What was your most irrational fear as a child?

[Sciencewoman]

Originally Posted by GammaGirl1908

*The big one: escalators, especially very fast ones. I was convinced the teeth would eat me.

I have heard that escalators result in a significant number of injuries every year, so I don't think your fear was irrational. My sister got her sneaker "eaten" by an escalator at a Hyatt Regency in Florida. She was with her first husband (an attorney) and my parents. There was a bent piece of metal at the bottom of the escalator, creating a small space that was just big enough to trap the tip of her shoe between the bottom platform and the stair teeth. Her foot was trapped and her husband had to work to rip her shoe off, while the escalator was still running and people were coming to help. My mom told me the story and I thought she was exaggerating, until I saw the shoe. The sole was sliced completely through...this shoe was mangled! I could not believe she wasn't injured. The hotel paid for a new pair of shoes.

[TonyB06]

Originally Posted by Sciencewoman

I have heard that escalators result in a significant number of injuries every year, so I don't think your fear was irrational. My sister got her sneaker "eaten" by an escalator at a Hyatt Regency in Florida. She was with her first husband (an attorney) and my parents. There was a bent piece of metal at the bottom of the escalator, creating a small space that was just big enough to trap the tip of her shoe between the bottom platform and the stair teeth. Her foot was trapped and her husband had to work to rip her shoe off, while the escalator was still running and people were coming to help. My mom told me the story and I thought she was exaggerating, until I saw the shoe. The sole was sliced completely through...this shoe was mangled! I could not believe she wasn't injured. The hotel paid for a new pair of shoes.

...you realize you just put GammaGirl1908 back in counseling, right?

[KDCat]

A co-worker of my dad's had his little girl lose 2 toes that way. She was 3 and wearing sandals and didn't step off at the end. Her toes went into the escalator, but they couldn't salvage them after they got her out of it.

[aephi alum]

"Listen, not a year goes by, not a year, that I don't hear about some escalator accident involving some bastard kid which could have easily been avoided had some parent - I don't care which one - but some parent conditioned him to fear and respect that escalator!"

-- Mallrats

Add me to the list of people who were afraid of escalators as a little kid. I was convinced that the teeth at the end of the escalator would eat me. After all, they were eating the steps, weren't they? So I would jump over the teeth rather than stepping off like a normal person.