Childhood Fears

So the other day I was reading dooce and she was talking about fears she had as a child. That made me think of stupid things I was afraid of as a child, when this one popped into my head.

So when I was a kid I LOVED to swim, I could swim for hours floating around pretending I was Ariel from Little Mermaid (every little girl did it). Now, I could swim for hours, as long as there was someone else there. As soon as everyone else got out, I had to stay in the shallow end. Not because my mom was afraid I would drown or that I was too young. No this was self imposed. You see, I knew that as soon as I swam into the deep end all by myself that the evil shark that lived in the grate at the bottem of the pool would suddenly jet out, grab my little make believe mermaid legs and drag me back down into the underwater cave below the grate and eat me. He was willing to wait there till I was stupidly swimming all alone.

Honestly, to this day if i'm still in a pool by myself I look at those grates and I swim away from them.

Stupid I know, no shark could fit down there. Sharks can't live in chlorine. Sharks couldn't swim through those grates if their lives depended on it.

Still, when you're a kid, you're afraid of things that don't make sense. Things that as adult you look back and think "stupid kid". Was anyone else afraid of something so silly? Or was anyone else afraid of the shark in the grate at the bottem of the pool? I know my friend Marianne was, so at least i'm not alone : )