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

[Sollywos]

Escalators.

I still don't trust them.

Me neither! I can remember standing at the bottom of one of the great long bu88ers in the London Underground watching my parents (who assumed I'd followed them on) disappearing. I'd burst into tears and then a total stranger picked me and put me on! 65 years later I'm still avoiding the damn things!

Sollywos x

 

[bugmum]

Me neither! I can remember standing at the bottom of one of the great long bu88ers in the London Underground watching my parents (who assumed I'd followed them on) disappearing. I'd burst into tears and then a total stranger picked me and put me on! 65 years later I'm still avoiding the damn things!

Sollywos x

Escalators, not so much - although I did have a smilier experience on an escalator in Woolie's in Peterborough when I was very young, I got on, my mum changed her mind and didn't, and then I tried to get back off again - it didn't go well.

Travelators, on the other hand, unnerve me. I've got dodgy knees and for some reason, every time I get close to the end, I can just see myself crumpling into a heap as I step off and getting trampled by the hordes behind me.

 

[Stormkhan]

Escalators? Meh.
I've used so many over the years, while being sober, drunk, overladen with luggage, just plain bored, I have never ever been scared of using them. I can see many You Tube horror accounts of escalator accidents - up to and including the Kings Cross fire - and it never occurs to me "Eeek! I've had a lucky escape!"*

I watched this very episode again for the first time in decades just the other day lol (Spocks mind-meld, truely shakespearian acting at its hammiest from Nimoy haha)

You're right about the ham acting but, in concept, the Horta was quite new. It wasn't a "god-like Being", it wasn't a bloke with funny make-up who we could speak to. It was a genuine alien. After the Horta, it took a while to get to the ST:TNG episode "Darmok" to push the same boundaries.
And, yeah, it was a bloke on what could be described as a skateboard. But at least it wasn't a bloke in a gorilla suit, the head replaced by a divers helmet!

* Naturally I do not discount peoples fears. But they are their own, not mine. Like arachnophobes - I sympathise but cannot feel the same.

 

[Souleater]

Escalators? Meh.
I've used so many over the years, while being sober, drunk, overladen with luggage, just plain bored, I have never ever been scared of using them. I can see many You Tube horror accounts of escalator accidents - up to and including the Kings Cross fire - and it never occurs to me "Eeek! I've had a lucky escape!"*

You're right about the ham acting but, in concept, the Horta was quite new. It wasn't a "god-like Being", it wasn't a bloke with funny make-up who we could speak to. It was a genuine alien. After the Horta, it took a while to get to the ST:TNG episode "Darmok" to push the same boundaries.
And, yeah, it was a bloke on what could be described as a skateboard. But at least it wasn't a bloke in a gorilla suit, the head replaced by a divers helmet!

* Naturally I do not discount peoples fears. But they are their own, not mine. Like arachnophobes - I sympathise but cannot feel the same.

I agree it is a good story, pretty enviromentalist for its day, and a 'look in the mirror and ask who is the monster' type attitude, definitely my favourite from the original series.

 

[catseye]

Darmok is my all time favourite episode of ST:TNG. Wonderful stuff.

I remember an episode of Crossroads. My mum had left me downstairs whilst she took my baby brother upstairs for a bath. I must have been around six? TV on, Crossroads playing so I was half watching, sitting playing. And then I look up and there's a scene where a lady goes into her room and there's a lump in the bed. I was horrified, and couldn't look away.

And then the lump moved.

I ran upstairs screaming and I have never found out what it was. I presume a cat or dog or something but the whole thing gave me the absolute heebie jeebies for years, just thinking about it.

 

[AnonyJoolz]

There are at least a couple of episodes of Dr Who featuring a T-Rex

View attachment 35012

I think we're straying into 'obviously scary' territory here!

 

[JamesWhitehead]

I remember an episode of Crossroads.

I don't! Well not much of one. That unsteady, prefatory twang had me out of the room, like a shot.

And I was twenty-six at the time! It still gives me shudders.

 

[shelleybell]

Ha, escalators! They don't scare me (maybe make me slightly apprehensive) however I do have form for trying to go up them the wrong way, not just realising when I get to the bottom and correcting myself and going up the right one, oh no, not me I actually get at least a third of the way up before thinking something is wrong! Once I could understand but I've done it numerous times and not once when I was drunk so I cant even blame the alcohol

 

[Bad Bungle]

I don't! Well not much of one. That unsteady, prefatory twang had me out of the room, like a shot.

And I was twenty-six at the time! It still gives me shudders.

May I interest you in a clock ..?

 

[JamesWhitehead]

May I interest you in a clock ..?

Is that a real thing? I once posted a John Wayne clock of horror, so I don't see why it shouldn't be - except it just shouldn't!

 

[Bad Bungle]

Is that a real thing? I once posted a John Wayne clock of horror, so I don't see why it shouldn't be - except it just shouldn't!

It's on my table, unpacked because I'm .. er.. keeping it as an investment.

