Arachnaphobia

[will_kill]

As a small child, I remember playin in a dry bathtub for a playpen...remember, I'm a dirt-poor farmboy. Go back in time with me, as I recall one day, while playing in the dry tub surrounded by what few toys I had.
While holding one toy skyward and making what noises I may have made(in that childish manner) I was suddenly suprised to see what appeared to my young eyes as a monstrous spider (although it may have only been a normal sized one, in fact). Imagine if you will, the horror within my under developed mind as the spider continued it's deadly decent into the enclosed space I quickly realized I was trapped in. When the surly spider finally touched down onto one of my toys I feel like this was the point at which I snapped...screaming the most blood-curdling cry of fear my young lungs could muster...which was apparently enough to bring my caregiver immediatly. I seem to be able to recall the event with this much clarity for as long as I can remember. And yet I was only 18-20 months old...this I know from family talks. They are all amazed that I remember it...do any of you have similiar events to share?



Which brings me to the point of my post.....
While outside doing some work around the place, I noticed a web...spider in the center, slightly vibrating...the slight breeze or some unlucky prey I wondered? Curious, I strolled up to observe the spider happily munching away on some small bug. As I became further entranced by this marvel, I noticed one more thing....the web-hole (since I dunno' what you call it ) was actually similiar to a hand when opened, this meaning, the 'digits' of the "hole", were shaped like long triangles that seemed to work independently of one another, and guess what?....there were 5 of'em! heheh..well, I was just fascinated by this and wanted to share it with all the arachnid lovers out there

[Mobius]

I'm surprised. Human babies have very few native fears. The only universal instinctual fears I know of are snakes and falling. These are understandable given our arboreal ancestry. (Let's not go there ID people!)

Your early fear of spiders must have been learned from your mother I would imagine.

[will_kill]

well mebbe, I recall reading a little bit on that as well...but I would have to have been a fast learner considering she died a year later, (shortly after giving birth to my lil' brother).

And I'm suprised that you were'nt suprised that I remembered it from such an early age..

[Top Gun]

I can remember a few things around age 3, such as my younger brother's birth. (I was in the car with my mom driving to a gynecologist's appointment when she went into labor, and she had my brother only ten minutes after she got to the hospital. I was in the hall being entertained by a few nurses and eating graham crackers and orange juice. I still remember that I didn't like the juice, since it had pulp. ) I banged my head on a table at 18 months and required stitches; I seem to remember a ride in a car seat while I was crying, but I'm not sure if I'm confusing it with another time. I think it's the memories that are most traumatic or unusual that stick with us from our earliest years; it would make sense, too, if they had a big impact on us. If you were that traumatized by the spider, I'm not surprised that you have some memory of it.

I'll also have to agree with how amazing spider webs are; even though I'm freaked out by the things when they're crawling across my floor, I always appreciate how they're able to perform natural engineering marvels.

[Sting_Ray]

I vividly remember my dad's guitar when I was young. It was a Laquered Fender Telecaster. I remember it being VERY heavy... also along the same time-line I remember being outside with my dad while he was shooting NERF balls in the dried up canal out back with his BB gun.

We moved out of that house when I was 18 months old.

I also remember the rainy season of 1982 in california. Looking out the windshield of the car as it was pelted by rain.

I was BORN in 1982.

[will_kill]

I vividly remember my dad's guitar....It was a Laquered Fender Telecaster...

very nice

[Clayman]

Spiders freak my mom out, but don't have much effect on me. She's always getting me to take them out of the house, even if they're tiny.

I must have been dropped on my head when I was young, because I can't remember more than a handful of things before I was 4-5.

[Jon the Great]

The only universal instinctual fears I know of are snakes and falling.

I remember watching some show on spiders awhile ago where they insisted that the shape and motion of spiders was an instinctual fear in humans. But I'm not sure I really buy this whole instinctual fear buisness. Snakes have never bothered me.

[roid]

that is pretty interesting. i've never known people to have such early memorys - but i see 2 ppl with really young memorys here.

snakes have never bothered me either, but spiders do (my mother on the other hand can't even watch snakes on television).

a few TV documentarys have come out in recent years taking a look into the instinctual fear reflex, try to catch one if you can. it's all about our primal (reptilian?) brain's fight or flight response not being able to be overridden by our rational mind quite as much as some of us would like. it can be overcome through gradual exposure.

[Admiral Thrawn]

[will_kill]

yikes!

[dissent]

My trepidation around spiders was from watching all those giant hairy bug black-and-white movies from when I grew up in the sixties.

