refused to go into the attic 
because I knew he was there, ready to stare at me with that plastic, 
blank, cheerful face that filled me with terror.  I wouldn't even go 
into the attic when we were getting ready to move and needed to see 
what was up there.  I already knew what was up there waiting for us 
and he could stay there for all I cared.  Stupid creepy Santa.  

KathyK (whose worst encounter with a spider occurred when she was 
reading in bed and one fell from the ceiling right into the book in 
front of her nose.  An inch in my direction and it would have landed 
*on me.*  I then spent two hours looking for the thing all over and 
around my bed because it disappeared when I jumped up screaming.)