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Generation In-Between: A Xennial Podcast
Xennial co-hosts Dani and Katie talk about their analog childhoods, digital adulthoods and everything in between. If you love 1980's and 1990's pop culture content, this is the podcast for you!
Generation In-Between: A Xennial Podcast
Stuff that Scared Us as 80's Kids
It's our first Spooky Season installment for 2025 - and we're sticking pretty close to home. In this episode we talk the stuff of 80's kid nightmares -- from kidnapping to muppets, and more.
Join us all season long for more scary content!
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Do you still walk wide around white vans and parking lots because they creep you out?
Speaker 2:Did movies like Jaws shape your fears surrounding swimming pools?
Speaker 1:If you've ever been scared of a Jim Henson creation, you might be a Xeniel, and we are too. Hi, I'm Katie.
Speaker 2:And I'm Tani and you're listening to Generation In Between, a Xeniel podcast, and today we are talking about all the things that scared us as 80s kids a little bit of 90s trickled in there, but mostly we and it's mostly weird shit. Weird shit that scared us Definitely and mine is really weird.
Speaker 1:I thought I had like one or two, and then, as I talked to you and then thought more about it, I came up with a few more. Oh good, yeah, okay, I think I told you most of them about it. I came up with a few more. Oh good, yeah, okay, I think I told you most of them.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I was like oh, I guess I was scared of more things than I remembered. Yeah Well, oh, I forgot to say that this is a Zennio podcast, where we revisit, remember and sometimes relearn all kinds of things from being 80s kids and 90s teens. That's right, but today we're going to focus zero in on our 80s kids fears, because we are starting spooky season now. That's what I was going to say.
Speaker 1:This is spooky season number one. We're going to have what? Eight or nine episodes, maybe more. Oh, I had an idea. Remind me to tell you after. I meant to tell you before. We turned it on Fun, it's a fun one, okay, but if you're watching on YouTube, you may notice a little addition to our sets. Ta-da Well, trying to look your stuff I'm breaking up, I don't know this is awkward, but anyway, yes, we have our little on-air sign all lit up from our friend Jen, one of our Jens, one of our.
Speaker 1:Jens. And what makes it extra cool is she thrifted it. Thrifted it so like she didn't like go on Amazon Not that there's anything wrong with that and just like type it in. She was shopping in a thrift store. So this is a thrifted on-air sign. So fun Pretty exciting.
Speaker 2:The only problem is we have to have it. Well, it fits perfectly right here and it has to plug in because the battery the backs where the battery goes is broke and I messed with it for like an hour trying to fix it and it is beyond my capable skills, which are minimal. But anyway, it still has a plug and it plugs in and lights up. So we love it. Go look for it on YouTube. If you're just listening to us, We'll probably take a picture too.
Speaker 1:We definitely will.
Speaker 2:So we're on air, okay, oh, also, before we jump into scary stuff, I have some things that my sister corrected us on Well, it's here. Corrected me on, oh, okay. So first thing was so, remember, I said my sister listens to us sporadically, yeah, okay. Well, she walks a lot now because I live in Oregon and it's beautiful weather, right now Gorgeous, right now yeah.
Speaker 2:So she does a lot of walking and she'll, whenever she listens to our podcast, she'll text me stuff. And she texted me and she was like first of all, chef Boyardee didn't does not make SpaghettiOs, campbell's makes SpaghettiOs.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I was right. Yes, I didn't say Campbell's, I just said I don't think.
Speaker 2:Chef.
Speaker 1:Boyardee makes.
Speaker 2:SpaghettiOs. Yes, and then I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget. Oh, she said her wife, alicia, loves Lunchables. Now, she is a grown ass lady. Yeah, and guess what her favorite one is? I told you this yesterday it's the pizza one, the one that we blasted so hard. What does she like about it? Well, here's the thing I love my sister-in-law. She's amazing. I love her very much. But my sister-in-law, she's amazing, I love her very much. But my sister always says she has the palate of a kid and so like, okay, they come visit. I'll be like, oh, does Alicia like this? Or?
Speaker 1:that and she's like if your kids like it, alicia will like it. I love that, so that's like.
Speaker 2:so then there are kids who like the pizza ones. I guess Kids love them, yeah, but anyway, she still loves them. So there you go ahead, alicia. Um, and then she told me she corrected my memory and I'm glad she did so she was in on the bologna weird thing that I made in the microwave, okay, but she said we used to make them in the toaster oven, okay, and it we realized it took too long, so then we started making them in the microwave so you got more efficient and technically I think that is fried bologna.
Speaker 2:It's like a take on fried bologna, which you usually make in a pan. So we didn't invent it, that's just yeah. So I thought we invented it, but it's not.
Speaker 1:It's not Okay. So you're frying your bologna.
Speaker 2:It was too slow on the stove.
Speaker 1:It was originally in a toaster oven. Then it went to toaster oven, from stove to the microwave to the microwave.
Speaker 2:The main important ingredient, though, was the tony sachery's cajun seasoning. I'm sure I've like had it if you've had anything, I will need to like, get some and use it at my house they got.
Speaker 1:It sounds delicious okay at the public's sounds good to me. Yeah, was that it. Did you have more?
Speaker 2:um, there was something else, but we'll get into it when we start talking about the fears sounds good, sounds good, uh.
Speaker 1:So I still think you have a few more fears than me.
Speaker 2:So I think you should start. Okay, all right, well then I'll jump right into what my sister said. So I sat down to like type I like to type it because like writing takes too long, and I was trying to just like keep track of the things, weird shit that scared me when I was a kid. So I was like let me text my sister. And I was like, hey, podcast research. And I was like I'm trying to write down all the weird stuff I was scared of as a kid and I said what are some things you remember? Or something like that. And no kidding, she typed back three things and it was my top three that I already written. Wow, okay, so that's just kind of like validation, yeah. And so I kept going and, anyway, I kept coming up with so many things, so many things and I was like hello, undiagnosed anxiety disorder when you're a kid, yeah.
Speaker 2:And my sister told me, just narrow it down to things that scared you between the ages of like three and seven. But I did write a few more that came in and I think we have some of the same. I think we do.
