5 Things that scared me as a kid

I was recently thinking about things that scared me when I was growing up.  There are only a few things that really stand out, but all had a big impact on me as a child.  As a parent, I wonder what things will stand out for my children.

1- Spiderman vs. The Man Wolf record album from 1974.  I remember my grandparents getting me this for Christmas of 1975.  I was 5 years old and really into Spiderman comics.  They got me this combination comic book and 7″ 45 record to go along with it.  The story was about Mr. Jamesons’ son, who was an astronaut and had a moon rock pendent.  He turned into the Man-Wolf at midnight every night.  The record was narrated in a breaking news style, very dramatic.  It was raining in the background when the guy turned into the Man-Wolf and started snarling and growling.  You could hear his footsteps as he ran.  The record was just over 9 minutes long and very scary to me as a little kid.  So scary, in fact, that I had many nightmares from this record.  But I still listened to it anyway.  My nightmares became so bad that my parents finally took the record away.  I was looking for it on ebay and found the same comic book and record for sale.  That prompted me to look for an online audio version, so I could listen to it now.  I found it yesterday and listened to the entire audio, over 9 minutes.  It brought back a lot of memories, but didn’t scare me.    I could see how it scared me when I was 5 though.  It is interesting to listen to it now, some 33 years later.  I can still remember the exact lines that were spoken and the pictures are just like I remembered them.  Amazing how our mind works, we can remember feelings as well as minute details of a comic book that I hadn’t really thought much about in over 30 years.

2-  The Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz.  My parents let me watch this show when I was 3 years old.  Much too young.  The Wicked Witch was so scary to me, her and the flying monkeys terrified me into nightmares as a kid.  What a terrible show to air around the holidays and promote to kids!  I can still hear the creepy music that plays when Dorothy is riding her bike during the storm, and the Wicked Witch is laughing saying “I’ll get you my pretty!”  I can still picture the Witch today, and I haven’t watched the Wizard of Oz in over 20 years.  That was my first memorable experience with what I thought of as EVIL.  Very impactful.

3- Jaws.  I remember watching this movie at a friend of ours house.  I was big into waterskiing and our family went to the lake (Fern Ridge Reservoir and Dorena) regularly.  After watching this, I held my feet up whenever I was in the water, and I held very still.  I would even wear dark blue and black shorts, not the bright colors that some other kids wore.  I didn’t want to attract any attention from sharks.  I didn’t want to fall when skiing, and would ski for long periods of time.  My parents used to have to stop the boat so someone else could ski because I wouldn’t let go.  I used to just stare at the black water and let my imagination get the best of me.  I was very afraid of the water for several years in the late 1970’s.  Thanks Spielberg!  Of course the movie came out in the summer, when people typically go to the beaches and lakes.  As a 5 year old kid, it was a nightmare, literally.

4- The Creature from the Black Lagoon.  The 1954 movie about a geological expedition on the Amazon river.  Horrifying to a little kid.  The monster movie did a good job, as I remember, in not showing the gilled, webbed creature too much.  Leaving your imagination to scare you.  I haven’t watched that movie since the 1970’s, but I still remember seeing the creature under the boat on the river, and sinking in the black water.  It’s image is forever burned into my brain!  There is something creepy about those old monster movies anyway, with the awkward dialog and wierd camera work.  Add a horrible monster and you have the recipe for lifelong terrifying memories!

5- Jason from Friday the 13th.  I will say that I have a story to go along with this one.  I had a paper route from 3rd to 6th grade in Eugene, Oregon.  I had a rural, hilly route which paid $10 extra per month because of the hills.  There were also no street lights on my entire route, making it very dark and scary on early morning deliveries.   One night, Friday the 13th, around 1980 I had a sleepover at a friends house (Cam and Jason Coleman.)  We all stayed up and watched the movie, Friday the 13th.  They both promised me that they would go with me to deliver my papers the next morning.  Saturday and Sunday mornings the papers had to be delivered by 7:00 am.  I knew I would be scared, and needed their company.  I was really into horror movies for some reason, and it was fitting to see the movie on the actual night (Friday the 13th).  Well, this very same night Eugene had a huge wind storm.  After watching the movie upstairs the 3 of us (all 10 years old) went down to check on their dog.  As we went toward the front of their big house, we saw that the front door was open!  (apparantly the wind blew it open, but we were convinced a crazed murderer was in the house!)  I had a ski pole, Cam had an iron bar and the 3 of us slowly crept downstairs, shut the front door and looked for their dog.  I don’t remember much after that, except that we all slept (very little sleeping actually took place) on the floor in their living room, staring at the front door.  I remember staring at that door for hours, waiting for it to burst open and Jason (the movie Jason) to come through it.  The next thing I knew, it was 5:00 am and my alarm was going off.  Both Cam and Jason chickened out.  They were not going with me to deliver the papers.  I was alone, it was dark and still really windy outside.  And I was scared.  I still remember staring up the hill at the beginning of my route, trying to summon up the courage to start walking.  I did manage to struggle through, although I will never forget that night, that movie or the next morning delivering papers in total, paranoid fear.  A couple of years later (when I was in middle school), I went camping with another friends family at Crystal Lake Campground (just like in the movie)!  Needless to say, I didn’t get a lot of sleep on that trip.

Tags: antonio moreno, camp crystal lake, comics, creature from the black lagoon, ebay, eugene, friday the 13th, friday the thirteenth, jack arnold, jason, jaws, julia adams, man wolf, oregon, richard carlson, richard denning, sharks, spiderman, steven spielberg, whit bissell, wicked witch of the west, witch, wizard of oz