Childhood "Boogie Men"

[white avenger]

When you were little, what was the supernatural creature who came and "got" bad little boys and girls?

My grandmother used to threaten us with "Soap Sally," a crazy old former slave who cought bad little boys and girls, primarily runaways or kids who didn't come promptly when called, and made soap out uf them.

Strangely enough, as an adult I happened to find an article about ol' Sally, who was an actual person, deranged, and a serial killer who did precisely what my grandmother said she did: murdered people, primarily children, and concealed the bodies by making soap out of them. She was caught and hanged in the early 1880's, but her legend lived on in the Old South.

Anybody else wanna talk about your childhood big bads?

 

[Wanabee-slayer]

My childhood 'boogie man' was literally the boogie man. When I was little my cousin Luke who is more like a cool older brother, managed to convince me that the boogie man was coming for me. I think it was mostly to get me to shut up because I slept in his room on weekends when I was visiting my dad. And to be fair he 'protected' me. However I got my revenge mwahahahahahaha *coughs* ha!

 

[November]

WA I was guna give you 'creepy karma' but "i must share karma around" LOL

I never used to be able to sleep with a mirror facing me, duno why coz it wasnt until I was 12 that a saw candyman and I hated the mirrors in the dark long before that : erm :

I still hate to sleep with wardrobe doors ajar, I think I always thought something would jump out at me! or maybe that is just the OCD!!! lol

 

[Joyce Summers]

My mother never openly said 'this will come get you if you're not good', but my own imagination used to run away with me. And when I was little I was afraid of well, demons. I didn't believe every shadow was actually a shadow and that it was demons hiding as such until I was sleep and then they were gonna kill me. So I used to will myself in believing that their weakness was they couldn't touch my bed at all- that, believe it or not, it would electrocute them thus killing them or knocking them out. But I would never let my feet or hands hang out of the bed because I thought the demons could grab my head and drag me out of bed and eviserate me or whatever I thought they could do.

Yes, I was a very imaginative child.

That soap Sally one is VERY creepy though WA. Gave me the shivers, the wiggins and...now I'll never look at a bar of soap in the same way again...

 

[anyatara]

When I was younger, everyone used to talk about the Grey Lady and the Uh, Candyman? [Can't quite remember if that's what it was] supposedly they were in our school and could be summoned anywhere with a mirror and chanting. When I was little, I had nightmares about them and cried my eyes out. I can't quite remember anything my parents said would get me if I was bad, I don't think they did really, didn't want me to turn out beliving in stuff like that [But look at me now...😛] But, people at school used to mention all sorts of ghosts and crap like that, still do now.

 

[VisionGuy]

I used to be scared of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I think they hijacked people by going all Bad Eggs and putting slimy tentacles in your ears or whatever. I used to sleep with a bunch of pillows covering every crevice of the bed and a hat so they wouldn't body snatch my brain or whatever. I was also scared of Freddy Krueger because he used to get you in your dreams. The other one I was scared of is Candyman. I still don't have the guts to say his name in the mirror. LOL

 

[palabravampiress]

When I was a kid, I saw the movie "The Gate." At around that time, a big dead tree was being removed from my yard. In the movie, the same thing happens to some little boys. But their tree is the gate to Hell and little claymation ape-like demon things come up and harass them. So I was afraid of little claymation ape-like demon things coming out of the hole that used to be my tree. 🙂

I was also afraid of ghosts and vampires. I thought our house had a ghost, but I think it was just a recurring dream. I used to dream that this little girl in a pink nightgown would come into my room and dance or play with my toys or read or just generally make use of my stuff. Mostly, she just acted like it was her room and like I wasn't even there. Sometimes, she stopped and looked at me - but she had no eyes. It was weird and creepy and often drove me to my parents' bed for the night. Lol. As for the vampires... I thought my friend's older brother was a vampire. I don't remember why.

 

[Vicariously]

when I was kid I had a friend that was a few years older than I that convinced me my next door neighbor was a witch and her husband a warlock...she said that they would boil kids brains and eat them...I was only 5 or so...so this scared me immensly. Annie (my friend) would dare me to go and pick a flower from her yard and try to shove me in that direction and I would cry and cry and cry.

Then it was the Watcher in the woods...someone that would watch you threw the woods and if you went into them youd have to beware that they would try and kill you and take your eyesight away with briars and send out someone who looked just like you only it wasnt you you were stuck in a reflection..weird I know...

We of course played the Bloody Mary game...not sure what the story was with that...but it had to do with a mirror and saying her name over and over...apparntly there were myths that if you threw water on the mirror she's be angrier and that she could in fact crack the mirror and emerge to kill you LOL

I used to scare my friends by singing the one two freddy's coming for you song but thats about it...

 

[Tueuse de Vampires]

As a child I was never afraid of anything. Seriously, never. My brother was the one to whine around (lol, he actually was afraid of his own shadow), not me.
So different from these days. I remember reading 'The Shining' 2 years ago and it freaked me out. I don't think I could sleep normally for weeks. That's why I don't read creepy books anymore (and don't watch movies to match), they affect me just so much.
I don't know why there's this huge difference between how I used to be and how I am now. It has to be books and films.

