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Strange Things That Scared You (But Aren't Obviously 'Scary')

Beetle said:
As a kid I had a deep seated fear of lemon puff biscuits. The slightly odd sheen on their surface was what I always noticed, I remember being scared but no idea why they were scary.
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I have no fear of them, but if you put them in your biscuit tin they will make all of your biscuits taste of lemon :( (i dont like them) same with ginger nuts.
 
JamesWhitehead said:
In my primary school, there was a storeroom - it was mainly a repository for old desks - where I might, occasionally, have to venture. By choice? By instruction? Maybe the horror of it led me to step inside from time to time, just to confirm how evil it felt. Kids do that.

It was a long, windowless place, essentially just a slice off the adjacent classroom; its main purpose appeared to be to accommodate a large header-tank, which occupied the top part of one end of the space. Water-noises would accompany any visit. It did not seem to leak but a dank air hung over the room; it was dispelled when the door was shut. All just a step away from a noisy class of kids! :oops:
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That reminds me, we had a large stand alone cupboard, a bit like a Welsh dresser, in one of the corridors at primary school that always unnerved me. It just didn't fit in with the rest of the furniture and no-one ever acknowledged it. You never saw teachers take anything from it or even mention it. I was always a bit of a morbid child and was convinced it hid some horrible secret or had a nasty use such as being used to hide your body if you died at school or used as punishment.

I think I have mentioned my fear of the school lost property box before. I am still not keen on them now.
 
Jepra Peld said:
That reminds me, we had a large stand alone cupboard, a bit like a Welsh dresser, in one of the corridors at primary school that always unnerved me. It just didn't fit in with the rest of the furniture and no-one ever acknowledged it. You never saw teachers take anything from it or even mention it. I was always a bit of a morbid child and was convinced it hid some horrible secret or had a nasty use such as being used to hide your body if you died at school or used as punishment.

I think I have mentioned my fear of the school lost property box before. I am still not keen on them now.
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Did it ever occur to you the reason no one used or mentioned it was because you were the only one who could see it... o_O
 
Swifty said:
When that drum and bass music was popular, my mate's Dad said "It just sounds like someone's dropped a tin of biscuits down the stairs?".
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You could have released a few records that way.
 
Mr_Hermolle said:
February 1997. Im travelling down to Brighton by train from Reading. Grey drizzly day. Look out of the window and see we're passing by a large old looking house. Train slows as we pass by the gardens of the house. The large gardens are on a slope and seem quite delapidated. Theres a path running down the centre of the gardens and walking down this path is a 'Lassie' type dog. The whole scene was absolutely terrifying. No idea why. Something in the slow deliberate pace of the dog. So relieved when the train speeded up and left the scene behind. No idea why it made feel so cold abd unsafe.
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This has reminded me of a field, just outside Exeter. I think it must have been visible from the train, but I'm not sure on which line. It was just a sloping grass field with one single tree in it. And I HATED it. There was just something so sinister about this one tree...
 
Fascinating thread! Especially the mention of fear of lemon puff biscuits. I had no problem with those - and still don't! - but it made made me think of several examples where I was afraid of food items that I was offered, and as now seems obvious to me looking back, the fear simply came from them being unfamiliar. They were all things we never had at home. At about 4 years old I was having dinner at the house of neighbours whose young son was a playmate. His mum dished up steak and KIDNEY pie!!! The smell and texture of the kidneys in it freaked me out. I struggled to stay calm. I don't think I ate any of it. I still wouldn't today! I recall similar reactions to having "cheese pie" (what we would now call quiche!) served up for school lunch. Every Wednesday. I remember reporting to sick bay in order to get out of having to eat it. And another occasion when me and my older brother were left in the care of a family friend for an afternoon and we were given a huge bag of orange cheese puff snacks (like modern-day Wotsits). We sat on the sofa passing it back and forth not eating any because we didn't know wtf they were. I think we tentatively nibbled on a couple in an effort to be polite - but the bag was still full by the time we were rescued by our mum! I recently reminded my brother of it but - of course! - he says he can't remember it at all. Weird! Nowadays I enjoy Wotsits and quiche to a healthy degree. You won't catch me eating steak and kidney pie though. Ever. Some scars never heal.
 
