Irrational Childhood Fears

I was a really weird kid. I had the strangest fears. Here are the main fears that my parents (especially my dad) ALWAYS made fun of me for:

Empty Gas Tank
Even if the gauge showed there was 1/8 of the tank left, I would freak out and ask my parents the entire time we were driving, "Are we going to make it? Shouldn't we get gas? Will our car explode?"
One time my dad's gauge was nearing empty so he thought it would be funny to speed up and slow down and tap on the breaks so that the car would shake. I freaked out. Not funny, Dad!

Inside-Out Umbrellas
When the wind caught an umbrella and turned it inside-out, I freaked out. It was creepy to me. I think it had something to do with Mary Poppins, but I haven't seen that movie is so long that I can't remember.
Also this picture of George W. is funny.

Elevators
I was always SURE we would get stuck. Never happened.
I'd always prefer to take the escalator until, of course, I tripped getting off of one then was sure that I'd be sucked into the tiny crack between the floor and where the stairs disappear.

Pool Vacuums

I was fine with house vacuums. But pool vacuums were a different story. Especially the ones that looked like those in the picture below....they were the scariest!!! The other models of pool vacuums were of course terrifying too but nowhere near as much as these.
My aunt's pool had a vacuum like this, but it had these creepy white tubes that twisted out from the blue part and wrapped around the hose that looked like antennas. So scary.
And to be honest, as irrational as it is, I still hate pool vacuums. :)

Toilets
Anything but a regular, white porcelain, clear-watered, manually flushing toilet was horrifying to me. I was most afraid of the types of toilets pictured below: metal toilets, toilets with blue water, port-a-potties/outhouses, and automatic flushing toilets.
-Story 1: Every year, my dad's side of the family has a "Cookie Day" sometime before Christmas where we elaborately decorate sugar cookies. One year when I was about 5, my dad and grandpa thought it would be funny to take the blue food coloring and put a few drops in the toilet, then call me into the bathroom. When I walked in and saw the blue water, I got that fear-sucking-out-all-the-oxygen-in-my-lungs feeling and ran screaming from the bathroom. My mom was not pleased with them but they thought it was hilarious.
-Story 2: Once when I was younger, we were on a road trip and I told my mom I had to go to the bathroom. So we pulled over at the next rest stop and my mom took me in. When I saw that the toilets were metal, I magically didn't have to go anymore. But my mom knew better and said that I absolutely HAD to go there because we wouldn't be stopping for another few hours. After much protesting, my mom forced me down onto the toilet, where I sat clinging onto her leg for dear life, screaming of course. She said she could hear my heart pounding on her leg! Haha.
-And I still don't like metal toilets, outhouses/port-a-potties, and have discovered that toilets on airplanes and cruise ships are equally terrifying.

What are/were your weird fears?


I graduate next week. Woot!