Speaker 1:Yeah Cause if that happens I'll just jump in, and if I have anything extra, I can add.
Speaker 2:Cause there are some weird things that eighties kids, specifically, are scared of, and they did make my list, cause I did, I did a little research too, okay. So my number one thing I was scared of as a kid was weather. Okay, not just any weather, but severe weather, okay. And you would think, oh, hurricanes, because I lived in South Louisiana. Yes, but mostly what scared me was tornadoes.
Speaker 1:I put that down for me too, really, yeah, fear of tornadoes oh my God yeah. Because I was in Indiana.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and they were very common in the summer months by us.
Speaker 1:I looked it up the fear of tornadoes or hurricanes is called, oh my God, lylopsophobia.
Speaker 2:Okay, I have that to my list of phobias, yeah, and it's hurricanes and tornadoes specifically.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know, okay. So my dad was an oceanographer, okay Um, which studied the ocean and all the things. Weather is very intertwined with that, obviously, and he was obsessed with, like hurricanes. So maybe I just grew up hearing about weather all the time and, hello, undiagnosed anxiety. So I just to the point where there was sometimes and here was the thing that scared me about tornadoes, which also makes sense with anxiety hurricanes you know ahead of time, for, even if it's not a lot of time, you can plan tornadoes.
Speaker 2:You don't know, yeah, like they just fucking pop up. They just show up and you're in South Louisiana, you have no basement, you just have to go hide in the bathtub. So if we and I was always scared that it would happen at night, to the point where my parents lied to me and told me that severe weather does not happen at night, literally my sister can back me up on this they literally told me that because I would not sleep, but what I would do sometimes, that I would go in the bathtub with a blanket and pillow to be ready. You were ready, literally.
Speaker 1:I didn't go that far. But I also would have trouble sleeping, particularly in the summer, and only if there was like a bad storm already going on, like if it was really bad, or I knew we were under a tornado watch or something like that. Now, to be fair, I don't know if I should jinx myself. I've never seen a tornado. Oh yeah, like in person, yeah Right, so I mean the places I've lived and everything, I've never seen one. But I think what made it worse? And I think my parents are trying to make it better? But they both had a couple stories of tornadoes. So they would tell us. And so, like my mom was saying one time she was washing dishes as a kid and it was bad weather and she looked up and she saw it like coming toward their house. I've had nightmares like that and so she, like they all, ran to the basement and it and you know tornadoes.
Speaker 1:And it like went up in the air before it got there or whatever. But so I would just and same thing. It was always stories of being surprised by it, kind of like you said, always stories of being surprised by it, kind of like you said. So I would just be constant high alert if it was bad weather or if, like, the sky was quote unquote green.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, right, you know all the signs, or, and you know, we lived in the Midwest as as adults, I was an adult, yeah, and tornado sirens went off all the time.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, cause y'all had them too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, we didn't have those in South Louisiana, that wasn't a thing, cause there's nowhere to know how you're screwed.
Speaker 1:So it's like here it comes Uh.
Speaker 2:I hated that cause it took me living there for about a year and a half before I realized you don't have to run to the basement every time it goes off, every time you hear it. And then the second time we lived in the Midwest, we um didn't have a basement, we lived on base. To save money, they built storm shelters in the garage instead of basements. Okay, girl, that thing, I never wanted to go in there Because it's scary. I mean, it's scary, yeah. And we'd have to tell the kids, like, if you're playing outside, do not play in the fucking storm shelter, right, because it's four storms, yeah, and really hurricanes.
Speaker 1:Here some of the worst damage friends of mine have had during parts of hurricanes that have come to our area or the outer bands have been tornadoes when the hurricane, winds and the rain wasn't that bad, but a couple tornadoes came through on the bands. One of my friends' roof came completely off, then the rain started. Yeah, no roof. So I mean I'd say that's not an irrational fear. But probably the way we, the way we understood it as children, was probably not like the whole picture. And the hurricane thing's funny too, because you said, oh, you know you can prepare, but even those are so unpredictable, right. So yes, you can get out of there, you can hunker down, you can all the things, right. But I think because we feel like we have control over that, but we kind of don't.
Speaker 2:No, we don't, I mean, it's weather, I mean, and Hurricane Katrina is a great example because I was living temporarily in South Louisiana I don't want to get too in the weeds with this, because it's just downer and it's just whatever Uh, temporarily, while Troy was doing training, we had just gotten married and, um, we went out, like we went out the night before. I evacuated cause we didn't think it was coming our way and we went out for my like it was like I was already married, but it was like a delayed wedding, bachelorette, get together, party thing and we would have we're drinking it up. I spent the night at my friend Beth's apartment. We wake up the next morning and it had turned and everybody and like you have to understand when you grow up in a place where hurricanes are a way of life, you don't freak out Like a lot of people who are new to the South, like wig out everything. It's like well, you don't, because a lot of times it does turn, or this or that Right, and that was unprecedented and it was huge.
Speaker 2:And Troy called me and he was cause he was finishing training in another state and he was like you got to get out of there, and so we packed up, um got on the road I will never, because they had all these roads closed. It took us like I think she'll have to correct me nine or 10 hours for a five hour drive. We had two cats in the back of her pickup truck and their carriers crying at each other because they just oh God, it was crazy. And then that was a whole spin of events. My whole family stayed there. It was not good. I couldn't talk to them for like days and we're coming up on 20 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I saw something on tv like a commercial for like a special that. Um, who was it? It's someone who, I think, got her start in robin, maybe robin gibbons, I don't know. There's gonna be like some 20-year special report or something which you know. Yeah, I mean know it's too much.
Speaker 2:But anyway, let's move on from from weather, let's move on. Okay, here's my funny one. Okay, so the second thing my sister texted me was the second thing I wrote down was guy smiley from Sesame street. Do you know who that is? Yes, he was the game show host show host.
Speaker 1:Yes, he had a very big mouth.
Speaker 2:Yes, and he was very loud. I can see him in my head right now and very like I can't think of the right word. But my mom I mean, because sesame street was like part of our childhood, that was like a core part, especially in my house, and uh, I loved it, except I did not like whenever she's like. I always knew when he came on screen because I could hear you screaming from the other room, because I would watch it from little bitty and you would scream like literally oh yes.
