AIKEN, S.C. (WJBF) – In Downtown Aiken, you need to watch your step, but not because you might sink in quicksand.  

“I ain’t heard of any quicksand around Aiken. I’m pretty sure it is though,” said William McDuffie.

But anybody growing up watching old movies and TV shows thought they needed to be on constant lookout for it.

“We thought quicksand was going to be horrible. I mean, you were going to walk down the street, and all of a sudden, you would disappear or be stuck up to your neck and need that branch to come down. We thought it was going to be horrible,” said Mike Hunter. 

But on the streets of Aiken, there’s little worry.  

“Quicksand? No, I’m from Buffalo. Snow, yes; quicksand, no,” said Corinne Kennney.  

Not far from downtown is Hitchcock Woods, but if you enter this urban forest and you need to heed this warning sign, yes, it says: Danger. Quicksand. 

“It’s not the quicksand like you see in the old movies, back in the olden days where you see the hats floating on the top of the quicksand. Howvever, we do have a little bit,” said Hitchcock Woods Superintendent Bennett Tucker. 

The sign is really there to warn horse riders, but one Hitchcock Woods Trustee almost went full Saturday morning TV one day.  

“I went down there one day, and it went up to my knees. but I felt solid underneath,” said Doctor Harry Shealy.  

“But in the movies, you always sunk down.” 

“If it had gone up a little higher than my knees, I might have become concerned,” said Doctor Shealy.  

 The greatness of Hitchcock Woods with a little danger of quicksand.  

 “Sure, I’m not surprised,” said Matt with a laugh. 

You should never be surprised by quicksand… out there somewhere.