This is true. I’m an old man now, and I STILL have a fear of Down Escalators, because when I was a kid, I had these two elderly aunts who had never had children. When we went to the store, they would both pound me with dire warnings to BE CAREFUL on the escalator, because if I fell, it would “SHRED MY LEGS TO RIBBONS!”

I think of that every single time I approach an escalator.