What scares you? Actually let’s talk about what scared me as a child, aside from the nuns in catholic school.
These bobble heads are from a pretty good episode of The Twilight Zone. It was a groundbreaking series and the brainchild of Rod Serling. I remember watching reruns when I was quite young. This particular episode was titled “The Dummy” and I would categorize it as creepy.
The one that truly frightened me(to the point it actually affected my behavior for a couple years) was episode 91, “Little Girl Lost”. I’m not sure of my exact age when I first saw this, but I was no older than 6 and possibly as young as 4. In the story a little girl slips into another dimension through a gateway that appears in her bedroom wall. Ultimately she is rescued, but not before some tense moments of her family nearly losing her forever.
That one really got to me. My bed was actually a built in unit which was against one wall of the bedroom I shared with my two brothers. After seeing that Twilight Zone, I was afraid to sleep anywhere near that wall. I leaned as far to the other side of my bed as possible, fearful that I too would fall into some other dimension. As I recall it was quite some time before I outgrew that particular fear, or more accurately the specific details of that fear. That is the secret to stories which really grab a hold of you. They evoke those feelings which are very much real to us. No outer space conquerors or ghoulish monsters could frighten me more than the thought of being separated from my family.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go move my bed away from the wall. If my wife asks, just tell her it looks much better in the new spot…