Speaker 2:Oh, he terrified me, terrified me and I can remember being scared, like I was more of like a Grover girl, okay, and Big Bird like the calmer, and you know, grover was very lovable, la la, la, like, if Elmo would have been around back then I would have loved Elmo. Oh yeah, but this was the OG days. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So well, I have one of them on my list too. Who the Count? Oh, you were scared. I was terrified of the Count, oh my God. To the point that I didn't want to get out of bed in the morning this was probably like preschool into kindergarten because I thought he was under my bed and he was going to grab my ankles. So look, I looked it up. I put like how common was it for kids to be afraid of the cat, wanting like reassurance? I didn't really get an answer on that, but it did say that I found a bunch of message boards about people that were like terrified. So I was born in 82. So I would imagine I was watching newer versions of him, but sometimes PBS would play like all years of Sesame Street, right, it wasn't always the current season, there wasn't a lot of kids programming back then in the early eighties, there was not a lot of options, so I may have seen some of the older ones, because he debuted in 1972.
Speaker 1:And I guess he was kind of menacing at first. To the point, that he would like his design hypnotize other puppets so that they would leave him alone, so he could keep counting his laugh. I actually looked up, like his laugh.
Speaker 2:It was a lot like more vampiric. When Jim Henson first started creating puppets and muppets, they were for adult audiences. Yeah, like that's who he created for him. He didn't go into it with the intention of creating for children, right, it just happened that way so they did soften.
Speaker 1:So of course, yeah, but I was like a little validated, I was like okay, so he was a little bit scary. I think he's a vampire. Yeah, that's scary.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's got a little cloak and I mean he's goofy, but he's you know, yeah, he's scary guy, smiley, I don't know, he was just a lot he was a lot and it was I, I was, I was also a mr rogers girly, yeah, like my mom, like probably because I had undiagnosed anxiety from from birth, and I think like all that extra stuff was just too much for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Overstimulating, it was like too.
Speaker 2:It was, I was, I was wigged out, yeah, wigged out, but guys smiley yeah.
Speaker 1:That's smiley on the count man. Another one I know we both have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's do, it Was being kidnapped. Oh, I know we both have. Yeah, let's do, it Was being kidnapped. Oh, yeah, okay, we both had that. And that is because guys in the 80s Stranger Danger was drilled into us at school every year. At least once At least we had these creepy ass videos they would play us of, like creepy men on the street offering you candy Yep, if they offer you candy or to show you puppies, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then, yep, if they offer you candy or to show you puppies, yeah, candy says puppy. If I had candy puppies I'd be gone. But and then also there's a big push at the time where, like if someone showed up to pick you up from school.
Speaker 2:Yes, you had to have a word, you had to have a code word with your family.
Speaker 1:So if they were like I know your parents and they've been in an accident, Come with me. You have to be like, well, what's the family code word which I get. But then I'm also like, if your parents were really in an accident, are they able to be like cognizant enough to be like the family?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but your kid, you don't know Is duck or something I don't know, but there was that knowing now from true crime that I listened to. It's interesting because the stranger danger cases from the era like seventies into the eighties and on, do you have elements of that Someone lying about a puppy or candy or some other thing, like oh, I want to show you this in my house really quick. Or oh, let me give you a ride. Like remember, I'm your neighbor and I know your mom's Carol, or whatever. So I mean it made sense.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's too because there was a lot more media coverage at the time, Like it was getting to be more widespread knowledge of kidnappings and things that you thought it was more frequent than it was.
Speaker 1:Right, it's something like and I meant to write this down, but I kind of know just from like knowing this stuff it's less than 1%, even back then of kidnappings no, that is still 1% or less.
Speaker 2:It's still terrible, it's still however many, and obviously can end very tragically, but you're more in danger from people you know and we weren't having a lot of great conversations about that yet which I, I know there's been like studies and talks and all the things about that, about how we were kind of, um, there wasn't enough being taught to us as kids at that time about people you know being quote unquote the bad guys.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, whether that's teachers, coaches, family members, neighbors, even other kids right in abusive situations. I think we have a better conversation points about that now and I know something that's kind of morphed a little to like help adults, meaning like if you're riding your bike home from school and an adult's like, hey, hi there, can you give me directions to whatever? Or hey, my dog ran away, like to tell them and I would, because my kids, all of them, at one point or another, have ridden bikes regularly to and from school adults will not ask kids for help, right. And that when the first time I heard that I was like help, right, and that when the first time I heard that I was like like I was an adult, the first time I heard that I was like, yeah, that's a great point, that's true. And that even if they really do need your help, I just told my my kids just ignore, yeah, just keep riding. Worst thing they'll be like that kid's a shit, you know.
Speaker 1:Oh well, too bad, find your own dog, or find the cvs on your phone, like or whatever phone now so yeah.
Speaker 1:so that was something I always told them, like you know, because of course you want your kids to be respectful of other people, not just adults, but people. But I was like look somebody, if you're by yourself or even with your friends and somebody you don't know an adult, is asking you a question, just keep on riding, keep on walking, don't even worry about being polite. But yeah, that that one, and it's not. I wouldn't say that's another one. That's not irrational because it does happen, but like you said it was, it seemed like it was more common than it was and like I still can remember those videos because I remember my sister will back me up on those too, Like I.
Speaker 2:I and they would always know the day that it would be shown at school, Cause I'd come home terrified and I, I went through this obsession I can undiagnosed problems here I'm that's a trauma laugh Everybody.
Speaker 1:She doesn't really think it's funny. It's like a trauma.
Speaker 2:Laugh Cause that's how I handle things. So, uh, I would come home and like obsessively lock doors and windows, like I would go check every single window. I still do that I do too. Yeah, to the point, but now I feel like it's different, because you're protecting a whole house. That's true, that's true, and when you're a child. You shouldn't have to worry about that, Right.
