Misunderstandings: the scissors-man and the black monster

(Edited to make this easier to understand... I hope.)

I got in kindergarten one year later then most children because I didn't speak much and not to strangers, was shy and a bit delayed. However, it seems that it has not been late enough.

Once (and once was totally enough to scare me for month of kindergarten and elementary school) the kindergarteners said, we should all hide under the table, because a man with very big scissors was coming to cut our tumbs off (at least of those children thumb-sucking). I have no ideas whether this was fun for the other children or not, but for me it was just frightening and I was to afraid to come out again. So I stayed under the table even though all other children were playing again. I noticed that, if I was the only person under the table, the scissors-monster would probably notice me at first (compared to when all children are under the table the change is greater that he picks another child first), but I was still too scared to come out. So I stayed under the table crying (even though I noticed that crying would not be the best thing to but the attention of the monster away from me).

There were also games we had to play at kindergarden and elementary school I did not understand at that age (until many years later). E.G. there was a game called "Who is afraid of the black man?"* For this game all children had to stay at one side of the sport hall or room and as soon as this sentence was shouted by the kindergartener all children had to run to the other end of the sport hall. There was one kid who was chosen to be the "black man" and he or she could catch the other children then, if they were not fast enough running from one side to the other. But I was not getting that point - that it was just another kid who was representing the "black man". I always thought there would, at some time, a black monster appear and catch us all. I didn't get the sense in running to the other end of the hall, aswell. Because in my head, the black monster was big, and it would make much more sense to hide somewhere else if it would enter this room. So, this game frightend me a lot!

As a reaction to me not running to the other end of the room but rather stupidly trying just to disappear the kindergartener used to scream at me "run up" or "run down" depending on the direction. I didn't get that either, because the room was even/planar, so there was no possibility to run up or down, leading to lots of confusing on my side.

I don't know if it is understandable to anyone of you how scary thouse simple words were for me as a child. Is it difficult to understand?

* I'm not racist. That is how that stupid game was called.