As a kid growing up in the 70’s there were certain things we were bombarded by. Alien abduction, BigFoot sightings, TV shows that had one or more car chase scenes ending in a fiery crash. These were all items I was certain I would have to deal with as an adult.
I soon realized as I grew into adulthood that I probably would never encounter any of these situations. Now that we all have cameras in our pockets the amount of BigFoot sightings and alien abductions seems to have decreased significantly. Perhaps BigFoot really is camera shy and aliens having studied humans for awhile have moved on determining there’s really not much intelligent life here on earth. And even though there are police chases everyday and some do end in crashes there are very few that end in explosions engulfing the vehicle in flames and I learned long ago not to be involved in that type of situation.
But there was one situation I was certain I would have to deal with as an adult but up to this point I had not encountered it myself or even heard about it happening to others and that my friends is ………quicksand.
TV shows in the 70’s used quicksand a surprisingly inordinate amount of times as a relatively harmless way to present a dangerous situation without all the blood and guts and gore of say an animal attack or gunshot injury. Quicksand was a sudden but painless way to endanger a TV or movie star. Thankfully in all the TV or movies that I saw that used this technique there was always a friend and absolutely always strong vines around to pull the entrapped person from the quicksand. After watching countless shows that used quicksand I became convinced that quicksand was a hazard to be aware of on any hike or adventure into the wild and that quicksand could be anywhere.
As I grew into adulthood and ventured out into the world I realized I probably would not actually encounter quicksand either because I wasn’t hiking in jungles or that quicksand really wasn’t a thing. So imagine my surprise at a headline I saw recently in my local paper that described a situation of a man entrapped up to his waist in quicksand having to be rescued by first responders. At first I thought that my paper in an attempt to boost readership was starting a type of section devoted to parody or humorous but not real news story’s. But thankfully there was a picture to provide visual proof that this wasn’t fake, yes a picture of a man at the beach on the shoreline sunk in sand up to his waist. Apparently the man and his girlfriend had been searching for unique rocks along the shoreline when he quickly sank to his waist. His panicked and horrified girlfriend was able to call first responders who were able to attach a life vest and rope but still had to dig around the man for about 20 minutes before they could extract him.
It was surmised that some recent dredging of that area had resulted in this dangerous situation of soft sand, but the man and his girlfriend enjoyed a hearty laugh after it was over.
Although I don’t think I’ll be losing any sleep over the fact that quicksand is real and evidently close by I am once again pondering those situations that first appeared to me as a kid. I’ve got my eyes out for BigFoot and aliens flying spaceships looking to abduct and study humans and beware I’ll have my camera at the ready to provide proof as I look into the night sky as long as I don’t stumble into quicksand.
Peace and Love,
John
John's Blog 