How do you get unstuck?

a journey through the boot-eating bogs of my childhood

As a child I spent a lot of time outdoors.

It rained lots. It was wet a lot of the time.

Rubber boots were necessary.

There were rivers, brooks, bogs and swamps.

And where they put in the new subdivision?

Vast, rolling plains of mud.

Getting a boot stuck was common.

The first rule about getting stuck is to freeze.

If you don’t freeze, you risk loosing your boot in the mud. The next step is likely unpleasant, muddy, wet and depending how far from home you’ve been exploring, lasting much longer than you would like.

Next? Assess the situation. Can you lift your toes, lock your boot and extract foot and boot together? Are there things nearby that you can support yourself with? Are there people nearby on solid enough ground to help you?

Are you at risk of going too deep, filling your boot and ending up with a soaker?

Can you pull your foot from the boot then remove the boot with your hands while somehow keeping your other foot clean?

Once unstuck, will you end up in a state where you’re fit to …