Umbrellas

I used to be afraid of umbrellas.  Well, actually it was just closing them.

When I was a kid, my parents had a big, black, manual umbrella.  It probably wasn't as big as I remember, but it was scary.  I specifically remember one time pushing the wedge to collapse it, and it pinched my finger.  Boy, did that hurt!

So from then on, I avoided closing umbrellas no matter what.  Eventually, the fear spread over to opening umbrellas too.  I was so glad when automatic umbrellas were invented.

I don't have a fear of pinching my fingers in an umbrella anymore.  Most of the fear came from an irrational child's brain.  But even now that I'm an adult, the first thing that I instictly think when I'm opening a manual umbrella is, "Don't pinch your fingers!"