When you were younger

[Dalton]

I used to think while running away from something, it was better to look behind me at what i was running from. Two times i ran into something in front of me, and two times i had seizures ... i only look in front of me when i run now.

You have much to learn from Rincewind.

[Gandalf]

I used to think that if I was in a car, I could be were I wanted by blinking, I later realised I was asleep when this happened.

[SpacedTeddyBear]

When I was little, wondered if lighting different things on fire produced different color flames. Strangely enough, I got green flames out of Legos.
After that, I started mixing things found in metal cans that are stored in tool sheds and lighting them on fire. Amazingly, I never burned down anything.

[Boba Fett]

When I was a little child, I believed that every human being is good and loved everyone...now I'm not.

[XaLEv]

LOL--That reminds me!!!!!!

Ah, and that reminds me!

I thought that there was some sort of telepathic monster in the sewers that would come up whenever we were about to leave town, and that if I thought about some place other than where we were going while I was taking a pre-trip shit, it would go look for us at that place.

[Hethrir]

When i was a little kid, i used to think that mirrors only reflected when someone was looking at them. I used to quickly try to jump infront to catch it out not reflecting if i caught it by suprise.

Sometimes i still wonder if a mirror really reflects when absoutely nothing is looking at it. Including setup video cameras.

[Col. Crackpot]

My parents told me that when I was being toilet-trained, I would flush the toilet, wave goodbye to my poop and tell them it was going to Fairlawn (a town near Paterson, NJ, where my parents and I lived at the time). They thought it was fuckin' hilarious that I had randomly picked a town where everyone's shit ended up in one giant pile or something.

actually you are pretty close...all crappers flow to Newark, not Fairlawn.


EDIT: and that reminds me. for some reason i was deathly afraid of New Jersey as a child. i do remember driving through Jersey to get to Baltimore, where some friends of my parents lived, but i can't remember why i would scream and cry everytime i found out we were in New Jersy.

[Peregrin Toker]

When I was 8-9 years, I looked like Martin Prince. (the brainiac kid from "The Simpsons") Now, I look more like The Generic Squeaky-Voiced Teenager. (who, in turn, looks like a younger version of Shaggy from Scooby-Doo)

Until only a year ago, I also was a bordering-on-extremist socialist, politically speaking. In one political debate on the 'net, I even attempted to defend collectivism by accusing the USA of something the Soviet Union did!

Until some months ago, I also had an irrational fear of SGAs. (Stereotypical Grey Aliens, one of the most common alien archetypes in sci-fi - examples include the Asgard of "Stargate SG1", the Vree of B5 and the Sectoids of the X-COM games)

It was really annoying. Each time I saw an illustration of one of these creatures, I was freaked out. I'm not sure what helped me out of my SGA-phobia, but it was either:

1) Seeing a clip from the movie "Communion", wherein SGAs were represented by extremely unconvincing puppets.
2) Rational thought.
3) The fact that Grey-type aliens are biologically impossible. (how the heck do their frail bodies avoid collapsing on the weight of their enormous heads? The only SGAs which don't suffer from this are Kaminoans, who in turn don't have any musculature at all - thus having the dubious honour of being among the most unrealistic sci-fi aliens ever)
4) H.P. Lovecraft
5) Comparisons between "The Greys" and Santa Claus.
6) Several of the above
7) None of the above

Even a bigger mystery is where my fear of SGAs came from. The first memory of being scared by imagery of SGAs was when I accidentally saw a pseudo-documentary about alien abductions. But one thing's for sure: As of today, I've considered of placing the Grey Alien in the Pantheon Of Cultural Icons along with The Kool-Aid Man, Dionne Warwick and Tor Johnson.

[Zoink]

I used to think that my bed was an impervious monster shield. So no matter what scary movie I watched, I never had trouble sleeping.

I countered a basic fear with a self-deluding fantasy, but I grew out of it. I look around today and still see people doing it...

[Ted]

EDIT: and that reminds me. for some reason i was deathly afraid of New Jersey as a child. i do remember driving through Jersey to get to Baltimore, where some friends of my parents lived, but i can't remember why i would scream and cry everytime i found out we were in New Jersy.

Quite a smart kid.

[Ace Pace]

When I was 8, I debated with my teacher what made the zionist state of Israel rise, I always lost due to my *then* stupid logic, but it was good training.

[Ghost Rider]

EDIT: and that reminds me. for some reason i was deathly afraid of New Jersey as a child. i do remember driving through Jersey to get to Baltimore, where some friends of my parents lived, but i can't remember why i would scream and cry everytime i found out we were in New Jersy.

That's just my father's family side evil presence...or more specifically...grandma trying to suck your life force.

[El Moose Monstero]

Goodness me, do you have time for a list?

1) Due to a voracious appetite for volcano books, despite the fact that the UK is in more danger from ravenous vending machines than volcanic activity, when I was small, every so often I'd check under my bed to make sure the floor wasnt smoking or glowing in anyway. It was all to do with that volcano in Mexico, cant remember what it was called, think it began with P.

