at home

I remember seeing a film of lobsters underwater on Sesame Street. The claws and legs really freaked me out. Somehow I decided that it was a picture of what lived behind our walls in our house (especially near light switches), so I was scared to touch the walls.

i used to believe that my house was actually the site of an ancient egyptian burial mound (i live in minnesota, but i LOVED egypt). i made myself treasure maps and headdresses and held "egyptian ceremonies." one rainy day, my friend and i found a panel in the back of my closet that could be removed, and we decided that a mummy was probably inside. we got ourselves all psyched up for the treasure that was buried with the mummy, and we got nervous too--there was a thunderstorm outside! finally i got the courage to peek behind the panel and --it was a mummy! or so i thought--upon closer inspection it was a heating pipe wrapped in white tape, but i was scared fpr years of the mummy in my closet, and i never opened the panel again.

i used to believe that a "washcloth shark" lived in the drain of our bathtub. if you didn't bathe regularly enough, the water would get really grimy, the shark would be able to smell you and come up through the drain. as you looked down through the soapy/dirty water, you would think you were seeing a washcloth, but it was really--the shark! this story was told to me by my babysitter, and when my parents saw how easy it was for her to get me to take baths--they told me it was true! it took years for me to stop being afraid of the washcloth shark

When I was about 5 or 6 years old, someone (probably my older sister) told me a story about how while you slept little skeleton ants and termites would come and carry your toys and such on their backs underneath your bed. I was scared to go under there and clean out the toys and so, one day when my mom was scolding me for not cleaning under my bed, I cried, "But mom I didn't put those there, it was the skeleton ants and termites who did it." To this day I still remember the look on her face as I explained this odd occurance through all my tears and crying.

I used to believe that there was a monster under my bed. I thought that after the lights were out if i let my legs or arms off the bed the monster would pull me under and eat me!

I used to believe monsters lived under my bed. For the longest time, I would take a running start and jump into bed. I thought if I didn't do that, the monsters would pull me under my my ankles.

I make my bed every day, and here is why: When I was quite young my father told me that if I didn't make my bed "day germs" would crawl up from the floor during the day and get under the covers. Then at night when I laid down they would crawl all over me and make me sick. Nice.

As a child I was convinced that the furnace only came on when someone walked past a certain point in the house (namely the entrance to my bedroom hallway). When I heard it come on at night I was sure that it was ghosts or someone else in the house.

As a child, i used to believe that all inanimate objects were either male or female, for exapmle, forks were female, and spoons and knives were male. I also had different "degrees" of male and female, even before I knew about people being gay. Numbers, for instance: one was kind of ambiguous, two was male, three was male, four was female, five was male, six was female, seven was male, eight was female, nine was female but very masculine!!!! Must be the OCD in me!!!

When I was young, my brother convinced me that monsters lived under my bed. To this day, I cannot sleep if a part of my body is over the edge of the mattress as the monster living under my bed will grab that part and pull me under...I'm married with children.

When I was little I used to believe that when you moved out of your house, you switched houses with the family that moved into your old house. And that homeless people were people no one switched houses with.

When I was young about 7-10 years old, I used to like the bedroom really dark to go to sleep but I used to believe that witches lived under my bed during the night. If I wanted a drink or needed the toilet, I would have to jump off the bed and land at least 3 feet away so that they didn't grab my ankles. Same thing applied to getting into bed again, launching myself from a distance to land on the bed. I suppose I eventually rationalised that there would not be room for witches what with all the toys I used to store under the bed but it still makes me chuckle now, (and where did they go during the day?)

I used to sit in front of the window unit air conditioner to get cool & I used to believe that a little mouse lived inside & he wore a plaid vest & a little round hat. I was convinced I would see him if I stared long enough.

I used to belive that when I was sleeping at night little turtle-heads (yes, just the heads) would bite off my toes. But that's only because my father told me so every night.

I believed in the "monster under the bed" for too many years. In fact, I quit jumping into the bed from the doorway when my husband wasn't in it after I had kids. I didn't want to scare them and make them weird! In fact, I think I still believe, a little bit, that they are still there. I'm 63 now.
Mom of 7, Grandma to 5

When i was little, my older brother told me that at night the monsters under my bed woke up, and that if i left my bed, they'd get me. so every night, id jump into my bed and i had to leave id climb down a plank of wood and jump out the door. i did this for like 2 years before my dad found out.