Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for May 28, 2015

Pointless stories are one of the few pleasures of fatherhood.-Macy’s Herald Square still has some old wooden escalators.

I can see why Calvin always falls down the stairs….

I just barely remember those types of escalators; the South Station MBTA station in Boston had them into the late 70s.

I’m older than he is, and I don’t remember any wooden escalators in downtown Houston. Maybe they were ahead of their time.

At least those old escalators of death had personality.

I remember an old “pater noster” in an office. It had wooden cabins and always went round and round!

I wanted to go round and round with the pater noster, but my mother didn’t allow it, she said I would be squashed on the top.

Didn’t the London Underground have a really disastrous fire some years ago when one of their old wooden escalators (and accumulated debris underneath it) caught fire?

When I grew up here in Bergen, Norway in the 1970s, one department store here still had those wooden escalators. I remember the very distinctive clackity-clack sound. The store was the first one to get escalators here at all, and lots of people came just to ride them. Of course that meant that when all the other stores got them as well, the one who started it all was for a long time stuck with the old fashioned ones.

How about the automatic door openers that depended on a weight triggered paddle mounted in the floor? I haven’t seen those in years either.

We still have a wooden escalator from the 1930s here that leads to a pedestrian tunnel under the river. It’s a protected ‘monument’.

I too am old enough to clearly remember wooden escalators of the type dad describes. No doubt shoes did get caught in them, and there were likely many that were destroyed, along with their owners’ ankles. Wooden or steel, wide slats or narrow, they can still be dangerous, especially to little children. A small boy was killed in Boston in the not-too-distant past when he was caught in the gap between the escalator and the return and was pulled in.

Calvin is bored, even though his Dad told a moving story.

I remember a department store in Fall River, MA that the elevator operator had to manually close the doors and then raise/lower a gate on the inside before changing floors. The gate came down from the ceiling and up from the floor, meeting half way in front of the elevator door.I know…pointless.

I tried to write with a pencil but it didn’t have a tip on it, so I had to sharpen it.Another pointless story……..

Are you a night type? I’m awake early in the morning and in the evening, there is no fun with me. In the morning I can pull out trees, but in the evening I sleep away!

Higbee Company, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Not seen in the film “A Christmas Story”. “You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out”

@RavenswingI moved to Boston in 1983 and I remember that wooden escalator at South Station. I think they kept that until the late 1980s at least.

I remember once being halfway up an escalator when it suddenly stopped. I was stuck on it for hours.

Must have been terrifying!Were you rescued by the Fire Dept?!

Don’t remember wooden escalators, but some of the old department stores (and one of the newer ones) in Baltimore had pneumatic tube systems that would place an order in a capsule and send it back to the warehouse to have it sent up for you. I could be left in front of this watching the setup work and my parents would know they could find me right there when they were done. This is long before the drive in banks came along and used them.Yes, I was easily amused, but I thought it was so cool.

Here is an Extra opportunity for you. You can earn 1825$ in a week. Start your business from the comfort of your home. All you need is to go to this website and fill out a basic online form. It’s free and always will be. Try this out here…….

=====>>> w­­w­­w.R­­e­­c­­e­­s­­s­­i­­o­­n-B­­u­­s­­t­­e­­r­­s.T­­K

hi

gfhgfhg

He’s too young to remember the elevators with an operator that took you to the floor you requested (I do).

The “point” is that the only constant in life is change.

I remember this neat mechanical pencil I had

ah whats the point- no ones listening ! hahahaha

My brother, who was always dragging his toes when he walked – simply for his own pleasure and not from any disability – once had the toe of his tennis shoe shaved off by an escalator when it reached the top of a floor. I think it was a metal one, and no damage was done to him. He got a new pair of shoes out of the deal.

I was thinking, “That’s where Calvin gets it.” The escalators when I was a kid were a.k.a. elevators. Manchester’s in Madison, WI had the kind with glass doors. When I was waiting, I’d look down the shaft while standing a couple of feet from the edge. I think about this when watching movies like Ghost Ship.

Escalators? Why you young whipper snappers, when I was your age I threw a rope over the rafters to get to the next floor…

I never saw one before, but I found thishttp://www.1000thingsnyc.com/macys-wooden-escalator/

I was on an escalator a few weeks ago and my long skirt got caught down the side and I didn’t notice till I tried to step off just as the thing jammed and stopped. It at least didn’t pull it off, but I was good and stuck. Two of us pulling as hard as we could, no go, and finally I tried it from a slightly different angle—and went tumbling over backwards, but at least I got it out of there. It was a little torn and a whole lot of black grease and someone had to reset the machine. I’m just glad it automatically turned off.

Dad is holding Calvin’s hand. Sweet.

I used to be a bit scared of the escalators and tried to avoid using them.

I’m not scared anymore now but I hear a lot of horror stories of people falling down them and getting badly injured.

xxx

Right, Calvin. When you grow up you can tell your son about escalators while ascending with your anti-gravity belts.

The point, Calvin, is to remember the stories and pass them on. You will too if you ever grow up.

I would love to able to hear my old man tell stories again

I realize that this strip is in serious reruns; but wooden escalators!? I don’t ever recall being in a building with wooden escalators, especially one-person wide escalators.

Here in Seattle the 1912 Smith Tower (Smith of Smith Corona) still runs it’s operator-run elevators:

I never saw wooden stepped escalators but I do recall our department stores using vacuum tubing to move money from the point of sale to the office and returning any change for the customer. Pretty cool to a little boy.

Crowley’s in Detroit had wooden escalators until the store was torn down in the 70s. They were fun to ride.

Higbee’s, Halle’s or May Company in Downtown Cleveland? I remember the narrow wooden escalators that also sloped downward—I was afraid as a child that I would slip off.

I saw my first Paternoster while watching a European film when I was young(er). Had never seen one in the U.S. (or a live one ever), but I was fascinated with that device, the freedom of just stepping into it, and the need for individual responsibility to use it. In the (French?) film, the characters seemed so nonchalant and suave using it. Tres cool!

I guess we’ve all had that same thought at some point in our lives.. :)

Calvin’s dad should come to NY. Macy’s still has the old, personality-filled escalators.