It was Gilligan's Island that taught me about the dangers of quicksand when I was a child. It seemed that someone on that show was always falling into quicksand and being sucked under, leaving behind only a jaunty hat on the surface to indicate who had been swallowed. Quicksand, although I had never seen any in real life, became something to fear. What if I was walking home from school one day and tread, accidentally, into some quicksand, and sunk to my doom, leaving behind only my woolly toque? This could happen, I knew, because on Gilligan's Island, no one ever had any warning that they were about to step in quicksand. They would just be strolling along happily on solid ground, and then suddenly find themselves in quicksand. To get home from school, I had to cross a very large field. Who knew how many quicksand pits there were in that field? Dozens, I felt sure. Maybe hundreds.
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2 comments:
That's where I learned about quicksand, too! I was so relieved to learn later that it doesn't actively suck you down and you can save yourself by not struggling. Which is a great metaphor.
Lovely metaphor indeed.
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