I saw this picture on Facebook recently and it made me laugh. When I was little I watched an episode of Scooby Doo that haunted me for years. In that episode there is a swimming pool and on the side of the pool there is a cage with a shark in it. I must have seen this Scooby Doo episode at a very young age, because as long as I can remember; I was afraid of sharks coming out of hidden cages in the pools. Even vents at the bottom of pools scared me. I thought maybe some crazy person may have snuck small wild sharks in there and are going to come out and eat me up!
While I was scared of sharks coming out of cages... in swimming pools... in Minnesota... chlorinated swimming pools... I was very fascinated with them. My sister and I had a subscription to Zoo Books which was a magazine that we got each month and would highlight different animals. I will never forget the day I came home from school and found a Shark edition of Zoo Books! I couldn't put it down. I saved it for years and stared at the pictures and re-read the articles over and over!
Later when I was a little older and would have slumber parties with my friends, we would rent terribly scary movies. I will never forget the night I watched Jaws at my own birthday party in the 6th grade!? I couldn't sleep the whole night. I was sleeping in my sleeping bag and noticed my shadow on the wall that resembled (to me a frightened 12 year-old) of a Great White Shark... in the living room… in Minnesota… It scared the crap out of me!
In High School I discovered "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel and never missed it! But even as a teenager, I still had this strange fear of sharks sneaking out of cages... in swimming pools... in Minnesota... chlorinated swimming pools... and attacking me. Or in my sleeping bag…
Where I grew up there are tons of lakes. Summer days were spent at the lake... boating, tubing, floating, swimming, etc., etc. Even in the lakes of Minnesota I was afraid of sharks... in Minnesota... snatching me up! Not even just sharks, but some of the large fish people told me they caught in those lakes that I swam in... They scared the hell out of me, too!
It feels good to get this all off my chest. I have told people about this, but I am sure they didn't understand the depth of this random fear of mine. Today, I can go into a pool and not worry about little sharks coming out to eat me... or even the lakes. But I do worry about big fish... and weeds.... eeww! Anyway, funny how a silly picture and remind me of something so silly that I use to worry about.
