Kid-Eating Escalator
This photo from Nicole Lee brought back such a vivid memory for me:
In her words:
Let’s see. Shut-down escalator? Check. Random kid-size shoe? Check. No kid in sight? Check.
Yep, kid-eating escalator.
This EXACT thing happened to my friend, Kirstie Salamanikas, at the top of the escalator in the Mervyn’s store at Valley Fair Mall back in the Eighties. Kirstie was lucky enough to give her shoe a big yank and get it out of the escalator, but the bite it took out of the sole left an indelible mark in my mind.
To this day, I’m scared of escalators, jumping over that dangerous seam where the escalator can grab hold of your shoe and keep crunching it as the stairs move under your feet.
Mike tries to tell me that escalator technology has advanced since then and it’s impossible for someone to get their shoe caught, but now I know he’s WRONG!
I’ve always been afraid of escalators. I saw a made-for-TV movie that featured the villain being turned into bratwurst (okay, escalator moving, cap plate removed, look of horror on villain’s –cut to woman screaming with sound of grinding gears) by an escalator at the tender age of 5 and have never been able to debark an escalator without heart palpitations since.
According to the department of labor, 30 people each year are killed by elevators and escalators. That’s half as many as bees and 7 times as many as sharks. FYI. They hate you. And they want to kill you.
Comment by Matthew — December 19, 2009 @ 11:32 pm