Speaker 1:Anyway, my parents like to leave windows open when it was nice out, like even at night, right joke trees, and it would just be nice to have fresh air, but I would wait till they went to bed and I go around and close them all Cause cause they were like ground level. Someone could get in, you know, but it was someone going to try to get in?
Speaker 1:Probably not, but I couldn't sleep until everything was like and when I lived in an apartment in Chicago with a baby, my my oldest um. There were a couple of times just someone rubbed me the wrong way, like walking down the hall near my apartment or something and I lived in an okay building, but I just, it just freaked me out and I'm standing there with my baby Like they see what apartment I'm going into. That I mean total fire hazard, but there were a few times I just pushed furniture in front of the door.
Speaker 1:I was on like the ninth floor, so I wasn't worried about someone like scaling the building. I was worried about someone trying to get in from the hall. A hundred percent and yeah, I would still do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah so look at us, I have another silly one. Okay, let's hear Now. I'm like I'm sitting here as we're talking. I'm like was this a bad idea for an episode?
Speaker 1:Because I feel like it's gonna not funny, but it's, it's okay, I have interesting I have some dumb shit coming up.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, I'm ready. So those were the first three that my sister texted me immediately, okay, so, um, all right, this one I talked about before, but we're gonna revisit it because people may have missed it.
Speaker 1:They may have or they might be new.
Speaker 2:This might be their first episode so calgon commercials in the 80s terrified me. I forgot about this one For those of y'all I don't remember what episode we talked about this on it was something to do with commercials.
Speaker 1:It was probably commercials, or something like that.
Speaker 2:So in the 80s Calgon was like a bath product line. They started this whole campaign where it was like these frazzled women like either at work or as mostly frazzled moms, and you'd see them like cooking dinner at work, in a meeting and they'd go look at the camera and go, cow gone, take me away. And then they'd show them in this like luxurious bath. Well, I guess I never made it to the point where they were in a bath because all I would hear was that and I would panic like cow gone, take me away, away, scared the shit out of me, because, as a kid.
Speaker 1:You just thought that they'd like disappear. I don't know.
Speaker 2:I guess I just thought Calgon, take me away. I don't, I have no idea, but it scared me to death. I love it and I was little, I was like a little little kid, but I and it was a running joke in my family forever, and sometimes my sister would say it to me just to scare me.
Speaker 1:Oh well, it's it's funny how, like adults you know, create things Now. Granted, those commercials weren't targeted at kids, but especially back then, the the commercials that were on was what the whole family saw, right, so um that, like someone who created that, would probably never in a million years thought this might actually terrify children, or one child.
Speaker 2:It shouldn't like. I mean it's, it's not scary, the commercials are not scary, she's not even like I don't know what, I don't know, I just was not having it. I love it Not having it. And my sister would a hundred percent chase me around and say cow gun, take me away. And I'd be like stop. Yeah, that's great. When you have a sister who's seven years older, that's it happens. Mental torture happens, okay.
Speaker 1:So here's my interesting one. Okay, okay, okay. I texted you part of this, so I let me tell you what I remember, but then I will tell you the is this the one that I agree on?
Speaker 1:No, agree on no, this is a different. Oh okay, but I I think I texted it to you briefly. I vividly remember watching the movie look who's talking, uh-huh. And there's a scene where she's in an apartment in new york or a big city and a burglar is on her fire escape. Yeah, and they have like that little device that cuts the glass. Yeah, and they cut the glass and they reach their hand through and they unlock the window and they break in vividly remember.
Speaker 1:That totally scared me, like as a kid, because it was the first time it occurred to me. Oh my gosh, even if everything's locked, people can get in. Oh yeah, and that like haunted me yeah, yeah, I'm like how do I avoid this? So I went to look it up because I'm like I'm gonna re-watch it. I cannot find it in the movie now. Granted, I haven't watched it from beginning to end. I found something about how she thinks someone's breaking into her apartment, but are you sure it's the first one and not the sequel.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's the sequel. I think it's the sequel. That's probably what happened, because I'm did I literally misremember this. We probably should have figured that out, so it's probably Look who's Talking 2?
Speaker 1:I bet it is T-O-O-2? I think so. Okay, so I didn't imagine this, unless it's another movie with these peeps in it. So I did find a reference to a 1981 movie called the Thief that had James Caan and he does something like that, and called the thief that had james conn and he does something like that, like he had, and I found the clip of it, but it's not exactly the clip I remember in my brain and yeah, he has like a suction cup, circle glass cutter, I mean I think that was in lots of movies because I don't remember that, but I remember that being yeah and I found um something on it, how it's just like a hollywood myth.
Speaker 1:Do you want me to look it up right now, my computer's real quick, okay, but, um, whether it was in that movie or not, I just remember having this again not irrational, but this like fear of, like this realization. You can have all these things like on your windows and doors and I don't know, all these kind of safeguards, and still not. I don't see anything katie yeah I did, did we both misremember this.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't remember it at all, I was just saying maybe oh I mean, I remember seeing that in things, so it could have been in a different movie.
Speaker 1:I'll look more into it, but I thought I was going to google it and find the scene and watch it like that's how vividly I remember it being part of that doesn't mean it's not there yeah, I guess maybe I just need to watch both movies.
Speaker 2:It says there's an apartment fire scene.
Speaker 1:That's not what I'm really thinking of weird listeners. If you know off the top of your head, let us know we're spending way too much yeah, we are, it's okay, we're gonna move on. But but the main, the main point of that other than like sometimes we do misremember things um was that realization that you're never, like, really safe, as safe as you make yourself feel, and that it's all just these little things we put in place but like yikes, that was scary.
Speaker 2:Well, this is a very downer episode. Okay, we're going to move on, but I also have some other things that are not uncommon. So clowns, which is still a prevailing fear for me. I hate them. Do not ever come up in my face dressed like a clown.
Speaker 1:I was a clown as a child Girl. I know you sent me that picture. What is that? I?
Speaker 2:don't know, no, ma'am. I don't know when this started for me, but it was definitely solidified when I saw the OG it mini series where Tim Curry?
Speaker 1:how could you not?
