Summer Breeze by the Isley Brothers
Terrifies me. After many years of nightmares caused by listening to it during the day, I can just about manage it now. I still can't listen to it in the dark though.

Imagine as a child, those haunting chords while imaging an 1980s polygon image of two people in a car lost (damn roadmaps). Going on and on, no way to escape, just driving through green polygon landscapes forever.

Nope, even when put like that, it makes no sense.

--------------

Oh, and this one isn't really a phobia, more of an irrational feeling of "ewww". A lot of it I can't even touch.
Some of these follow a pattern:

- Kinder Egg Toys

- McDonalds Toys

- cheap tat small toys

- cracker toys and the bits of paper they come with

- pogs - I got lots of them as prizes in school for poster competitions etc and always asked for the 2nd prize instead

- tamogotichis

- those gloopy alien things people always had.

- everything that comes out of those "put coin in, get minitoy out" machines.

- Chewing gum wrappers

- any small sweet wrappers (but some arbitary rules here: black jacks are a no-no, but dairy milk eclairs are ok)

- small pieces of paper (this one has even been tested - I'll watch the person rip it up, I know their hands are clean, the floor is clean... but I still can't pick the bits up)

- small pieces of plastic or card: I missed out on the traditional geek bits due to this. Warhammer is intolerable - a housemate borrowed a tray to use for his bits and bobs. I couldn't keep it for food... I threw it out. I can *just about* play uno now as I have my own set, but normal playing cards are a no-go. I did try to hide this a few weeks back playing some game called Flux, and I think I managed this ok. So peer pressure can be good sometimes!

- Fast Food Wrappers

- Ketchup sachets, salt and pepper sachets.

- keyrings. The key to my last place came with a subway keyring. I had to get the better half to remove it for me.

- erasers/rubbers. The little bits I can't deal with, and no way could I touch the grubby ones everyone had at school.

- Any book with a large amount of visual noise on the cover eg most sci fi/fantasy books. I started reading Iain M Banks because *his* books have nice simple vectory designs on them...

Metal doesn't seem to be a problem eg drawing pins, staples. Just paper, plastic, and occasionally wood.

The worst one out of this as a kid was the kinder/mcdonalds toys.

I went to visit my auntie at about 11 or so, and seeing as I never really saw t'dad's side of the family much, was looking forward to it: she had a soda stream and everything, ysee: very important for a kid.

I stayed in my cousins room.

She collects. McDonalds toys. Kinder Egg toys. Pretty much anything small and fiddly and full of t'Arthmelow fear was on lots and lots of little shelves. All on the wall by where I was sleeping. A huge bazaar of fidly plastic hell.

I tried to sleep. I really did. Every time I closed my eyes, I could imagine one of them falling on my face and it would shoot me awake again. Any tiny snatches of sleep were met with a nightmare of being forced to suck one in my mouth, after someone's greasy fingers had been all over it.

At about 5am or so, I'd had enough. I didn't care if I was going to get into trouble, I was sleeping in the bathroom (the only room without small plastic crap). So I very very very quietly step out, tip toe to the door...
Piece of clear plastic wrap on the floor. Nylon Carpet. Whoosh. Smack. Land back on bed. Head smack on wall. Avalance of commercial plastic tat over my body.

I, quite understandly, screamed.

Very very luckily, I'd hit my head, so I could blame that.

I didn't visit again until I was 18 and had money for a hotel.

Oh dear I just saw the length of this... oh well. Position means more than length anyway
(mmmm curry doesn't really understand this sig lark, Thu 10 Apr 2008, 18:47, 3 replies)

the second bit, that you reckon isn't a phobia
- sounds like it to me, more so than the isley brothers bit. phobias are irrational by definition and that one sounds as irrational as any!
( urbane legend i have known the inexorable sadness of pencils, Thu 10 Apr 2008, 19:40, closed)

it's more that I have this irrational feeling that they're very very gross
like touching someone else's fresh poo, for example.
(mmmm curry doesn't really understand this sig lark, Thu 10 Apr 2008, 19:58, closed)

that sounds about right!

( urbane legend i have known the inexorable sadness of pencils, Thu 10 Apr 2008, 22:23, closed)