 

[Mr. Banooka]

In real life I don’t have any issues with lifts (elevators). However, in dreams, I am terrified of them. They pretty much always turn into the lifts in the long demolished Dalton House in Risley, Warrington. Never had any issue with them when I worked in the building and would happily ride the paternosters as well.

in my dreams the lift always comes loose from the sides of the shaft and starts swaying on its cable. For some inexplicable reason the doors always disappear as well. Totally bonkers.

I‘ve only been stuck in two lifts ever. One that was at the right level that I was able to force the door open, and one in the Sellafield Reprocessing Centre that got stuck between floors for an hour with 18 rowdy teenagers inside on a tour arranged by work. Neither of which were particularly harrowing.

 

[Ghost In The Machine]

In real life I don’t have any issues with lifts (elevators). However, in dreams, I am terrified of them. They pretty much always turn into the lifts in the long demolished Dalton House in Risley, Warrington. Never had any issue with them when I worked in the building and would happily ride the paternosters as well.

in my dreams the lift always comes loose from the sides of the shaft and starts swaying on its cable. For some inexplicable reason the doors always disappear as well. Totally bonkers.

I‘ve only been stuck in two lifts ever. One that was at the right level that I was able to force the door open, and one in the Sellafield Reprocessing Centre that got stuck between floors for an hour with 18 rowdy teenagers inside on a tour arranged by work. Neither of which were particularly harrowing.

I find them really hard to deal with. Especially since my ex told me years ago of a family friend whose son was killed in a lift in a high rise in London when it smashed to the floor from 20 floors up or something... Not sure when that happened or where it was exactly, but it must have been the 70s or 80s.

 

[Ghost In The Machine]

May I interest you in a clock ..?

View attachment 35126

LOL. I lived in Bham in the 1980s and saw pretty well every one on that clock, in town, at some point. One stopped the traffic, parking her car in the middle of Corporation St I think it was, to go into a dept store (before it was pedestrianised if it was, I forget). Another was walking through the market, hoping everyone would look at him and admire him. Another person on that clock nearly ran me over in his car in Edgbaston and one of the women I saw walking though town centre talking to herself, looking absolutely batshit... We were never impressed by seeing people from Crossroads. But I did see some way more interesting people in town (Roy Wood at a bus stop... Boy George in a revolving door... Kenneth Branagh playing football on a strip of grass outside a theatre...). One actor I never saw in town was Benny. He's the only one that would have made me starstruck.

 

[Stormkhan]

Can't see a photo of Ronald Allen without thinking of "Queer" Uncle Quentin.

 

[CarlosTheDJ]

In real life I don’t have any issues with lifts (elevators). However, in dreams, I am terrified of them. They pretty much always turn into the lifts in the long demolished Dalton House in Risley, Warrington. Never had any issue with them when I worked in the building and would happily ride the paternosters as well.

in my dreams the lift always comes loose from the sides of the shaft and starts swaying on its cable. For some inexplicable reason the doors always disappear as well. Totally bonkers.

I‘ve only been stuck in two lifts ever. One that was at the right level that I was able to force the door open, and one in the Sellafield Reprocessing Centre that got stuck between floors for an hour with 18 rowdy teenagers inside on a tour arranged by work. Neither of which were particularly harrowing.

We lived in a flat in Brighton that had a lift, it was really sensitive to weight and used to get stuck all the time, usually when someone was in there with all their shopping.

It would stick about two metres off the ground, just far enough to not be able to open the door and slide out, so everyone got pretty adept at sticking yer arm up between the lift and the wall and freeing the release mechanism at the top. Yes, as dangerous as it sounds.

 

[Stormkhan]

I lived in a small block of flats in Penge. Only four or five stories high, it had a very small lift. So small, it could only take about five average people at a time. The hatch in the top was almost the entire roof of the car. A maintenance worker I chatted to said that the hatch wasn't actually for maintenance or escape (that was on the roof) but so one *ahem* attendant could prop up a coffin inside the car when we got a dead 'un.
Frankly, I disbelieve this; I can imagine the struggles some morticians have in flats. But I admit to some grim amusement to the image of the encounter when the door opened on the ground floor, the mortician standing respectfully next to their coffined client.

 

[Shady]

I remember as a kid an old episode of Dr Who, I believe it was Willian Hartnell, or Patrick Troughton, and it was a B&W episode, he was walking along some grey ground, and it sounded like a monster was beneath it, he was banging on the ground with his stick to shut it up, but I was very young and it scared the shit out of me, just like the Daleks did, right up until I saw them at Blackpool exhibition, I was looking at two of them and I was leaning on a wooden shelf, then out of the corner of my eye I saw one coming at me, I hadn't noticed the rail running along the front of the shelf, you have never seen a sixteen year old move so fast, I could hear the rest of the people laughing.

Also I have a phobia of things flooding, the toilet, bath, sink, rivers, I hate going over bridges with water under them.

 

[Stormkhan]

Well, that's my "rabbit hole" moment done for today.
Seeing the Crossroads clock, brought back childhood memories. My mum was an avid watcher and, as I played in the same room, I picked up on characters names etc. while the actual plot passed me by.
Thanks Wikipedia.
Not only has it made names/characters re-surface but snippets of amusement like Amy Turtle being briefly arrested as a Soviet Spy(!) and Wilf Harvey's son Stan being played by Terry Molloy - the future Davros!