Speaker 2:I looked it up and that came out in 1990. So it wasn't in the eighties but I was 10 and I a hundred percent watched it when it came on because my mom was a huge Stephen King fan and I wasn't like I was kind of allowed to watch stuff Like I there wasn't really, or, and I there wasn't really um or, and I even if, in plus, that was in the time where, you know not, it wasn't common to have TVs in multiple locations in the house yet.
Speaker 2:So if it was on in the living room I could hear it, and if I zoomed through I could see it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's a great point too. It's kind of like, whatever your parents were watching, you were watching. Yeah, even if you weren't sitting there watching it yeah, but here you kind of pick up on what was going on. Yeah, when you went through the room or anywhere in the house, yeah, but I mean clowns is. I mean, a lot of people are really common. I mean, clowns make sense because it's a human form, yeah, but like, not like any real human you've ever seen yeah and you don't really know who's under there.
Speaker 2:I think I remember hearing about John Wayne Gacy, yeah, who also birthday party clown, yeah. So it's like this illusion of silliness and innocence, when underneath it's like pure evil, and terrifying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I get that one. I didn't write that one down because I wasn't and I'm not that scared of clowns, but I understand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you were one. You were part of the clown I was.
Speaker 1:I was Clowning was the art.
Speaker 2:That's crazy, and I'm not throwing shade to people who we clown in. I just don't want any part of it and I will not. If you ever revisit that, I'm not coming to watch you.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's an idea though.
Speaker 2:I'll think about that. Oh don't, Okay, let's just let that die. So I also put that I was scared of the dark. But I am still scared of the dark, Okay, and I slept with a nightlight until like just a few years ago. Because because now the ambient light that comes in, like from our bedroom window, it's not pitch black in our room, even though I sleep with an eye mask. But I have to know that when I take the eye mask off it's not pitch dark, Okay.
Speaker 1:My room's pretty dark. It stays pretty dark, you can sleep in pitch black. Oh, yeah, oh yeah, I wouldn't say I love walking in the dark, although my neighborhood's very dark because we're not too Well.
Speaker 2:Nobody likes walking in the dark.
Speaker 1:Katie, I was going to say, for years I ran in the dark in my neighborhood. And yeah, of course there's a street light here or there, but because the closer you get to the beach, the less light there is because of the turtles. And the turtles look out. Wait, the sea turtles.
Speaker 2:Hold on. The closer you get to the beach, the less light because of the turtles.
Speaker 1:Yes, there's like regulations around how much light. Really I thought Never mind, and you have to have certain types of lighting. Okay, so they don't get confused.
Speaker 2:Because of the turtles. Right, I thought you meant because there were so many turtles. There's just turtles everywhere.
Speaker 1:Dani, it's awful, and it's dark because there's no lights, so you're just like stepping on turtles. It's horrible. No, it's because there's so few turtles, I see and it's part of their.
Speaker 1:They don't want them to go toward the streetlight instead of the ocean, the ocean, okay, yeah, so it's actually pretty dark, I guess. I guess nobody likes running in the dark, but but I remember there's a friend I would meet and she's about a half mile from me where we would meet and it was pretty dark and I just run by myself to meet her and I just run down the middle of the street so that, like so, no one could snatch me from either side. Now, if a car turned the corner quickly, I'd be in trouble. Oh boy, and would.
Speaker 1:I would have friends who would be going to work at 4 45, trying to get to my friend at five and, granted, she was alone too, but she had her dog with her. So I felt like I need to get to where the dog could hear me scream so he could like pull toward me and she knows something was wrong.
Speaker 1:and then a few people saw me and I mean I don't know if they saw me running in the middle of the street because it was very dark, but just in general, out running without any lights on or anything, and they'd be like you know, you should really wear lights and I'm like I would rather people not know that I'm out there running and run in the dark than wear lighting.
Speaker 2:that's like hey, look at this woman look at this woman all lit up.
Speaker 1:I know, look as a woman. There aren't good options. I know you're right, but the last thing I need is somebody driving by and being like, oh, that bright light of a person going by is a woman running alone. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I got. I only ran when I used to run a lot for races. I only did one run in the dark one time early early morning and got followed and I never, did it again.
Speaker 1:Oh, nope, nope, I never did it again. Yeah, and I even now, like when I walk my dogs, I never. I mean, there's some routes I do over time, but I never go like the same exact route, just in case somebody, even during the day, sees me walking by and then they get used to me coming those times. But that's more of an adult fear. But it hinges on that. What else do you have on your list?
Speaker 2:So I wrote down thriller song and video. Yeah, creepy, I know it's Vincent Price, man, and listen that thriller like movie video thing. It's so scary and it was on MTV all the time, all the time. And I have an older sister, so MTV was always on when I was little bitty because she was older, right. Yeah, and man, I remember I would listen to my clock radio at night before I'd go to sleep, like just the regular radio, and if Thriller came on I would panic and turn it off. Wow, because I did not want to get to the part with Vincent Price.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I guess I wasn't as freaked out about that one only because I was the oldest kid and my parents didn't let us watch it. So I think by the time I was even like, obviously just in pop culture I'd heard the song. Yeah, but I think the first time I like watched the video I was definitely like 16 or 17.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, when they were like playing it during Halloween or something, and I was like, oh wow, this is awesome Because by then I could like and by then it was like a little not scary compared to the things you had already seen. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it scared the shit out of me. Then I okay this one we did talk about, okay. So, um, I wrote sharks in pools.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's me that is an 80s kids legit thing. Yes, that's when I looked up. That apparently is very common. All right, I want to hear.
Speaker 1:So there's an actual name for being afraid of sharks in pools. It's called gale phobia. Gale gale, like from dawson's creek. Yes, and I had just gotten done, uh, watching dawson's when I saw that I was like why don't they just call it like sharkophobia? So then, if you're just afraid of sharks on like a wider scale, it's not sharkophobia, no, it's called salacophobia. Why? I mean, I'm sure they're stand for something. Just call it what it is.
Speaker 2:Sharkophobia, sharkophobia, tornado-ophobia, guy Smiley-ophobia.
