From: kgatling@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Keith E Gatling)
Subject: Everyone's Afraid of the Letter Q - Results!
Organization: Manlius Pebble Hill School; Dewitt, NY
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 92 00:27:52 EDT

Okay, I promised that I'd post the results, and I also promised that I'd
remove the original names to protect the innocent (and extremly phobic).  So
here are the results of my information gathering to see just what strange
things us grownups are afraid of.

I've also included a part of the original message just to give you a frame
of reference (especially for you newcomers).

-----
(Message fears 1)
From:    Keith E Gatling <kgatling@mailbox.syr.edu

I know that the standard "scary" stuff didn't give me nightmares.
What *did* give me nightmares was Alfred E Neumann's face  (and I
was an avid reader of  Mad),  certain typefaces (I remember being
afraid of the letter Q,  and wouldn't eat  Alpha-Bits  because of
it),  and famous people (like Thomas Edison, Joseph Lister, etc).
Nightmares for me  usually consisted of being  accosted by one of
these people (or letters) and being tickeled into oblivion.

As a result, things that would've scared my mother didn't faze me
at all,  and the things  that  really  did  bother me,  my mother
thought were totally ridiculous.   To this day,  at 36 years old,
unless Cheryl is in bed with me,  I sleep with  my head under the
covers.   We also have  a little  routine when  she  goes to work
(she's a nurse on the night shift)  where when she leaves and I'm
in bed,  she closes both bedroom doors  so the monsters won't get
in.   I'm serious,  I get  totally  freaked  out  if one  of  the
bedroom  doors is  open  and I'm  alone in the house...one  never
knows  when a  rogue Q  will  come  in with  a feather  duster to
tickle you.

Now I've gotten a  bit better at it.   I can now  roam around the
house  a bit at  night  with  no  one  else  home  with very  few
problems...until  I happen to think  of one  of those things that
does a number on my head, and then I  have to get my blue blankie
to put over my head.

Interestingly enough,  if there's  a dog or  a baby  in the house
with me,  the situation  changes.  That  means I'm not alone, and
the monsters can't  get me...no matter  how little the baby could
actually do to beat the monsters back.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Keith E Gatling                       kgatling@maibox.syr.edu *
*     Opinions?  I've got plenty of them.  Just ask my wife!    *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

-----
(Message fears 2)
From:     Cathy Lane <clane@duke2.edu>

I loved your post!  I bet I'm a worse scaredy-cat than you!

   > Interestingly enough, if there's a dog or baby in the house
   > with me, the whole situation changes.

Me too.  It was great when I had the 2 kids.  Now they 'protect'
me and I haven't been scared of the dark since!

-----
(Message fears 3)
From:     Janice Rand <jrand@enterprise.starfleet.mil>

I was an avid fan of Dark Shadows as a young child.  To this
day, I must sleep with covers up to my chin so that no vampire
can get to my neck when I sleep.  After college I had an
apartment without air conditioning, and there I was sweating to
death during hot summer nights with a sheet bunched up around my
neck.  I'm well past that age now and I still do it.

-----
(Message fears 4)
From:    Lisa Douglas <ldouglas@grnacres.com>

I am frightened by machinery in water.  My grandfather had an
old boat whose engine (large and mid-cabin) always seemed to be
sitting in a foot of water.  I had to walk by it to get to the
head (isn't that boat talk for bathroom?) and refused to do it
by myself.

Other things that give me the creeps along those lines is the
back of a toilet.  It took me until I was in my mid-twenties to
be able to look into the tank of a toilet.  I finally had to
master my fear when I was alone one night and the toilet was
running so loudly I couldn't sleep.  I still have to take a deep
breath and calm myself before I can lift the tank lid, although
I am able to do it.  I even replaced one of the parts by myself
once.  I had to call people because I was so proud.

-----
(Message fears 5)
From:    Tony Nelson (tnelson@nasa.com)

I have a sister-in-law whose deathly afraid of cats...even the
cutest little kittens you could possibly imagine.  She's never
had any sort of close encounter with a cat in her life -- no
traumatic cat-related experience as a child or anything like
that.  She can't explain the fear in any rational manner at all
She just freaks out whenever there's a cat around.

