As a kid, were you afraid of your basement?

[Mike_Yates]

When you were a kid, were you afraid of your basement? I grew up in a small 1950's single story house that had a HUGE basement and I was terrified to go down there because it was dark, dank, cold, and creepy. Plus my father (he slept down there) said that he once saw moving shadows down there late one night.

http://helfyre.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/artman_photo298546.jpg

 

[ElasticMermaid]

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3K4kJ5Ur00w/ThEhjvQssCI/AAAAAAAAAuM/1v2CUYn791U/s1600/0899192238c.jpgYes. Partially because of this book.

 

[Que]

This book will help you get over that fear, Mike. Turns out the fire-breathing monster in the basement is actually the furnace.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/315858.Milk_Cookies

https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1272377350l/315858.jpg

 

[patient1]

Actually, I used to play in the basement. Dirt floor, soft coal bin, furnace and water heater on one side of the stairs. Chest freezer and only window on the other. One bulb on a pull chain. It was the only place in the house I was allowed to do carpentry stuff. I thought it was fun. They were remodeling the first floor, and for reason's I didn't understand, they never really wanted my help.

 

[neci]

there was no basement.

rats and lice were sent to the attic.

 

[Arielsdream]

Growing up we called it the cellar....and it scared the bejeezus out of me then and I still hate them now

 

[CandiCame]

I had a weird, creepy feeling in my mamaw's cellar when I was kid and I eventually found out why, as an adult. She kept a bunch of food-related shit down there, root veggies and pickling supplies and whatnot, and like a million grand/great-grandkids. So me and three of my cousins who are similar ages to me hated that place, but everybody else was cool with it. Apparently, we had gone down there without telling anybody, looking for this hardcandy that she made, and subsequently stored ("hid" in our eyes) down there. So went down there, without telling anybody, like tiny redneck ninjas. She had a bunch of gardening shit too, and during the non-gardening winter months, stored it down there. One of those was a horrifying scarecrow that my uncle made. And I mean some movie shit. He was an artist who could have done something with it, but was a stupid redneck who lived in a time before the internet was really a thing, so didn't know that was a career option. So we went down there, stole the candy, ate it triumphantly, and went to go back up the stairs. And there was that thing, staring at us.

Now I don't remember this at all, but I'm going to assume that I was like, "meh" because that's how I was as a kid, but the atmosphere, with my cousins and the darkness, and the being underground, made us all kind of group-think our way into a child panic. I've been told that we sat down there, in terror, until papaw found us and brought us upstairs. Then he went back, got the scarecrow, and brought it up to be like, "Look, pansy-asses, it's just a scarecrow. Not scarey in the light is it?"

And we were all 4 /still scared of it in the light/. I asked my mom if they had any pictures or anything, but apparently they just kept putting it back out in the field until it eventually wore out. I have no memory of this scarecrow or this event but it's been told to all 4 of us several times so I'm going to believe that it happened. I don't that that our entire extended family made up a story in some weird scarecrow based conspiracy to keep us from stealing candy, because my mamaw was the kind of person who would have just given us candy if we asked for it. I think we were just being dicks because we were little kids and wanted to have an "adventure", Rugrats style.

But apparently that's why I was uneasy around that cellar. I got scared of a fucking doll.

 

[Noor]

I am afraid of my basement sometimes, but there are reasons...

 

[thør]

The basement was my domain in the house.

 

[Mike_Yates]

What if you saw glowing red eyes looking back at you from the bottom of the stairs?

If I saw that, I would piss my pants.

http://109.imagebam.com/download/F-m8-8-apNasVpZoV_3TNQ/39660/396595097/basement%20eyes.JPG

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

No basements in Florida.

 

[Riles]

Because my parents were builders and we always lived in a house for a year before selling, our basements, called Rec-rooms were always finished and furnished. No fear there, just great memories of big stone fireplaces with stockings at Christmas, a hang out for slumber parties and family billiards tournaments.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I was afraid of Canadians.

Canadians came during the winter, filled all the Coke machines with their aluminum coins, and had brawls with old Marines when they hoisted their flag over Old Glory in the RV parks. Nowadays Canadians go to Cuba and I no longer suffer PTSD.

 

[MNGuy]

Half of our basement was finished into a rec room. We had a nice fireplace, a pool table, wet bar and the best stereo was downstairs. I fucked a couple of girls on the shag carpeting.

On the unfinished side was my dad's shop, my electric railroad layout, replaced later by my weight lifting bench, heavy bag, and speed bag.

The only thing our basement lacked was television and bigger windows.

 

[Hypoxia]

I have never lived in a house with a basement. I was afraid of the bomb shelter, however.

 

[Lord Pmann]

No basements in Florida.

Seconded. I've never lived anywhere with a basement.

 

[Wings]

I grew up on Lake Michigan so we didn't have a basement until I moved to Minnesota. And then I LOVED the basement, it was fun.


Spending summers in the south gave me a real gross feeling about storm shelters. I am not claustrophobic but there's something about the stillness of the air down there. Ick.

 

[Mike_Yates]

My basements (I had three in different residences I lived in growing up) and they didn't have a rec-room or a small gym like some people have.

They were mostly cluttered with boxes, bags of clothes, and various other storage.

Unfortunately my basements were lame and boring.

 

[wistfulwench]

I never had a problem with basements. In fact, one of my earliest erotic fantasies came as a young girl when I became fascinated with my neighbor's crawl space. It seemed like a kind of dungeon. I wanted my friend's father to be in there with me. I cannot remember any details, and I was only about 7-8 years old, so I had no vivid BDSM ideas, but I do remember having a feeling between my legs which I later realized to be sexual.

 

[Hypoxia]

Correction: I just remembered living in a strange basement structure in Santa Fe some years ago. Our casita had bath, bedroom, living, dining, and kitchen upstairs. The stairway let to the basement containing laundry, office, and bedroom, under the adjoining casita which housed a herb shop. Plenty of ghosts down there, mostly Spanish and Indian.

But growing up in Southern California tract houses? No basements. Some spider-haunted crawl space under the floors, with small caves dug by brainless kids. And the fallout shelter in the back yard -- THAT was the scary part, wondering when WWIII would start.