Speaker 1:Hurricaneophobia, puppetphobia, puppetphobia I love that. So galophobia is an irrational and persistent fear of sharks, which can extend to swimming pools, even though oh, listen to this little tidbit that I learned even though sharks cannot survive in chlorinated water. Did you know that? I was like, thank you, thank you research. So 51% of Americans are scared of sharks, not necessarily in pools Valid, and 38% of people avoid water because of them. Yeah, I get it. Yeah, I mean they're scary, but yeah, I would. And so you were just talking about the dark. I still won't go out to my backyard, even if I have like we have like little bistro lights on when it's dark and swim.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I will not swim in my pool.
Speaker 1:That's partly. Don't you have lights in your pool?
Speaker 2:though we do.
Speaker 1:We do. But I still worry, like there's I don't know something fell in it or something I can't see, and if, like a leaf, touched me and it was dark, I would freak out and think it was something else, so I still won't, but I remember going to the YMCA.
Speaker 1:Now my dad is a swimming and diving coach and has been for like 30 or 40 years An amazing swimmer and diver and so of course all of us were in swim lessons and we live by Lake Michigan so it was like good to make sure we could swim and for people who had pools and I don't know like I used to be totally fine and I don't know if I saw Jaws, which is a big contributor to people our age being afraid of sharks literally everywhere.
Speaker 1:But even swimming pools are what I saw, but I would just be swimming a lap and I would be convinced a shark was coming out of the great. Yeah, the drain at the YMCA and it was going to like chase me A hundred percent. Like, terrified Like.
Speaker 2:I, I looked this up too, and there's all kinds of funny videos and memes about this. Really yes, cause it's like a lot of people are worried about this. It's super common for Xennials and Gen Xers. It's wild. I don't know if Millennials, I'm not sure I don't know. Probably Is it Jaws specific, I don't know. I feel like maybe there's an urban legend at some point in time with a shark in a pool. Maybe I was also scared of snakes coming up through the toilet Me too, but that really can happen, that can happen.
Speaker 1:I remember being at Girl Scout camp. Stop, it happened, not to me, but they had, like the outhouses, ah, and someone saw one coming out of one.
Speaker 2:Because you know those are just holes in the ground, basically, See, this is why I don't do outside stuff, guys.
Speaker 1:That was terrifying, uh-uh. It's like, oh, a snake just crawled out of the toilet. Oh my God, I know.
Speaker 2:Okay, so this is speaking of movies, we're going to do a rewatch of this, not during Halloween season another time. And it is. This movie scared the shit out of me. This is also a very common scary movie for kids, even though it's not made as a scary movie. Okay, and it is returned to Oz. Okay, and you've never seen.
Speaker 1:I've never seen this one.
Speaker 2:So this was actually a Disney movie, wow, and it was rated PG. But I'm telling you it has horror vibes. It is dark fantasy. Dang Dorothy goes back to Oz and it's like destroyed because there's this evil witch that's like just ruined everything. Oh my gosh, and it is. If you just go, Farooza Bach is the. It plays Dorothy. Okay, you know who that is from. She was in the Craft oh. She played like the really evil one. Yes, nancy, I know exactly who.
Speaker 1:that is Okay.
Speaker 2:So, anyways, that thing, I remember seeing it in a theater, it came out in 1985, 86. But there are these things called wheelers that were like these people who had these super long arms and they had like razor blade, like circles, one of those like circle saws, like in a circle saw okay, that was their hand. Oh my god girl, they were called wheelers. They're so scary and if anybody out there is our age and has seen this movie, they know what the wheelers are and they're so scary, so we're going to rewatch that.
Speaker 2:This is the preview one day. But that movie scared shit out of me and Cooper was watching it because I was telling him about it when they were doing Wizard of Oz this summer, yeah, and he looked it up to see if it was on Disney Plus and it is, and he started watching it and he's like okay, I'll have to check that one out and also another movie that scared me. See, guys, once I started on my list, I couldn't stop I couldn't stop.
Speaker 2:I stopped at 15 going 15 days, thank god. Uh, willie wonka scared me, oh yeah, and it was specifically when the girl turned into a blueberry, when the other girl got sucked up in the thing, yep. And then when they had that trippy boat scene through the tunnel.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I hated all of that. And the funny thing was I think I mentioned this before my sister loved that movie and she also loved Mary Poppins. I also hate. I didn't like Mary Poppins. It didn't scare me. But my mom one year for Christmas when we were older, was giving us like d, like you know, christmas present was like nostalgic dvds or something, and she gave me those two movies and I was like I hate these movies.
Speaker 1:And yeah, and we have this in common I do not like willie wonka yeah, I don't like it me as a kid. I just have never liked it. And I don't like mary poppins either. Yeah, nope, and everybody out there. Oh well, add us all you want we don't like, add us. Yeah, yeah, just not a fan. Now you can have it. If you or your children are in a presentation of said shows, I will come and I will enjoy their.
Speaker 2:I mean I'll come, but I won't enjoy it.
Speaker 1:Their performance. Yeah, I'll enjoy the kids and their costume, but I will not. I, no, not the whole overarching storyline. No, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:All right. So here's another one about weather I should have mentioned because you're going to remember this as soon as I say it. What I was totally terrified. I was going to get struck by lightning while I was on the phone or in the shower during a thunderstorm.
Speaker 1:I still worry about that.
Speaker 2:That's valid. I looked it up. Yeah, here's what it says on the CDC website. It says do not bathe, shower, wash dishes or have any other contact with water during a thunderstorm, because lightning can travel through a building's plumbing. Yeah, the risk of lightning traveling through plumbing might be less with plastic pipes than metal pipes, which most of us have now. However, it is best to avoid any contact with plumbing and running water during a lightning storm. Yeah, and like look, florida, be crazy with lightning. Crazy with lightning, so bad. And then it said lightning can travel. This was more with phones, it was more landlines. We don't really have landlines now, I mean, some people do. But it said lightning can travel through electrical systems, radio and TV reception systems, in any metal wires or bars and concrete walls or flooring. Do not use anything connected to an electrical outlet. So when I was in Missouri there was a really bad storm and lots of lightning and a friend of mine, her TV. The lightning went through her electrical walls and their TV like exploded.