-----
(Message fears 6)
From:    John Walton <jwalton@wmount.com>

I have very few fears that are irrational, but I do have one.
Silverfish.  I usually just get the shakes when I see one, and a
bunch sends me out of the room.  When I am really brave, and
they are on concrete, I can mash them, but I do it with extreme
vigor, to ensure that they are paste.

Spiders I carry outside, flies I swat.  Silverfish give me the
willies!

Silly, ain't it.  And I'm 36.

-----
(Message fears 7)
From:    Laura Petrie <lpetrie@brady.com>

Well, I'm afraid of manholes and grates over holes and those
metal door things in sidewalks.  I distinctly remember seeing
some workers get a lizard out of a manhole when I was 4 or 5.
That's when I realized that the lids covered up holes.

My worst experience with this was a visit to a dam where you
walked through the insides of the dam and came out on top.  The
only way back to the car was to walk across steel grating which
you could see through.  Below was rushing water and the
generators.  I was probably 14 or 15 at the time and I just
broke down.  I had to do the tour backwards (with a security
guard) to get out.  I was teased unmercifully.  Now I'm sort of
afraid of dams and bridges too.

-----
(Message fears 8)
From:    Wilma Deering <wdeering@nasa.com>

I'm scared to go down into our basement at night, but that's
only semi-irrational (seems like every story I read about crime
around here has the purpetrator breaking in through the
basement).  Also, there are a lot of bugs down there :-).

When I was little, I used to think that someone was under my
bed, waiting to grab me by the leg and trip me if I got up in
the middle of the night.  I used to dread waking up and finding
that I had to go pee :-).  If I *did* manage to get the nerve,
I'd step way-y-y out beyond the side of the bed as I was
climbing out.  That way the monster (???) couldn't reach my
leg :-).

I, too, find that I' am less scared when I am alone with my two
(very young) kids, than I would be by myself.  But for me, it's
more a feeling that "I have to be brave for them," not that
"they'll protect me."

-----
(Message fears 9)
From:    Lou Grant <lou@wjm.com>

I am afraid to be outside in the dark, my wife is afraid to be
inside in the dark.  I guess we are a good match!

-----
(Message fears 10)
From:    Sally Rogers <srogers@brady.com>

I will not ever ever sleep with the closet doors open nor will I
let my son.  Go figure!!  No real explanation.  I will not ever
go to sleep with a spider in my room.  I have to get up and kill
the bugger before I will sleep.

My husband will not sleep with the moon shining in his face.
Nor can he sleep with the bed facing the mirror.....????  :)

-----
(Message fears 11)
From:    Kim Reese <kreese@hillman.edu>

Ok, Ok, I'll admit it :-).  I'm afraid of the fireplace after
dark!

This stems from a movie I saw when I was a child (with a
babysitter...) called "Don't be afraid of the dark."  Ever seen
it?  It is about these little monsters that come up from the
fireplace after dark and drag people down into the fireplace and
kill them.

I really can't pass a fireplace without my heart pounding
faster.  Sigh.

-----
(Message fears 12)
From:    Joanie Cunningham <jcunning@uwmil.edu>

I used to be afraid of a "curtain crack," you know, that dark
little crack between the curtains at night?  I used to "know"
that someone was staring in...I couldn't go to sleep.  It went
away somewhere in my 20's, I think...

-----
(Message fears 13)

From:    Mindy McConnell <mcconnell@mork.ork>

OK, I'll bite.

Buttons give me the willies.

Now that I've grown, I've learned to ignore them and even
have many clothes with buttons, and look at people with
buttoned clothes all day long without discomfort.

But loose buttons, especially small buttons with holes (you
know, the basic type), especially shirt buttons lying loose ---
I still shudder when I have to pick one up.

I have NO idea what started this -- its been my whole life.

