basements

I used to believe that someday my parents would turn our dirtly old basement into a roller skating rink and charge admission. To prepare for this, I tried to hang a Christmas tree ornament that looked like a ball from the basement ceiling.

no thanks

When I was little, I used to think the basemet was a scary, bad place (because it was dark all the time). And in our house, you could see into the basement through a glass paned door. Well, I used to think our dead poodle alex lived down there...because he was a mean dog. I would never go down there unless some would stand at the top of the stairs and sing "I'm a little teapot" for me. I didn't want our dead "evil" dog alex to get me.

Sara Easterling

Not my belief sadly but a sweet one nonetheless.

I used to lodge with a young family in Northern England. There were 2 youngsters including a 5 year old lad. The house was large and old with a dark and scary cellar. The lad was told by his mother that they were going to look at a new house in a nicer area. He asked if it had a scary cellar and was reassured that it hadn't as it was a new house and they don't have cellars. Toi this day that young lad still believes that houses grow cellars as they get older.

AlB

When I was very young I watched Watership down, the cartoon film, and I was scared to death by it. So much so that I was convinced that the evil rabbits lived in the basement and any other room that wasdark in the house, I used to scream before entering and fling the doors open really hard to kill the evil bunnies. Suffice to say I didnt like to enter rooms on my own for a looooooooong time

Skid

when i was little, everytime my uncle farted he would tell us there "was a bear in the basement". so everytime we heard that sound we would to the baesment door as fast as we could to try and see the "bear". I find myself using that excuse now.

angel

We moved into a new house when I was six and it had a very dark, spooky basement. My mom told me never to go down there. I was really interested in Greek mythology at the time and I was convinced that the River Styx ran through our basement and that's why my mom wouldn't allow me down there.

Linda

My friend's basement had loose shelves and if things weren’t on straight they would fall and crash. This is the reason we weren’t allowed in his basement as kids but no matter what his mom told him he was convinced that his dad had "untrained pokemon" down there and they were dangerous.

Anon

My parents tried to keep me out of the basement, and therefore they invented the "Sausage Man" and the "Fish Minister". How did they come up with that? Don't ask me.

Anyway, they just made the names, and the rest was up to my imagination. The Sausage Man was kinda like a lumberjack, except he carried an axe and a garden hose. He was the scariest one. The Fish Minister was more sophisticated, wearing a completely white suit, and he also had a nice little mustache. He also carried a frozen fish. Nevertheless, he was scary too.

I was always afraid of the basement because of that. I especially hated leaving the basement, since I couldn't see what was behind me, and I often ended up walking backwards all the way. Much to my dismay, my parents put all the good stuff in the basement, like ice cream, the aquarium, rollerskates, etc. Still, after many years I had developed some techniques, and I could run down, grab some ice cream and sprint back up again in what's probably a record time.

The Sausage Man and the Fish Minister haunt me to this day.

Brian

In my house, there's a big black tank thing in the basement (I think it's an oil tank or something). I used to think it was a cow.

Anon

when i was little i thought that there were always robbers in my basement so i would always yell that i was like a black belt in karate to try and scare them away

Anon

When I was little my dad told me that there were ceiling trolls in the basement and to scare them off I had to stick a piece of cheese to my forehead when i went down to get the laundry...

Pretty sure my dad laughed everytime I did it, and I just thought it was because he was big enough to not need the cheese anymore...

casey

When I was little, I was deathly afraid of the skeleton men who lived in our basement. I believed that if any noise was made that they would come up and eat whomever was awake. I would stand at the toile for forever trying to get up the courage to flush the toilet (which would make a huge noise in the basement, due to the old pipes) and run to my bed, pretending to be asleep. So many times I was so afraid that I swear I should have had a heart attack. My family thinks it's funny and tells people that I was afraid of the toilet, and not the evil men in the basement. Over-active immagination? You bet!

Ab

When my son was four years old he would not go into the basement alone. He kept saying, 'The cat will get me.' We had no cat and I wondered why he kept saying that. One day he had gone down to get something and came screaming up the stairs. There really was a cat in the basement! It had come in through the ground-level window. I wondered if he could see the future after that.

Karen

When I was six and my sister was four, I told her that the water heater in our basement was an evil robot in bondage, and it hated her. I took her down to the basement, and held her in front of the water heater. It gurgled, as water heaters do. I said, "Listen to it - it hates you so much, it's making mad noises. Look what's holding it in place - nothing more than duct tape. Soon it will become furious and tear the tape loose, and come for you!". My sister ran screaming from the basement and hid in her bedroom closet, afraid to come out. She peed on herself, and only came out hours later.

Now my sister is an executive, and she makes seven times as much money a year as I do.

F Panucci

I used to believe that a crocodile lived in my basement. So when I was too old for my pacifier, my mom told me that Mrs. Owl (The owl that watches what I do and tells God and Santa if I was bad) came in and pooped on them. We had to throw them down to the crocodile along with some money so that he could buy me new ones.

Z

When my mum moved out into a different house there was this basement in the house that had 'Elvis lived here' and then it had a date on the wall saying when he lived there. She made me believe that Elvis Presley really lived in some random house in England and I really believed he was still alive, especially when I saw a Jerry Springer episode with this guy saying he was Elvis.

Matt

We moved when I was eight. In the basement of our new house there was a storage room, and inside that room was the boiler room. For no reason that I can think of, I was always terrified that there was a dead man hanging in the boiler room. To this day I don't like to go in there and turn on the light as fast as I can.

Bethany

When I was about 4 yrs old my older brother told me that behind the furnace in our basement there was the land of Smurfs. I always wanted to go but was too scared because the furnace made so much noise. One time he went behind the furnace and came out with a yellow Kleenex in his hand. He told me it was Smurfette's hair and I completely believed him and was so jealous.

Monica

Up until about age ten, I believed that the giant semi-transparent green octopus from the Pirate Ride at Cedar Point (an amusement park we used to visit) was fully invisible, and in our basement. But just as big and mean.

Every trip down there, especially with the lights off, could have been my last. I flew back up the stairs, just knowing those tentacles were coming to get me...

Thom

When I was growing up, my parents had a crawlspace in their basement. My cousins used to tell me that a little skinny blue boy named Andrew lived in there and wanted to eat me. I avoided the basement.

Anon