Speaker 1:Ooh, I've heard stories've heard stories like that before. Like it's no joke, man.
Speaker 2:So, anyway, that's a valid fear from our childhood, real, real fear. Um, also another do you remember? Stop, drop and roll? Yes, okay, I was totally scared I was going to catch on fire. As a kid, and at least once a year they gave presentation. The firemen would come in for those. Do they still teach this?
Speaker 1:I think they do, because I feel like my kids have brought home things like little certificates that they know how to stop dropping. Uh-huh yeah, okay, so if you ever catch, on fire, stop then you drop and then you roll the fire out, and and that's how you say, that's how you stay below the smoke too drop, stop, drop and roll no. Isn't that how it went? Oh, how did it go? The rap song oh, I think there's a psa, though. Stop, drop and roll no you're right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was thinking who sang that song?
Speaker 1:stop drop shut them down, open up shop. Oh, oh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a Rough.
Speaker 1:Riders role. I don't remember who that was, but Rough Riders.
Speaker 2:I don't remember who that was either. Everybody out there is like oh my God, I can't believe you don't remember. Listen, y'all know we don't remember stuff, that's why we researched it. Okay, what else do you have?
Speaker 1:Because I still have a few more, but I have been talking a lot, so I've mentioned her before, but I was completely terrified of this long deceased, before my time serial killer from my home county. Okay, okay, so her name was Belle Gunness, okay, and the reason I was so scared of her was because my county has a historical museum. Okay, okay, if you're from where I'm from or not, or you've heard.
Speaker 2:Where are you from port?
Speaker 1:county. Let them know laporte, county, indiana. Okay, laporte's the county seat. I'm from michigan city, which is the city next door, but our county has a historical museum, all right, so we went to it a few times. It was pretty decent, but they had this little. It almost looked like, um, like a pioneer yard, like it had the little wooden fence. I have a picture of this and had this really scary mannequin of this like kind of stocky woman in like pioneer clothes and it was this whole thing about how she killed all these people etc.
Speaker 1:And and like her face was like roughly drawn on the mannequin and stuff, and so for at least I remember, we went around summertime a whole summer. I just could not sleep because I thought like the ghost of her was coming to haunt me. I swore she was like at the foot of my bed once or twice. I was just so disturbed by this. I think I was like nine or ten. I did take a picture from the website of this thing, which I'll show you.
Speaker 2:But okay, so she, so she even though you knew that it was from a long time ago. You were super scared of her. Super scary Because of the scary mannequin, I think so.
Speaker 1:Okay, I think it was just so frightening to me that I thought of that. Obviously, I didn't know what she looked like Well having a visual is way way scarier.
Speaker 1:So she was born in Norway in 1859 and then moved to the Chicago area with her family and there's a longer story to this. I might do a longer episode at some point. Oh, no, true crime. But essentially from the time she was a young adult there was always this little mishap. So she got married and their farm burned down and then her first two children died. So it's not just men that she would kill off, and children did die at a higher rate back then, but there was always something, and so like they'd take the money from insurance for when fires would happen or a husband would die. So eventually she ended up moving across to the Indiana side, laporte County, and had her own farm. Well, she would place ads, because sometimes people would do this for either farm help, ooh, and then she'd kill them.
Speaker 1:Or that she was actually looking for a husband. So several men like packed up their lives and moved there, never to be heard from again. What? And this is back in like late 1800s, early 1900s by this point, and this is back in like late 1800s, early 1900s by this point. And so, like family, you couldn't even like call or like they're like writing letters. And finally, so in the midst of all this, you know, people keep disappearing. She is having more children, her children are dying, all this crazy stuff. One of the brothers of one of the guys who disappeared shows up His name was Andrew and is looking, asking about the brother.
Speaker 1:The next day or the day after that, her whole farm was like goes up in flames. So they come to, like fight the fire and everything. Can't find her, the children. They find all the bodies inside in the house. Yes, and it's like her and the kids, but her body had no head. Like this is historical fact. Well, how did it come off? No, they've never found it, which is so there's all these legends, their own head exactly, so that's kind of weird right like who, how?
Speaker 1:oh, I don't like this story. And then they start looking around. They end up finding the Andrew guy's brother, cause he had been dead I don't know a month or two. So they were able to still identify and they found 13 bodies on the property Just buried around the property.
Speaker 1:So I think that's the thing that freaked me out the most as a kid. And now it's like well, if she did like let's say she did like a murder, suicide, when she knew she was going to be found out, how did that happen to her head? Is that not her body?
Speaker 2:and she went on and left and lived on and that's somebody else head off, then they won't know yeah, how are they gonna figure it out?
Speaker 1:it's probably somebody else. But then it's like who was it? Who knows she who was missing? She was gutter. Yeah, it was see. I hate true crime. Figure it out.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's.
Speaker 1:probably it, it's probably somebody else, but then it's like, who was it who? Knows who was missing. She was good. Yeah, See, I hate true crime. So that scared me then and that scares me now. I know I don't like that. Show me the picture though. Oh, I will. Yeah, so that freaked me out forever.
Speaker 2:And I like. What are you talking about? This is the literal. Oh my god, it's literally like hand drawn.
Speaker 1:Show the camera okay, that's fucking weird looking on socials too.
Speaker 2:Ew, yeah, it's like a hand-drawn face, guys, or you can just google it yeah, you can google it.
Speaker 1:It's on the laporte county historical page. That's where I got all my stuff creepy and there's been like books written about her. I don't think there's's been a documentary or anything. But then, of course, forever people were like where'd she really go? Was that really her?
Speaker 2:They should have had her mannequin without a head on.
Speaker 1:Ooh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would have scared me less.
Speaker 1:Did I tell you yeah, so that was my last one, but let's hear some more of yours. I just have a few more.
Speaker 2:I'm on number 13, 13. Let's go. It was also a common eighties kid fear. It was quicksand. Oh yeah, Right, oh yeah, which sounds so stupid. Like where in the world am I but listen? It was because during the eighties quicksand was prevalent in all kinds of movies and TV shows and cartoons. For some reason that was a trope that we just magically started using Quicksand everywhere. And of course we're all scarred by, you know, the by NeverEnding Story. Yep, that's what I was going to say.
