A traumatic event from my childhood...

[hyphenate]

I was about 5, I guess. I was down on my grandparents' farm and I guess (I don't remember actually but was told) I went after a recently born chick. That was when I got grabbed. Mother hen (literally!) caught me in a ditch near the barn, knocked me down and started pecking the shit out of me. I had to be rescued by my mom from the hen. Another incident happened a couple of years later, same place. I was out in the field going to the next door neighbor's across the field. It had rained, and there were slugs all along the path and they started crawling on my feet, and eventually I stood absolutely still and started screaming until someone came out to the field and picked me up to rescue me. I ended up with a major phobia of bugs as a result of the latter.

Anyone else with traumatic events from their past?

[uppityperson]

1. Here's mine, why I don't like winds, just discovered all this, post tornado.

My house is in block to the right and a few houses down from the largish building lower left. I found out about all this recently, have heard stories but details were lacking until last month. I was 3.

[bluedigger]

3. OK, I'll share...

I must have been 10 or 11. Visiting my great-aunt and uncle. Walked out of my room to catch my great aunt in the doorway down the hall, for some reason...picking up her bra, no wait, this had to be a brassiere...and, of course, naked from the waist up. Shudder. Huge tracts of land. It's a wonder I didn't become a Liberace fan on the spot. Or claw my own eyes out, at least!

Thanks for reminding me.

[Bjornsdotter]

2. For me it's a swan

...I was swimming with my Grandmother and I got too close to some cygnets. That swan took off across the water after me...it was HUGE. My Grandmother grabbed me and put herself between me and the swan. She ended up with some very nasty bruises from the bites. I was about 6 at the time and occasionally I'll still have a nightmare about it.

Cheers

[rug]

4. When I was four I was hunched over playing with soldiers on the sidewalk and a dog

walking by lifted its leg and peed all down my back. I distrusted dogs for thirty years.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

5. We were out for a Sunday afternoon family drive in the countryside

--families really used to do that in the sixties- when we came upon a complete traffic stoppage. As we were able to slowly creep forward, we finally saw there had been a bad traffic accident. Our Pastor was with us, and he got out to go forward to minister to the injured. When he returned a few minutes later he was as green as I've ever seen a man.

We finally got close enough that I could see a young woman lying in the road. The road was red with her blood, and she was screaming in agony. There were others lying alongside the road, not moving.

We finally got past the carnage and decided to go on home- the family was shook up. I imagine a LOT of people cut their afternoon short that day.

We later heard the details- two entire families had been involved in the collision- ten people had been killed.

I can still see that blood-slick pavement in my mind. I like to believe it helped make me a better driver when it was my turn behind the wheel, but I guess I really know better than that.

That's about as traumatic as it gets for an eight year old.

[DarkTirade]

6. When I was fairly young...

Don't remember how young, but I moved from that house at the end of first grade, so it happened sometime before then.

We had a nice big patch of forest behind our house, which we would regularly explore. One day my brother accidentally stepped on a beehive that was half hidden and partly underground. Being five years older than I was, he could run a lot faster than I could. Long story short, he only got two or three beestings. I got 12 or 13. One of which pierced my ear. In one side, out the other.

Since then I've been a bit paranoid around bees, and I don't like pierced ears. (Of course, I also grew up in the 80s, where just about every bit of jewelry was insanely ugly and tacky, so that might explain the dislike of pierced ears too.)

I do love honey though. I'll use it as a sweetener whenever I can, and right now I'm brewing a gallon of mead. :) I just don't like being around the buggers that make the stuff.

[Roland99]

7. Have the lambs stopped screaming, Clarice?