I grew up during the height of the “stranger danger” warnings in the ’80s. (I don’t want you to deduce my age by that, so I’m just going to say that from 1980 to 1989, I was 2 years old.)
It was around this time that fears of Pod People and Freddy Krueger and The Blob were replaced by fears of windowless vans, whose giant sliding doors opened like the shark from “Jaws” and inhaled oblivious children while they walked down the street.
I distinctly remember my mom warning me to stay away from Strangers. With a capital S.