Speaker 1:And Princess Bride had quicksand. And didn't Indiana Jones have quicksand? At least one of them, I think. Did I think so?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it was all over the place and it was in video games lots of video games of the era too.
Speaker 1:So anyway. I mean obviously, it was not frequently not a very common thing that was going to happen to you.
Speaker 2:Okay, I also had this fear, and this is part of why I'm scared of the dark. Was something grabbing me from under the bed? Like you? Were scared of the count the count I don't I still at night. I did it last night.
Speaker 1:I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night and I run to the bed and jump on it. It's real fun to be married. Nobody can grab your ankle.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, I'm telling you I swear Like it is and I it. That's also been in a lot of movies. Even kill bill.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, where they the ankles right used to do to my stepsister.
Speaker 2:This is a story that makes me laugh, but it's also so mean. Siblings can be so mean so he would go and hide under her bed for like hours. Okay, he's older two years older and wait, and she would go to bed before him and he would hide under there and wait until she started to fall asleep and he would shake the bed and go Beth swear what that's commitment, I know.
Speaker 2:And then she'd run out crying, and then they'd go in there and be like Brandon, get out, yeah, brandon. Anyway, my last one, which I've talked about before, kind of goes along with kidnapping, but I was terrified of being abducted by aliens.
Speaker 1:I was never scared of that one and I'm surprised I wasn't, because a pop culture back then too, like and even things like unsolved mysteries and all that like talked about alien abductions, all the time, look, okay.
Speaker 2:So my mom was super into horror, but she also loved sci-fi. My mom also was an adamant believer in aliens. Okay, like mom also was an adamant believer in aliens. Okay, like you know, she was convinced they were out there somewhere and so we had. Like, my mom was a big reader too, so we had tons of books. And remember I brought up the movie fire in the sky. Yeah, okay, so that movie we should rewatch that. Ooh, it's so scary. That movie was based on a book that this guy wrote about his supposed real life alien abduction, and I'm pretty he wrote it in the seventies. I'm pretty sure we had that book in my house and I'm pretty sure I read it before I needed to. The movie didn't come out until the nineties. I think it was like 95, 95 or something like that. I could be wrong. I didn't write it down, but I'm pretty sure I read it as a kid.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, thank you. Yeah, especially calgon. I mean I don't you were so scared of being taken that you, we have to cut it off somewhere. Yeah, I mean it's. It's everything you said makes sense, though, developmentally like, because kids like things like the dark, that's like kids have been afraid of that. A lot of it was was probably grounded in, uh, the cultural. Oh, you know, I think maybe that's something parents nowadays are sort of, uh, yeah, trying to remedy, but there's just so much more content and access to content that it's hard to even like reign that in Kids are different and all kids are different.
Speaker 1:I mean Tegan, my daughter Tegan, I will be like no one let her watch that. Yeah, she's 10. So she's not like super young, but man, she really like internalizes. Oh, scary stuff. Yeah, I mean, I think I mean every person's different. Yeah, I would imagine there's a connection between those things, right, because, because you can imagine what you can't see.
Speaker 2:Yes or what you?
Speaker 1:don't know Right, and sometimes the imagination of those things is worse than the reality. Or you could imagine that it's common to be abducted by a stranger or an alien or whatever, when it's not, or to fall into quicksand abducted by a stranger or an alien or whatever when it's not, or to fall into quicksand, you know, but like it's, it's, it's your brain, because you're so smart and because it's like always thinking of the next thing. Well, I think those, I think those go hand in hand. See, yes, you can.
Speaker 1:Tegan's been having brant and I do math. She, she plays school with us, so we've been doing worksheets. But him and I kind of do math different ways. So like I'll do like where I'm carrying the numbers and stuff and like write it all out, and he'll just stare at it until his head calculates it and then he'll write it down, weird, right, yeah. And and it stinks, because like I'll do all that work and I'll be off by like a digit or something and he'll like give them all right, oh, yeah. And she'll be like mom, you got two wrong. And I'm like, oh, I guess I add, like put a one instead of a two or whatever. But yeah, it's kind of wild. And then one day she brought a sub and I just pulled my phone out just to be funny and started using the calculator. I got like halfway through the problems before she's like Mom, are you cheating she?
Speaker 1:she has readings like reading passages, then you answer critical thinking questions. She started writing the passages herself. Now it's cute. So she had one about her and our neighbor who they're like best friends, and it was all about them and then it was. But then it was like who was your favorite character and why? But it's literally about her and our neighbor kid, one of them mentioned. There was like one other name mentioned in there, so I put that name it was really funny, excuse me, and she's like this is wrong.
Speaker 1:I'm like how can your favorite character be right? So it's, I'll play along because I like to see like how she's coming up with this stuff. It's cute. But also she'll try to do it like nine o'clock at night and I'm like no, hit me up at night. And I'm like no, hit me up at 4am. Girl, I cannot be trying to read this critical path. Yeah, some of those adult ones are really complicated. It's overwhelming. I feel that way about puzzles. Yeah, like, I'll maybe like help find all the edge pieces and corner pieces and like put them in a pile so other people can put it together.
Speaker 1:But see, my husband and Tegan love puzzles so I guess it's just the way different brains operate.
Speaker 2:And I don't like.
Speaker 1:Legos. I don't like Legos. Oh, me too, I don't like to follow the yeah, but, like I'd say, five of the seven people in our house really like Legos and like the directions and making the things and I just I can't. Yeah, that makes sense. It probably just depends what it is. Maybe Now we're back, uh. So thanks for listening to the shit that scared us. Yeah, it's, uh, our little kickoff to spooky season, which I think is going to have a lot of fun content and surprises.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sharks in pools I want to know and the count, someone back me there. I don't know if anyone will back you up on guys. We'll back you up on guys, but let us know. Yeah, sounds good. All right, and be sure to tune in soon to our finale of dawson's it's getting its own like on stand alone. Yeah weekly release, so don't miss that and leave us a review wherever you're listening, comment, share with your friends and we'll see you next time. On generation in between a zennial podcast.
