Jacks-in-the-box. I remember being ill and off school as a child. Tucked up in bed in the afternoon, the buzz of may parents' voices downstairs...Then dreaming of a sinister Jack-in-a Box popping up and leering at me. I jumped out of bed and ran downstairs but I didn't tell my parents what had spooked me. Hey, I wouldn't want them to think I was weird or something...

Re: Our Fears
 

The mention of Jack-in-the-Box reminds me of a horrifying occurence in my childhood. I could not have been more than 4, possibly 5 years of age at the time...

My elder brother had a J-i-t-B. It was the standard Jack, red & blue clown fellow, played "Pop Goes The Weasel". I was playing with this hitherto innocuous seeming toy one day, when the lid to his box popped on cue, and Jack sprang forth, as was his wont.

This time, however, Jack had come unattached to whatever bound him into his imprisoning Box. I shall never know if mere age had loosed his chains, or (which seems more likely) my elder brother was at the root of Jack's newfound freedom. Whatever the cause, the effect was this: Jack flew UP in the air, free of all restraint, and frightened the blazes out of me.

To make matters worse, for a week or so, my evil brother would load Jack, and use him as a projectile on me. I still dislike the "Pop Goes The Weasel" tune to this day.

-Aether

Re: Our Fears
 

Does anyone else take issue with those fairground clown-heads that oscillate with mouths agape so you they can suck tennis balls/your soul into their throats of Nothingness?

I seem to remember some particularly creepy ones from my childhood.

Oh, and...does anybody else recall having the living crap scared out of them by that episode of Sesame Street where Bert and Ernine met their mummy counterparts in an Egyptian tomb...? Please tell me I wasn't the only one to see that.

Re: Our Fears
 

I remember my sister being frightened by the doll hospital in New York City.

Roaches and anything roach-like evokes my existential dread.

My greatest fear,at the moment, is neverreceiving my copy of Teatro Grotesco!

Re: Our Fears
 

Funny how memory works. Aether's anecdote reminded me of the jack-in-the-box I had as a kid, when I had completely forgotten about it for years and years, and nothing else I ever read or saw of them sparked my memory until now. I think it was the mention of "Pop Goes the Weasel" that summoned it forth, appropriately enough. Maybe I'm more afraid of them than I thought.

Roaches are certainly foul, but spiders still take the taco for me. I apologize whenever I kill one, though, because I'm afraid of dying and being tormented by giant spiders in hell. Maybe if I give them the whole, "Dreadfully sorry, but you're on my turf," spiel now, then they'll be lenient with me in my worst-case-scenario afterlife.

Re: Our Fears
 

Camel crickets, aka cave crickets. My fear may hop into sight any moment now down here in the basement.

Re: Our Fears
 

Whew. I just read (for the maybe fourth time in my life) the first act of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance. Incredible how the end sneaks up on you and still terrifies! I would highly recommened, for Ligotti fans, reading this one or Tiny Alice, which is his most cryptic and dark play.

"We were just sitting home...and..."

Read it. It's not about a phobia but to me it's about Our Fears to the nth degree, I mean as much as we are capable of really feeling in this life. Albee isn't as doom & gloom as TL but he's been one of our best writers for about 47 years.

Re: Our Fears
 

"What a season is upon us..."

Yes, I have been drafted as Credit Card Boy again, as my organization's annual fundraising campaign kicked off a few weeks ago. I must report that my telephone skills have greatly improved. Since I work for a nonprofit religious cult (organization), I have learned to sneak the phrase "and God bless" at the end of most messages that I leave on donors' machines. The advantage of this ploy is moot, but it makes me feel like a player. Give until it hurts.

Re: Our Fears
 

I'm not a squeamish person, especially not when it comes to insects or other arthropods. Bees, spiders, flies, ants and other household fauna do not bother me. Nor am I paranoiac about germs and food safety---I dumpster dived food regularly when in college and was in as good health then as I ever was before or have been since.

So I was shocked by my own response as much as I was the sight of the object of that response: COCKROACHES in a bag of potatoes I had just purchased. I slammed my cupboard door shut and hyperventilated so heavily that I nearly fainted!

It took me nearly an hour to get rid of the things. I kept opening the cupboard and slamming it shut. Something about the tiny skittering noise of their feet feeled me with a viscerally loathesome dread. I really can't explain it.

The potatoes were perfectly good but I threw the entire bag away.

Re: Our Fears
 

actualwolf, I read your post about ten minutes before my lunch break. I passed on eating the mashed potatoes in my frozen meal today. Sometimes it is therapeutic to confront our fears or that which disgusts us. I seriously recommend that you read the 1965 story "The Roaches" by Thomas M. Disch. If Marcia Kenwell can overcome her revulsion of the vile creatures, then, perhaps, you may be able to do so as well...