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catseye said:
This has reminded me of a field, just outside Exeter. I think it must have been visible from the train, but I'm not sure on which line. It was just a sloping grass field with one single tree in it. And I HATED it. There was just something so sinister about this one tree...
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Lone Tree.jpg
 
Those Anderson puppets are pretty bonkers! Has anyone mentioned The Telegoons yet? Man, were they the stuff of nightmares! Wrong. Just wrong.
 
When I was very small, around 4, I was terrified of the clown who 'wound up' the closing credits at the end of Camberwick Green. I would run away from the TV in terror. I remember being badly scared by a clown at Blackpool circus, at around the same age.
I was also frightened of the tele-printer thing at the bottom of the TV screen when the football results were on.
My parents were bemused by my terror, I seem to remember. The scary clown thing has become a tired old trope these days, but back when I was 4 (1970) I'm not sure anyone had caught on to it!
 
catseye said:
This has reminded me of a field, just outside Exeter. I think it must have been visible from the train, but I'm not sure on which line. It was just a sloping grass field with one single tree in it. And I HATED it. There was just something so sinister about this one tree...
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Odd, because there's a field along the A303 somewhere near Ilminster with a single tree standing in the middle of it, and I love that tree. Especially when we used to drive by it in moonlight.

From our office window, I can see a field at the top of Haldon Hill with a single tree on the skyline - that's not the one you're thinking of, is it?
 
bugmum said:
Odd, because there's a field along the A303 somewhere near Ilminster with a single tree standing in the middle of it, and I love that tree. Especially when we used to drive by it in moonlight.

From our office window, I can see a field at the top of Haldon Hill with a single tree on the skyline - that's not the one you're thinking of, is it?
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Satellite view on Google maps (and forum members) helped me find and identify 4 men (trees) - tree men - in a field last summer. Fun and rather satisfying.

Whiteleaf01.jpg Whiteleaf03.jpg
Whiteleaf04.jpg
 
Jepra Peld said:
That reminds me, we had a large stand alone cupboard, a bit like a Welsh dresser, in one of the corridors at primary school that always unnerved me. It just didn't fit in with the rest of the furniture and no-one ever acknowledged it. You never saw teachers take anything from it or even mention it. I was always a bit of a morbid child and was convinced it hid some horrible secret or had a nasty use such as being used to hide your body if you died at school or used as punishment.
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In the house in which I grew up (a big semi-detatched Victorian place), my parents had a huge, solid wardrobe on the top landing of the stairs. I do not recall - but couldn't swear to it - ever seeing it open. The landing led to a (locked) front bedroom, full of my (deceased) grandparents furniture and paintings, and my parents room. But that wardrobe just ... well ... sat there gathering dust. My older siblings professed no actual knowledge of its contents but thought it was full of blankets, linen etc.
Just recently, I watched an episode of an old 1980's UK TV documentary series on You Tube*. One case featured a case of a dessicated body being found in a wardrobe in much the same position as the one in my old home. :oops:
Truly, though, when my parents moved out - after decades of habitation - they did empty the thing of manky old linen that had to go in the skip!

*Can't recall what it's called - the autoplay on You Tube went down a rabbit hole. Summat like "Crime Scenes". I have managed to find a link to the newspaper report on the event: The amazing 'mummy in the cupboard' case in North Wales - North Wales Live (dailypost.co.uk)
 
bugmum said:
Odd, because there's a field along the A303 somewhere near Ilminster with a single tree standing in the middle of it, and I love that tree. Especially when we used to drive by it in moonlight.

From our office window, I can see a field at the top of Haldon Hill with a single tree on the skyline - that's not the one you're thinking of, is it?
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No, I think the tree I'm thinking of is somewhere just off the railway line to Exmouth. I think. Not up on Haldon, unless they've REALLY diverted the railway since I was last there....
 
catseye said:
No, I think the tree I'm thinking of is somewhere just off the railway line to Exmouth. I think. Not up on Haldon, unless they've REALLY diverted the railway since I was last there....
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There's been a heck of a lot of building alongside that railway line, so the tree may no longer exist!
 
bugmum said:
There's been a heck of a lot of building alongside that railway line, so the tree may no longer exist!
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I'll have a look later and see if I can find a picture. I think it's up near the motorway somewhere so hopefully not built on...
 
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