Last week my friend, Shannon, called me mid-afternoon here at work to see if I could meet her for dinner and a drink after work. So I made arrangements for Dave to pick up Gavin after work in my place, and got a "hall pass" for the evening. I met her at her house then she drove us to our usual place, Mr. B’s in Royal Oak. Afterward, we walked around Royal Oak. She wanted to stop in the Barnes & Noble bookstore for a CD. Music was on the upper level.. I walk toward the escalators and Shannon refuses to get on. She’s searching everywhere for stairs, an elevator, anything other than that escalator. I have known this woman for 14 years and NEVER did I know that she has a fear of escalators.  Once I discovered this, I began to play into it, and boy was I having fun. I kept telling her, "Come on Shannon, you can hold my hand".. she just repeatedly kept saying "shut up."  Apparently she had an escalator accident when she was younger and since then she refuses to go on escalators.  She blames it on her equilibrium, or lack there of, and that it’s the actual mount and dismount of the escalator that scares her.  I just find it shocking that it took 14 years for me to know this.

She tried reminding me of a time that she, myself and 2 other friends were at the mall and when she chose the stairs between the up and down escalator, we poked fun at her by going up and down the escalator several times in the time it took her to take the stairs.

I looked in the Directory of Phobias and apparently there isn’t one for escalators. There should be one because as I discovered in my search, it’s a pretty common thing. Shall we call it, escalphobia?

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