Your parents take you camping in the woods at night
They’re telling scary stories by the firelight
Your mom says “Go to bed now, it’s almost ten o’clock!”
When suddenly you hear a spooky noise, your knees begin to knock
You think there’s nothing there, but then you hear the noise again
You cry out, “Dad, help me!”
He says, “That’s just the wind”
“Just the wind?” you say, “Well, I’m not afraid of the wind”

CHORUS
But when you don’t know what it is
it could be anything at all
When you don’t know what it is
it could be ogres ten feet tall
When you don’t know what it is
it makes you want to run away
But when you find out what it is
then it’s okay

You move into a new house where you’ve never been before
Strangers are living in the house next door
You’re afraid they won’t like kids, afraid they won’t like you
Afraid that they might catch you and put you in their stew
When suddenly you seem them, they’re coming up your stairs
They’re knockin on your door, your mom goes to see who’s there
You say, “Mom, don’t open that thing up! We’ve got to run and hide!!”
But your mom, she opens up the door and this stranger steps inside
He says “Hi! I’m your new neighbor, I brought you some cookies!”
“Cookies!” you say. “Well, I’m not afraid of cookies!”

CHORUS

There are so many different things in the world out there
When you don’t know what they are, it’s easy to get scared
Different people, different places, something different every day
The first time that you meet them, you want to run away
Standing up to fears is hard I know, but learning ’bout new things
that’s just a part of how you grow
There used to be a lot of stuff that I was afraid of
Till I found out what it was and I wasn’t afraid anymore

CHORUS

© Bill Harley, all rights reserved. Reprints with permission only.