Hillbillies on Tour!

Now this is one of those phenomenon that   was very hard to explain.  People would ask me, what is your son afraid of, and I had to tell them the list of things that would absolutely send Zach into meltdown mode.  As I think back now it was quite an unusual list of occurrences that would flip him out.  Let's see....  Old MacDonald the song, Look the hell out if Old MacDonald played somewhere,  ANYWHERE, someone was going down! He had one of those musical books where you push the button and it plays a song, it played a bunch of songs and he was fine with them until Old MacDonald, he would scream, throw himself to the ground, flail and kick and dissolve into a puddle of crying mush on the floor.  Old Macdonald had a flip out time of at least 15 minutes and I walked around silently praying that we did not hear Old MacDonald on our travels, or else  I had some real explaining to do to  a group of wide eyed confused strangers. Something on Old MacDonalds farm was pissing Zach off royally, or maybe it was the old farmer himself.  I still don't know. The crux of  problem was:
How do you explain something like this? I had no explanation as to why these seemingly harmless things caused  sheer terror anxiety and panic in a little boy. Then there  was a scene from a Barney tape where there was a rain storm, the MTV video " Scream" with Michael and Janet Jackson, the beginning of wheel of fortune, when they yell Wheel Offfffff Fortune,The start of the nightly news,certain cartoons, live applause ( for some reason studio laugh tracks and  tracks of applause did not bother him,  only if it was live), bubbles, certain balloons and the one that was the most puzzling to me the Hillbillies on Tour Bus.  Allow me to explain.  Zach was still into his matchbox car phase and I started to buy him bigger and better matchboxes like buses.  I found a black and silver bus with a country singer logo on it.  The side of the Bus read Hillbillies on Tour and let me tell you it was one of the sorriest purchases I ever made ( or so I thought)  I bring it home and take it out of the plastic.  Usually he would snatch it up and the car would  find it's place among the others in Zach's super highway.  This bus was different, he just stood and stared at it for a while. I could feel the tension start to build.  He then started smacking himself repeatedly in the head and yelling No!  over and over.  I tried to show him the bus and let him touch it and he was petrified beyond anything I have ever witnessed.  Talk about confusion....  I mean what the hell did this bus ever do?  I hid the bus in an old cookie jar and he found it, and just started screaming, he wouldn't touch it and would completely fall apart at the seams whenever this bus made an appearance.  It got to the point where I had it hidden and all I would have to say is "where is the black bus?" and he would start to scream. Ok now I know that this may sound cruel and I am not proud of it BUT, at this particular time Zach was not behaving the way that he should have.  He had no inclination of danger and he did not listen very well when I told him not to do something.  So yes, I used it.  The black Bus.  Boy did I use it to my advantage.  "Oh you don't want to listen? Ok I will just get the black bus.  Problem solved!  You don't want to use the potty, well maybe I will have to get the black bus ( this didn't work as well as I wished it would but it definitely was a start). Oh you don't want to go to sleep or sleep in your room, ok where is the ........ and the problem would be solved.  Did I understand it?  Hell No! But if something works, as strange as it may be you gotta go with it.  So I used it. over and over and over.  If someone ever had to watch Zach, I would have to give them strict orders:  no news, no wheel of fortune, no applause, no Old MacDonald etc. and if he doesn't listen just bring out the old black bus with Hillbillies on Tour and the problem should be solved.  Well I'm not sure what T Berry Brazelton, or Dr.  Spock would say about my method of discipline, but at the time it was about all I had to work with.  This kind of "stuff" started to become normal to me.  Needless to say I didn't go out much back then and when I did,   just seeing the look on the caregivers face ( usually my nieces or my teenage cousins) when I explained the "restrictions" was PRICELESS!!!  I mean utterly hysterical.