 

[Randy Giles]

I don't remember ever really being scared of specific monsters as a kid, I never believed in the boogeyman or anything. However, I would always watch Unsolved Mysteries alone at night and that show called the crap out of me. Also, on Sundays when my mom would watch The X-Files, the theme song would scare me, and even when I was in bed and I could hear it, I always imagined that scene where the ghost is falling into the image of the hand, and for some reason that image always frightened me, lol.

 

[Vicariously]

I forgot to mention I was and still am terrified of the Crypt Keeper! He's sooooooooooooo creepy looking and that laugh *shudder*

 

[Rebecca]

When I was little, every night when my mum used to put me to bed she'd say a rhyme to me, I think it went something like this:

"Look out, look out Jack Frost is about, he's after your fingers and toes. And all through the night that gay little sprite will be going where nobody knows."

So Jack Frost was always my "boogie man". Even now I never let my fingers or toes out from under the covers, in fact I've never let much of my body out of the covers, I always curl up under the blankets haha.

 

[Old Master 3.0]

In the Hispanic world, the equivalent to the "Boogeyman" is known as "El Cuco".

Parents tell of the Cuco to make their kids go to sleep. They'll say the Cuco will snatch them away and eat them if they don't fall asleep early. My mom was no exception in utilizing this tale. There is no real description of what a Cuco is supposed to be or look like...and like most legends it gets changed in the retelling.

There is a song, though. It goes, "Duermete niño, duermete ya.....que viene el cuco y te comera". (translation: Go to sleep child, and go to sleep now....or the Cuco will come to eat you).

 

[wiccianslayer]

hmm main things i was scared of

Steven kings IT
Freddy Krugar
Bloody mary
Candyman

 

[babyo0ogirl]

Well, this may make me sound crazy, but when I was little I was deathly afraid of peacocks. I would have nightmares about them, and I swore that they were going to come eat me in the night. I slept with a flashlight under my pillow & a bat next to my bed. My brother had this peacock feather that he got at the zoo, and he would torture me with it. I would freak out if I even saw it, and be brought to tears if it touched me. I'm not really sure why I had this phobia, but I'm thinking it comes from my mom saying that feathers had diseases when I was little. I know, I'm nuts. I'm still afraid of them too. Not that bad, but I will avoid them at all costs at the zoo 😛

 

[Lyri]

i was never really afraid of ghosts or monsters, or anything like that. growing up with a ghost in your house, you get used to things like that.

my 'boogie man' was actually a real story. 35 years ago, the ten year old son of my grandmother's neighbour disappeared. a week later, they found his body in the local park, with his head missing. all the parents in my neighbourhood used that story for years, to stop their kids from wandering too far from home. and it worked. we didn't want to disappear like the little boy.

incidentally, about a month ago, the older brother of the little boy confessed to murdering him. he's since been charged, i think.

 

[The Chosen]

I don't think I ever really was afraid of stuff. I first saw Buffy [the movie] when I was like four so I knew how to defend myself. Lmao! (There's a story about that involving a plastic alligator as a stake but I won't go into too many details...) But when I was seven or eight I was leaving a friend's house and his parents were watching 13 Ghosts. For the next year after that, I wouldn't go into my room alone...

 

[Vicariously]

sense we are talking about fears and stuff I figured I would throw in there what I am afraid of today and what my kida are afraid of..just cause...

I am afraid of masks...wether they be painted on or worn...I dont like not being able to identify the person underneath...its a hard phobia for me having kids and stuff...for example we went ot chucky cheese once nad the mouse came out in costume...well my son wanted to see him and I while I try to conceal my fear for the sake of my kids (dont want o pass it on to them) I was really panicking inside...heart beats a little rapidly...its called anxiety so yeah...oh I also dont like clown dolls...because of the mask like resemblence I know weird huh?

My Son though is deathly afraid of the Boo-bah toys......and really just boo-bah all together..my mother bought him one fore Christmas a few years ago and when my little brother turned it on my son completely freaked out...we cant pass them in a store either without him clutching my arm and God forbid someone turns one on...I am a mean mommy and I find it funny...well I did till my husband got mad at me for scaring him (my son) in a store once...with one and later decided he was going to send me a flash video of menacing clowns in masks and hold the laptop screen right in my face to show me it wasn't funny...so yeah...lol

but for those that dont know what a boo-bah is they look like aliens and they make farting noises and their head rotates around...

 

[babyo0ogirl]

Ha, this is kinda funny. I first rented BtVS (the original movie) when it first came out b/c I was in LOVE with Luke Perry. Well, I only remember a scene where they are driving in a van & it's covered in vampires, it must have been pretty early in the movie b/c I was terrified of it, and turned it off. Then when my husband went away to basic training, I bought Season 1 but was too scared to watch it by myself. So I started watching it just this winter, and now I know the goodness that is Buffy, but yeah, I used to be so scared of it.

 

[Wanabee-slayer]

I used to scare my sister Caitlin all the time. I think I had her convinced that Chuckie was going to come for her and to this day she still cries if you ever mention that name around her. She has a loft bed and at night I used to stand under it and sing the song from Hush and she freaked out because she thought the gentlemen were coming for her. LOL!