Perhaps the most memorable character proved to be the "village idiot" Benny Hawkins (Paul Henry), whose trademark was a woolly hat worn all year round. His fans included British troops serving in the Falklands War in 1982, who nicknamed the Falkland Islanders "Bennies" after the character.[4] Instructed to stop using the name, the troops came up with "Stills" for locals - because they were "still Bennies".[5]

Sandy Richardson was injured in a car accident in 1972 and needed to use a wheelchair. The storyline was developed when actor Roger Tonge had himself become a wheelchair user off screen as a way to keep him in the series, thus becoming the first paraplegic regular character portrayed in a British soap opera.

This latter I didn't know - I can vaguely remember the storyline around Sandy's accident, but never knew of the reality. Which is sad.

 

[catseye]

I lived in a small block of flats in Penge. Only four or five stories high, it had a very small lift. So small, it could only take about five average people at a time. The hatch in the top was almost the entire roof of the car. A maintenance worker I chatted to said that the hatch wasn't actually for maintenance or escape (that was on the roof) but so one *ahem* attendant could prop up a coffin inside the car when we got a dead 'un.
Frankly, I disbelieve this; I can imagine the struggles some morticians have in flats. But I admit to some grim amusement to the image of the encounter when the door opened on the ground floor, the mortician standing respectfully next to their coffined client.

Dp they remove the deceased in coffins? For some reason (probably too much Midsomer Murders) I thought they took them out in sort of body bags. Which wouldn't be nearly as convenient for 'propping', unless RM had well set in and wasn't due to wear off any time soon.

 

[NomDeGuerre]

The Teddy Bear’s Picnic, particularly the recording by Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra.

There’s an air of barely concealed menace in the song that I’ve always found disturbing. I can imagine it being used in the title sequence of a Hammer Horror (it may well have already been used in this capacity!)

 

[escargot]

Well, that's my "rabbit hole" moment done for today.
Seeing the Crossroads clock, brought back childhood memories. My mum was an avid watcher and, as I played in the same room, I picked up on characters names etc. while the actual plot passed me by.
Thanks Wikipedia.
Not only has it made names/characters re- surface but snippets of amusement like Amy Turtle being briefly arrested as a Soviet Spy(!) and Wilf Harvey's son Stan being played by Terry Molloy - the future Davros!


This latter I didn't know - I can vaguely remember the storyline around Sandy's accident, but never knew of the reality. Which is sad.

The story I heard about Sandy was that after the character's accident he was supposed to recover in time. However, fans knew he would never be able to walk again so he was stuck with the wheelchair.

 

[Stormkhan]

Dp they remove the deceased in coffins? For some reason (probably too much Midsomer Murders) I thought they took them out in sort of body bags. Which wouldn't be nearly as convenient for 'propping', unless RM had well set in and wasn't due to wear off any time soon.

As far as I know, if the deceased isn't already coffined then the mortician has a solid box-like affair. Body bags are great for crime scenes but in ordinary use, they look somewhat undignified.

 

[IbisNibs]

got stuck between floors for an hour with 18 rowdy teenagers inside on a tour arranged by work. Neither of which were particularly harrowing.

You are a stronger soul than am I!

However, in dreams, I am terrified of them. They pretty much always turn into the lifts in the long demolished Dalton House in Risley, Warrington.

That is so alarmingly specific!

 

[Mr. Banooka]

You are a stronger soul than am I!

That is so alarmingly specific!

I was one of the rowdy 18 teenagers.

 

[catseye]

As far as I know, if the deceased isn't already coffined then the mortician has a solid box-like affair. Body bags are great for crime scenes but in ordinary use, they look somewhat undignified.

I kind of imagined them having a stretcher thingie too, not just dragging the deceased about in a bin bag like wet washing!

 

[Bad Bungle]

Can't see a photo of Ronald Allen without thinking of "Queer" Uncle Quentin.

And a stirrup pump of Vaseline.

 

[Mr Spagooter]

Certain Muppets used to terrify me as a kid. I absolutely adorded Sesame Street, but there would occasionally be Muppets that would absolutely chill me to the core. The worst offender being 'Placido Flamingo'. Based on the Opera singer, he was a Flamingo with the most evil look to him. I was convinced it was some sort of evil entity that would leap through the television and drag me off to hell. I remember crying my eyes out if he ever made an appearance. Horrific.

Let's not even get started on Jim Henson's Creature Workshop and their creations for Labyrinth and the Dark Crystal. 110%, pure, unadulterated NIGHTMARE FUEL.

Being a young kid in the early 90s was difficult.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

A Rubovian Legend was part of my nightmares for years.

The Web, finally, enabled me to put a name to these things. By which time Weatherspoon, or something like him, was all over the land!

 

[Souleater]

I kind of imagined them having a stretcher thingie too, not just dragging the deceased about in a bin bag like wet washing!

Isnt that what those shutes in blocks of flats are for haha