2) Ghostbusters II. Scared the crap out of me. Had a very active imagination (and still do ) and spent quite a lot of time after watching that film (well, cowering really) hiding under my quilt incase my posters on the walls started bulging and trying to kidnap babies...

Ok, so it wasnt that much of a list, but those are things that spring to mind at the minute.

[thecreech]

When I was a child I remember wondering who was first in traffic. I thought it must be neat to not have anyone in front of you when you where driving.

I also remembering not being able to understand the concept of my dads work being closed. I remember one holiday , he said the plant was closed. I envisioned "the plant" as being an industrial facility like a quarry, when in reality my dad worked at Lockheed Sunnyvale.

I thought the exact same way!. I always wondered who was first in traffic and thought to my self how in the world they got first

[thecreech]

I used to think that my bed was an impervious monster shield. So no matter what scary movie I watched, I never had trouble sleeping.

I countered a basic fear with a self-deluding fantasy, but I grew out of it. I look around today and still see people doing it...

I didn't think my bed was a shield... just the bed sheets. I believed that if i had the sheets over me nothing would get through. Unfortunately i couldn't breath half the time so i would get a snorkel(sp) and breath thru that.

[Darth Yoshi]

I used to think that black widow spiders could stop vampires and other assorted creatures of the night. I also thought that I could control black widows. So that worked out pretty well, since I've never encountered an actual black widow spider.

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

Well, I remember times where I was staying overnight at my grandmother's house, and then wondered why I was at home when I woke up the next morning. That and I used to count garage doors.

[johnmarkley]

When I was little, I asked my dad why he he had to leave the house to go to work every day, and he said, "To make money." Being a literal-minded child, I assumed that his job was the actual printing of currency. (Which, not really knowing how the U.S. Mint worked, I assumed involved drawing pictures of presidents on green paper and cutting them out.)

[Zoink]

I didn't think my bed was a shield... just the bed sheets. I believed that if i had the sheets over me nothing would get through. Unfortunately i couldn't breath half the time so i would get a snorkel(sp) and breath thru that.

It was something similar for me; if it was a particularly scary movie I'd spend the night trying to breath under stuffy sheets too:) The sheets were essential to the overall monster defense, because although they couldn't get on the bed, they could perhaps reach onto it. The teddybear also stayed under the sheets so the monsters couldn't steal him.

[jegs2]

As a kid in the 70's, my dad rubbed a fuse into my arm (or so it appeared to me), and told me I was bionic. So convinced was I that I was now a "Six-Million Dollar Kid," that my dad soon had to talk me down from the roof, since I intended to put my bionics to the ultimate test by leaping from said roof. Lesson available: Be careful what you tell a seven-year-old...

[thecreech]

I didn't think my bed was a shield... just the bed sheets. I believed that if i had the sheets over me nothing would get through. Unfortunately i couldn't breath half the time so i would get a snorkel(sp) and breath thru that.

It was something similar for me; if it was a particularly scary movie I'd spend the night trying to breath under stuffy sheets too:) The sheets were essential to the overall monster defense, because although they couldn't get on the bed, they could perhaps reach onto it. The teddybear also stayed under the sheets so the monsters couldn't steal him.

LOL essential to the overall monster defense, thats great. Ok how many of you did this. When you had to get up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water/ take a pee/ sneak your way into your parents bed. Were you so scared of monsters under your bed did you stand on top of your bed and jump as far has you could to get out of their reach. I got so good that was able to make the jump within an inch of my door and the bed was on the other side of the room! (of course my room was small but it looked big when i was young).

[Lord Pounder]

I can't actually remember any thing like that. However i remember arguing with my parents for 2 hours when they told me that Santa wasn't real. My arguemnts ranged from "Then who eats the cookie and drains the beer i leave out" through to "where the hell did you two get the money to buy me those toys."

[aphexmonster]

I used to think that my bed was an impervious monster shield. So no matter what scary movie I watched, I never had trouble sleeping.

I countered a basic fear with a self-deluding fantasy, but I grew out of it. I look around today and still see people doing it...

I used to think my blanket was impervious to monsters. So i would always sleep with my head under the covers. I was afraid of the dark, and freddy krugger, and did not fully understand that he only jacked you while you were sleeping, but i thought he couldn't fade my blanket as well. After almost dying numerous times from inhailing co2 from breathing recycled air, i decided that sleeping under a thick blanket wasn't a good idea, and that bad guys only attacked teenagers. I had a few years to go.

( i was in fear of chucky however )

[Soontir C'boath]

I was afraid the light stumped on my cieling was holdnig something that would exit, come, and get me while I sleep. Thus the cover in the sheets method just like AM. Though, I managed to sleep in the covers.

Cyaround,
Jason

[Peregrin Toker]

I can't actually remember any thing like that. However i remember arguing with my parents for 2 hours when they told me that Santa wasn't real. My arguemnts ranged from "Then who eats the cookie and drains the beer i leave out" through to "where the hell did you two get the money to buy me those toys."

Did one of your arguments include Merlin The Wizard??