Retro #5 - Lions, Tigers, And Bears, Oh My!

I thought it was time again to throw in something from my childhood. The following are the three things that scared me the most, and occupied much of my waking hours thinking about, when I was between the ages of 6-10 (probably in this order, too):

1. Killer Bees
2. Soviet ICBMs
3. Bigfoot

Killer Bees - I don't know who to blame for this, but they were coming. I had been told by a reliable source, that they could be identified because they flew in a distinctive doughnut shape and they would be coming from the south. The only thing that could save your life was your ability to hold your breath for 3 minutes underwater. This was the time it would take for them to lose interest in you and then fly off to attack someone else. I spent a lot of time looking for doughnuts flying over Trappers Loop (the hills to the south)




Soviet ICBMs - Yep, I grew up in the height of the cold war. When I wasn't looking for bees to the south, I was looking to the East for contrails of missiles heading to take out Hill Air Force Base. Why from the East? I don't know. I would practice my reaction time in looking away quickly when these things would detonate so my face wouldn't be melted off.






Bigfoot - I guess I have Steve Austin (you know, the 6 million dollar man) to blame for this one. Not only was bigfoot big, mean, and hairy, but he was bionic too, thanks to those sneaky space aliens. He only makes it to third on my list, because you only had to worry about him when you were in the woods.






Here are a few other things that did not make it into the top three, but nonetheless, were fearsome during these crucial years :

Piranha
Bears
UFOs
Ghosts
Mean Dogs
Old People
Heights
Tetanus
Drowning
Play Ground Supervisors
Public Speaking

What were you afraid of during the years from 6-10?