There was a small article in the paper the other day stuck way in the back pages, but it caught my eye. "Escalator injuries increase over 10% in the last ten years". This got my attention because my mother, Bucky, always warned us of the danger of escalators. The article went on to say that the increasing injuries were thought to be related to our aging population - in other words its the old people who are getting caught or tumbling down the moving stairs. Bucky warned us of escaltors, but also anything that moved...cars were very dangerous. Before crossing the street, look both ways, then look again. Sometimes we would stand on the sidewalk looking this way, then that way for several minutes before we deemed it safe to cross. Riding in cars was even more dangerous. "Don't stick your hand out the window, I know a woman whose boy lost his arm doing that." God help those people who stuck their heads out the window. Once when I was working at IBM, I heard the man in the next office laughing out loud. Curious, I went in to see what he was laughing about and he pointed to the headline on his Enquirer newspaper: "Man gets first successful head transplant". I laughed, but I was reminded of my mother's warning and wondered if that's how he lost his first head - leaning out of the car window. Trains, even though they were on a track, were even more dangerous because of their size and speed. Today when I go to the river and have to cross the tracks, again I look both ways several times, and then hurry as fast as I can go, being careful not to catch my foot in the track. Airplanes can fall out of the sky and hit you. Bucky told us about the plane that crashed in Mt. Beacon on a foggy night. "Your father went up to see the wreckage and found the pilot's brains smeared all over the rocks." You can be sure I look up if I hear a plane that sounds like it might be coming down.

Bucky's warnings proved true when my nephew Jess, Maureen's boy, got caught in an escalator. Maureen or Rob might be able to give the details, but as I remember his underwear got caught around his neck and was choking him. I think they had to rip his clothes off to free him.

I wondered what kind of injuries these elderly people were getting and then I thought, I bet it's not the older people, I bet it's the kids. Nobody watches their kids anymore. I've seen them on the escalators, they run on the steps, use them like a carnival ride. I imagine parents tell their kids to go play on the escalator while they wait for our plane. There I feel better, but I know the next time I have to use an escalator I'll jump on the top stair, heart thumping, hang on the railing, and wait anxiously for that bottom step to make my leaping exit.