-----
(Message fears 14)

From:    Della Street <della@masonlaw.com>

I'm afraid of the dark.  I am terrified of the house where I
grew up (and where I still live, part-time).  It is huge and
dark and full of ghosts.  Not just ghosts of deceased humans,
but ghosts of past times, both happy and sad.  The house is much
too empty now, and it moans and whines at night.  In that house
I have seen, out of the corner of my eye, the ghost of a cat I
used to have (who is dead now, of course).  I have laid in my
bed and had dreams of my mother (also deceased) coming to
comfort me when I am depressed or worried, and I have felt her
sitting on the edge of the bed.  I am not frightened of her, but
the whole thing freaks me out anyway.  I always sleep with a
nightlight and a stuffed animal.  Sometimes I feel like the
Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz, with his eyes tightly shut,
nervously twisting his tail and saying "I DO believe in spooks,
I DO believe in spooks, I do I do I do I do I DO believe in
spooks!"

Nearly everyone I know is afraid of that house, so it's not just
me.  Visiting relatives and friends have refused to sleep alone
in certain rooms, and NOBODY goes upstairs unless there are
lights turned on.  In an odd way, I feel safe in that house -
kind of protected by the ghosts.  But I still don't like to be
alone there!

Also, I do not watch, read, or think about anything pertaining
to the occult.  I guess you would call that fear of demonic
possession, or lindablairphobia.

I'm also afraid of dogs, but that's just the residual effects of
having a paper route when I was twelve.

Bats, bugs of any kind (but especially the flying ones), and
birds round out my fear list, unless you want to count the
myriad of deep psychological fears we all have, like fear of
failure, fear of being alone, etc.  Oh yeah, and I also sleep
with the closet door tightly closed.

-----
(Message fears 15)

From:  Joe Carson <carsonj@shadyrest.com>

I was totally afraid of balloons up until only a few years ago.
I was afraid of them popping in my face.

I had to have sheets on my bed at all times, but I think this
was due to the fact that when I was 4 my mom told me you could
get some horrible skin disease from sleeping on a naked
mattress.  She was joking, but I believe her (Calvin and Hobbes
syndrome).

That's all I can think of for now...if I'm alone in the house I
have to have something on in the background like the TV or
stereo before I will fall asleep.

-----
(Message fears 16)
From:    Leah Brahms <lbrahms@warprsch.starfleet.mil>

   > Now I've gotten a bit better at it.  I can now roam all
   > over the house a bit at night with no one else home, with
   > very few problems...until I happen to think of one of those
   > things that does a number on my head, and then I have to
   > get my blue blankie to put over my head

Well, I'm glad you admitted that.  I thought I was the only
adult that is afraid I'll run into monsters when I'm alone.

-----
(Message fears 17)
From:    Lucy VanPelt <lvanpelt@goober.com>

I loved your post!  I cannot sleep with the closet doors open,
the clothes become monsters.

I agree with you, my boys love monster stories and anything
scary.  I used to worry that they would have nightmares, but my
sons (4 and 8) just tell me, "You know mom, it's just pretend."

So my husband and sons watch the "scary" movies, and I stay in
the other room!!

-----
(Message fears 18)

From:    Ralph Kramden <rkramden@nymta.com>

   > Anyway, the entire point of this was that you can't always
   > judge what'll bother kids by what bothers you, and I guess
   > I'll just let our kid decide for herself (when she gets
   > here) what will and won't give her nightmares.

Based on observations of friends who have become parents, I have
a theory that babies secrete some sort of chemical that causes
the parents to completely forget what it was like to be a kid.
You appear to be some sort of mutant who is immune to this
chemical...  :-)

-----
(Message fears 19)
From:    Barney Fife <bfife@mayberry.com>

   > ...one never knows when a rogue Q will come in with a
   > feather duster to tickle you.

Not to mention the Borg fleet, several Romulan warbirds, and a
Ferengi or two.

Aargh, sorry, been watching too much Star Trek.

-----

And as Porky might say...That's all folks!


--
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Keith E Gatling                                  kgatling@mailbox.syr.edu *
*          Opinions?  I've got plenty of them.  Just ask my wife!           *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *