My mom took me to Madison Square Garden to see the Ringling Bros. circus when I was six. I was so terrified of the clowns that I hid under my seat. My children think this phobia is hilarious. When a local shoe store put a clown statue out front, I avoided the place like the plague. My kids would laugh when we drove past it, poking each other (or a friend who happened to be with us), giggling, and saying "Mom, are you afraid of the clown?"