make-believe: monsters

When we were kids living in the realms of an isolation hospital on the Pilgrims Way on the North Downs of Kent (England) we were led to believe that there was a machine in a wood, known as ‘the glade’, that could or would cut your arm off.

We had bigger and friendlier woods nearby so we never ventured there very often anyway. The very mention of the name ‘the glade’ made me nervous, the fact it rhymes with blade probably contributed to my fear too. I would try and visualise this terrible machine and usually I imagined it was something like a giant mincer (the culinary variety) or other times as a mangle with blades rather than rollers. Generally it was a static device that just needed avoiding, but sometimes I thought it had the ability to chase you. The wood was carpeted with Bluebells in late spring and that was the only thing that would induce me to enter it. Even then we would run some way home before we felt safe. I lived in dread of this malicious thing and sometimes had nightmares about it. It never occurred to me that it was possibly some kind of farm implement, and not something with the sole purpose of mutilating people. To make matters worse, there was a permanent sign on the gate of the field below stating ‘Danger Unexploded Bomb.’ Why no one ever thought to dig up and disarm (no pun intended) it never crossed our minds. It too was probably a ruse by the farmer to keep people off his land.

Unfortunately, my parents are now dead and it is too late to ask what this thing actually was or whether it even existed.

I used to believe…

across the street from my house there was a church.when it got dark something in the church made a shadow on the window that looked like E.T.
I used to think Et was watching me

i used to believe in Wee WIlly Winkie who used to come round and see if I was in bed yet. I even heard him talking to my dad downstairs (it was my dad using two voices but it convinced me at 5). There was also the threat of Willy's brother Big Winkie (who i think had horns) if i continued not to go to bed.

As a small boy, I had watched a childrens programme about dinosaurs, they had used a block of flats as reference to show their enormous size.
As a result I used to be scarred witless as we walked home past a nearby block of flats - expecting a tyranasaurous to jump out from behind and to eat me and my mum.

When i was little my dad told me goblins lived in our house, i thought they had a control centre behind the couch so that they could see all round the house and when i went upstairs they would be playing with myn things and the control centre would warn them tht i was coming, one day me and my friend got wise and getting some toy guns we stormed the couch thinking we had got rid of the control centre we went upstairs in the dark checking every room and cupboard tht was scary to us and we thought we were really brave

There was a stained glass pattern in our front door that I thought looked like a man's face. I could also make out some spindly arms. I believed that, at night, he would step out of the door and come up to my room, suck me out of my skin and possess me. He also had minions, which were smaller, and could fly. I am twelve now, and I believed this until quite recently.

When I was a kid I used to read horror books. Mom said that I shouldn't read those, so I did. One book scared the crap out of me. I believed that the monster would come and get me. I shared a room with my sister. I rearranged the beds so that if the monster came in it would see her first and I had time to get away.

When I was young, a neighbor kid told me that the seeds on the inside of persimmons were goblin eggs and if you opened one up the seeds would grow into goblins that would hide in your bedroom! I concentrated all year to not run over them with my bike.

As a child, I believed that there was a monster under my bed but if I dropped candy on the floor on the opposite side that I got out on that he wouldn't see me as I leapt from the bed across the room! My Mom always wondered why there was candy on the floor on that side of the room!!!

My dad convinced me that he saw a mermaid. He told me that she wasn't pretty contrary to popular belief. I told all my friends in school but it was ok because they believed me and one of them even told me she had seen one too.

When i was a kid, I used to believe that the rhyme- Night Night don't let the bed bugs bite, meant that in he night, if you didnt go to sleep, then giant bugs made of beds would come and bite you!!! it used to scare the C**P outta me!!

When i was a kid we used to go on holiday to Wales and my parents would tell me that dog's footprints (on the beach) were Welsh dragon's claw prints. I believed this for a long time...

My Parents were friends with a couple who owned a Pub in the country. In order to keep me on my best behaviour when we went to visit, I was told the the Man who owned the pub turned into the incredible Hulk when he was angry. I couldn't take that chance as I was so terrified of the Hulk at the time, so I behaved like a little angel.

I used to believe that my house had gremlins. I had a friend spend the night one night and we went gremlins hunting. We thought we had found one,but, it was the cat!

My parents have two ventriloquist dolls, Charlie Mc Carthy and Howdy Doody, which they keep in their guest bedroom. One of my favorite shows used to be the "Twilight Zone". Now whenever I visit my parents house for the weekend, I have to take those dolls out of the guest room before I will sleep in there. I keep thinking that the dolls will start talking on their own or something weird like that. My son won't sleep in there with them either.

I used to believe there was such thing called the boogie monster. In my dreams about once a week I used to get tickled to death by the boogie monster, his wife and his children.