First of all, let me just express how freaking awesome your site is – not only does it bring back a lot of horrifying memories, much to my never ending joy, but it also gives me tons of stuff to track down and watch for my own pleasure, what with me just loving everything remotely disturbing. You're like a never ending database of awesome for me, and for that I simply have to thank everyone involved with the site and everyone submitting their Traumafessions.

Now, with my mad preaching and worshiping out of the way, I will finally submit my own Traumafession, and one I know that I share with many a fellow Danish (or generally Scandinavian) child who grew up in the early nineties. The show I talking about is THE MOOMINS – animated in Japan, but based upon children's books from the 40s in Finland, this show generally revolved around the Moomins, white, almost hippo-like creatures (called "Mumitrolde" in Denmark, which literally means "Mumi Trolls") living a happy life in Moomin Valley and going on adventures.

That sounds innocent and sweet, right?

Well, it was… for the most part.

But this show had many pretty scary aspects – there was always a dark feel around the adventures they would go on, and several antagonists were particularly frightening for a fragile little 5-year-old mind to take. The ghostly Hattifatteners who recharged themselves during thunderstorms was one thing… but the one thing that frightened all kids I know who watched this endlessly was the monster known only as the Groke.

The Groke was a horrifying creature indeed – large, ghostly-looking and a dark, pale shade of purple, it would slowly walk through the fogs and spread a chilling cold wherever it walked, creating nothing but a merciless winter around it. It didn't exactly help that it had a downwards pointing mouth with very large teeth and completely expressionless eyes either. Everyone in this show was afraid of this thing, and for good reason – it froze every damn thing it touched!

And they had even foreshadowed its appearance, sometimes using it as a warning for people to behave nicely, or the Groke would get them… and then, when it finally shows up, it is indeed terrifying – every character's reaction shows nothing but fear at the sight of it.

I vaguely remember that it was revealed during the show that the Groke was not really evil, but just very lonely – and that it was meant to be some sort of metaphor of how cold loneliness makes you feel, and how you only end up spreading it as you desperately search for warmth, so it was a very sympathetic character – but I sure didn't have any sympathy as a child – it scared the pants off of me and many others every time it showed itself on screen!

I don't know how popular this series was outside of Scandinavia, but it was definitely a hit in Denmark – I still love it to this day, and when I stumble upon a clip of the Groke, I still feel a chill – simply because of the memory of how much this damned thing frightened me.

Call me crazy but when I was a kid I used to play these adventure games obsessively. Each installment in the series has its creepy moments but Parts 1, 3, and 4 are the ones that stick out the most for me. In Part 1, you are subjected to repeated jump scare tactics employed by the game characters at every corner; in particular, the witch in the cave and the troll on the bridge. Part 3 is notable for having an opening that is both oppressive and drenched with creepy atmosphere–namely, an evil wizard's house where you are held prisoner. Part 4 is perhaps the creepiest of them all, with allusions to THE WIZARD OF OZ, SNOW WHITE, and it contains zombies!

SALUTE YOUR SHORTS was part of what I refer to as the "golden age" of Nickelodeon. For those of you who don't know, Nickelodeon did consist of amazing shows at one point in time and these shows included but are not limited to; CLARISSA EXPLAINS IT ALL, NICK ARCADE, FAMILY DOUBLE DARE, ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?, PETE AND PETE, and LEGENDS OF THE HIDDEN TEMPLE.

SALUTE YOUR SHORTS followed a group of campers at Camp Anawanna, led by their camp counselor Ug, as they got themselves into numerous shenanigans.

One episode in particular has always made me a little uneasy. It highlighted the camp ghost story of the legend of Zeke the plumber. As the story goes, Zeke got his nose bitten off by a parrot and could not smell the gas leak in the camp one night. He blew up and now haunts the camp looking for his cursed plunger. While the story is a little silly and clearly meant for entertainment purposes, I cannot help but still feel incredibly scared when I look at the face of Zeke the plumber.

It must be the nose. I don't think I remembered there ever having been an explanation for why his nose was bloody and bandaged, and so just seeing a guy in a creepy mask with a bloody nose was enough to make cower.

In the episode, camp bully Budnick (Whose name I always thought was ButtNick) is dared to spend the night out in the woods at the site of Zeke's legendary death. There are a few dream sequences where Zeke haunts campers dreams; the sound of the plunger awakening them and the way the mask moves when Zeke talks….yikes, it still scares the bejesus out of me. Not to mention getting a plunger in the face would be equally terrifying.

UNK SEZ: Thanks, A.D. , I missed this show when it was on but I do know that one of its stars later went on to be to be eaten by giant bugs in THE WILLIES! Now, all you readers out there, make sure you check A.D.'s blog THE HORROR DIGEST, it's pretty darn great and you can find it HERE!

Seeing as someone else started talking about music (cf. Steve Miller), my kindermusiktrauma song would have to be "D.O.A." by Bloodrock from 1971. Ostensibly a song about a plane crash victim told in first person, the song starts with a Hammond organ that has some of the creepiest, deepest, dirtiest production imitating an ambulance siren. It goes on from there to a pretty basic (yet rather turgid) 3-chord progression, culminating in the chorus "I remember we were flying low and hit something in the air." Pretty graphic lyrics about a lost arm, a dead girl staring back at the narrator, and the classic climax of "Dear God in heaven, teach me how to die!"

The whole thing sounds like it was recorded on some bad b-movie set in Texas, with thuddy drums (typical for the time) overworked bass licks in the chorus, crazy deep and dramatic vocals, then – and this is what always really got me as a kid – THEY SLOW THE TAPE DOWN AT THE END OF THE SONG AND CROSSFADE TO AMBULANCE SIRENS!

I downloaded this song a few weeks ago, and it still has the same effect on me as being up late watching a Movie of the Week from the same time period.

The song made it to #36 on the Billboard charts, according to the Bloodrock Wiki entry.

I'd be curious if other folks remember this song, or have similar trauma moments (I can think of "One Tin Soldier" ("Go ahead and hate your neighbor/go ahead and cheat a friend") and the spoken word break from Stevie Wonder's "Living for the City" as two other immediate trauma inducers).

I am submitting this on behalf of my husband because he will never do it himself.

Recently we were talking about stuff from our childhood that we loved or what scared us and I mentioned how I used to love to have a record played every year on my birthday that had my name in it. It was a space guy and he would say, "Hey Jennifer, it's your birthday."

He told me that every year his family would play his record for him and as soon as he heard the first few notes of "Hey Matthew" he would run out of the room. Well I did a little research and it is by Captain Zoom. They now have a wedding version and an anniversary version. I clicked on the sample and he said he got chills. We have a son Matthew and I wanted to get it for him for his birthday, but I think my husband would kill me.

I just found this on youtube and could not believe I found Matthew.