Do you remember your childhood dreams? Were they nightmares?

Can you describe your earliest dream? Do you think it has a special or overarching significance in your life?

-- Mo (moira@diarist.net), August 04, 1999

Answers

I being afraid to death of a ginat purple panda from outer space that I thought lived under my bed. I think I saw this purple panda on a segment of Mr. Rogers neighborhood when they had the king and queen puppets and the little train and... I'm losing you here aren't I?

Well, i dreamed of this freakin panda until i was about 12. The dreams were always differnt, but the panda did one thing consistently in every dream. He would make me sit on his lap, and then would stick his hand into my back, ripping thourgh the skin, and use me as a puppet. I think this explains a lot of things about me now.

-- Bart (Bdwyblues@aol.com), August 04, 1999.

The only way to remember dreams is to write them down... As I did not do that as a child, the memories are quite hazy.

The funny thing about the dreams I remember is, that even if they sound like nightmares when retold, actually those dreams were filled with intense feeling of love... Bad things could happen only to other people in my dreams.

The earliest dream I remember consisted a magician (hansome, dark-haired, wearing white starched shirt), a ironing-board and lots of love... I was five years old then.

But I did try to sell all kinds of horrors to my little sister. Like, as she got afraid of sleeping alone in her cot, so mother put the cot beside the big bed and streched out her hand, inserting it between the bars, for my sister to hold. Well, I asked my sister:

"But how can you be sure in darkness, that a clever monster has not eaten away mother and the hand you are holding isn`t the only leftover from the monster-meal it had?"

-- Aet Tunissoo (tonissoo@ra.gov.ee), August 05, 1999.

I remember my dreams fairly often, but they're usually not very exciting. It's more exciting when I go sleepwalking.

The first dream I can remember having was as a four-year-old. My Raggedy Ann doll had grown to enormous proportions and was standing outside my window, tapping, smiling, wanting to be let in. It was very scary. That Raggedy Ann has a really demonic smile, if you think about it - and totally dead eyes.

-- Molly Zero (mollyzero@usa.net), August 05, 1999.

This is so funny, but is was a wretching nightmare in my childhood. This nightmare was about a school cook. And it strangely had nothing to do with the "moon munchies" meal we got served a couple of times a month. This particular cook was REALLY ugly, had dyed redish hair, and ofcourse was mean...looking anyway. She was always at the end of the lunch line handing out white or chocolate milk.

Anyway, on with the nightmare. I would dream that she was always hiding underneath my bed. When I would have to get up to use the bathroom, I would swing my feet off the side of the bed, and as soon as I put my feet on the floor and stand up, her hands and face would pop out from underneath my bed. She would grab me by the ankles, jerk my feet underneath the edge of the bed (which would make me fall forward on the floor) then she would bite off all my toes and eat them. While laughing a very evil laugh, of course. It never failed, I would wake up and have to go to the bathroom. I usually resorted to throwing crayons or toys within my reach and pelting my sister with them from across the room. When she woke up, I would make her give me a piggy-back ride to the toilet, and back to bed. I did create that same toe eating anxiety when I was older for my baby brother. I would say, "Mmmm, I am getting really hungry. You know what sounds good? TOES!" My little brother would run like hell, shrieking all the way through the house. I had him convinced for a year or two that everyone USED to have six toes on each foot. I told him I ate one toe (from the outside edge of the little toe) off of each foot from everyone in the family, and he couldn't remember it because, it was when he was a small baby. I did reassure him that his toes were especially tasty.

-- Tracey (Camrx@aol.com), August 05, 1999.

First dream I remember was during a feverish mumps induced sleep when I was 5.

I dreamt that I was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. The story unfolds (tornado, flying monkeys etc) but at some point the Yellow Brick Road turns into a strange tire thing that goes on forever and then also becomes the sky.

I always know when I'm seriously sick because I have that dream again but it might explain my strange fixation with red shoes.

-- Jai (jaimystery@aol.com), August 16, 1999.