LOL!! He hated escalators. Said they were unsafe. We'd be in the mall, shopping, and he'd see guys he knew and would climb in the "pit" with them. There were shoes, packages, all manor of stuff. If you get you shoelace or anything caught in the escalator teeth, it's gone. It will pull the shoe off your foot.....or worse.
I’m careful around escalators, they doo look like they want to eat your feet. There was a wooden one at King’s Cross Underground Station in London that caught fire and killed a lot of folks. Fascinating how it happened, but grim.