You could not start, either
What If Friction Stopped for One Minute?
Everyone expects to slide. Almost nobody expects to be unable to move at all.
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Step 1 of 5
First you fall over — and cannot get up.
Standing is not resting. It is a correction you are making several times a second. Standing is a constant series of small corrections, all of them made by your feet gripping the floor. Take the grip away and you go down, and then there is nothing to push against to get back up.
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Step 2 of 5
Walking is not sliding forwards. It is pushing backwards.
Remove the second arrow and the first one does nothing. Every step works by shoving the ground behind you. Without friction your foot just sweeps back and you stay exactly where you are — the same reason wheels spin uselessly on ice.
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Step 3 of 5
Everything held together by grip comes apart.
No noise. Everything just stops holding. Knots hold because rope grips rope. Screws hold because thread grips wood. Nails hold because the wood squeezes them. All three are friction, so all three release at once — quietly, everywhere.
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Step 4 of 5
Nothing would stay in a pile.
A heap of sand keeps its slope only because the grains catch on each other. Frictionless grains would flow out flat like water — and so would gravel, grain, sugar and every hillside of loose soil.
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Step 5 of 5
And when it came back, everything is now moving.
That is the worst minute. Anything that started sliding kept sliding at full speed with nothing to slow it. The instant friction returns, all of it grips at once — and grinding that much motion into heat, everywhere, all together, is not a gentle event.
If you want what friction actually is — microscopic roughness catching and grinding — that is its own page.
The short version
Friction is not just what stops you; it is the only reason you can start, hold, stand, or keep anything in a pile.
Try it yourself
Try to stand up from a chair without letting your feet grip. You will find there is no way to do it.