One spider incident freaked me out for a few minutes. Ten or fifteen years ago I was jogging down a path with high grass on both sides. As I came around a bend I ran right into a large orb web, about chest high, that stretched across the path. I remember, it seemed like in slow motion, that there was a large garden spider in the middle of the web and it seemed to grow larger and larger in the second or two before I smashed into its web.

Must have scared the hell out of it (if it survived).

[will_kill]

Oh!... So every year I go camping at Jack's Fork (in So.MO). Well, about 3 years ago, while camping, I was doing the canoe thing with my girlfriend, Crystal(now my babies mother). During our solo journey down the river we happened upon some craggy cliffsides while sitting and tokin' in one secluded spot, the ones I'm so famous for finding
At any rate, we get the buzz goin' and were chattin', well I start looking at the cliffs and I'm thinking: "perfect pic op", right? So, at my request we paddle up under the cliffs, where the river's constant flowing has eroded away at the face till there is a semi-circle, sort of a lean-to covering, only solid, craggy, rock. I let the boat drift till were sittin' directly under the rock and it's calm and cool and dark here so now I'm thinkin'...: "a-haaah, perfect sex op"
Anyway, I'm leaning back <insert sexual innuendo here> when I look up and not 3 feet from my face I see, to my absolute horror, the most shockingly huge spider I have ever seen in my entire life! This awesome freak of nature must have been 10" in diameter! But!...Imma relatively 'cool cat', especially when in a situation like the one I was in...did'nt wanna' give up the territory just yet So, even tho' my desire had "gone south" a lil', I remained steadfastly intact, and in contact, ya' know?
But! Along came a spider and sat down bes...errr well umm what I meant to say is I started lookin' around and noticed there were prolly a hundred of 'em just scattered all over the rock ceiling!
Needless to say, I mumbled something about someone coming and quickly pulled up my shorts with one hand while paddeling the hell outta' there with the other

[Kiran]

I was around 2-3 yrs old when I went to this vacation bible school with some people from the school I was attending at the time. I remember sitting at a table full of kids next to the instructor making those little rainbows with yarn strings and a piece of plastic thing w/ holes in it (Forgot what they're called).
I was getting hungry so I turned to the teacher, told her that I'm hungry, and went back to work. Then I felt real thirsty suddenly and turned to complain again. She was getting up to get me a drink when I felt sleepy. I told her that I'm tired and the next thing I knew, I fell over passed out cold. I woke up in the kitchen, ladies pressing cold damp cloth on my face. for some reason I remember cookies, probably because one of the ladies let me have a bite of a cookie when I complained I was hungry. I fainted again. Woke up in a van being rushed to the hospital, fainted again.
I woke up to the noise of my parents running into a room that I was being kept in. For five hours we waited for a doctor to come in and check me out, but no one came. My mom finally got ticked and yelled at the nurse and then grabbed me and took me to my family doctor. I don't know if I remember that day because I fainted and freaked out everyone or because that was the first day I have ever seen my mother so angry or upset. The reason for the faintings is because I had a kidney infection. That was a fun summer!
Nothing to do with spiders but I thought i'd post my earliest traumatic memory

[will_kill]

I was around 2-3 yrs old when I went to this vacation bible school.....Nothing to do with spiders but I thought i'd post my earliest traumatic memory

Hey Kiran...thas' kew This topic is about your oldest memories so u dun good TY 4 ur contrib'.

[Zoop!]

All spiders must die.

I'm all for lizards though, they're fun to watch and they kill the scary ones.

[Liquid Fire]

Never had a real fear of spiders/snakes/lizards/rats

Not too fond of wasps, but really, who is?

When I was a kid, I had a house with a pool. One day, I was down by the pool when I saw something big and furry floating next to a floating toy. I called my parents down and they said it was a turantula. As a young kid, it looked about the size of a volleyball. My mother got out a pool net and poked it with the end to see if the thing was still alive. Suddenly, it sprang to life and grabbed the pole. Then it started scrambling up towards us.

As a little youngin', this was about the most terrifying thing I'd ever seen. It seemed that a demon straight from the gates of hell was sprinting up to eeat me alive. I panicked and ran screaming into the house. My mom put it in some bushes and my dad came up to tell me what the heck was I so scared of it's just a spider! Grow some backbone!

Fortunately, I was pretty resilient as a kid, and the only long standing fear I have of spiders is a distinct desire to remove them if they happen to crawl on me.

Although my older sister is terrified of spiders. Once I caught a large colorful, hairy spider and put it in a jar. It was enormous. Anyways, one day she was lying on a couch, talking on the phone and I grabbed the jar. I then slowly extended it over her face...

What followed was the loudest, most blood-curdling scream I've ever heard. My only regret is that I didn't have a video camera.

[will_kill]

[MD-2389]

Don't worry folks, John Goodman will save you!