Fallout from the Sixtiesby Eva Pasco Author of "Underlying Notes" 
As a child growing
up in the Sixties, the Cold War was as palpable a dark cloud as the
mushroom blast over Hiroshima. StilI fresh in my mind
are clips of Nikita Kruschev banging his shoe on a lecturn while
delivering the line, "We will bury you!" Then there was the
Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 where President Kennedy proved Russia
placed nuclear missiles in Cuba, and imposed a naval
quarantine around Cuba to force their removal. Scary
stuff! Since the threat of nuclear annihilation
seemed imminent, one survival antidote was that of
the nuclear fallout shelter stocked with civil
defense biscuits, canned goods, and booklets suggesting exercises
while confined.
While these
fears lay dormant inside me throughout 1962, I was a
sixth grader at Lincoln Community School. Our school could
not accomodate the town's growing population, so fifth and sixth
graders were relegated to the Maccoll Field barn on Breakneck
Hill Rd. Every Friday before school let out we had
to empty our desks and stow away our books
and implements inside a pillowcase so the desks
could be stored in a corner to clear the floor for square
dancing. Nevertheless, we country hicks were hip to the
drill--the one which prepared us for a nuclear
holocaust. "Fallout shelters? We don't need no
stinkin' fallout shelters!" Our desks
would protect us!
When Miss G gave
the signal, we'd crouch beneath our desks despite the wobbly legs
on some. In that lowly position one could glimpse the topsy
turvy world of loose crayons, books teetering on the
edge, points of scissors and no. 2 yellow lead
pencils facing outward, along with the occasional wad of
gum strategically stuck underneath for a rainy
day. The crux of the situation is that we all bought into
this line of safety, confident our rickety desks would save us
from heavy debris and radioactive particles in the air until our
parents could come get us. I hereby nominate the school desk
to be added to the memorabilia housed in any
Cold.
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.jpg "The 60s - Carl - 1968 - Vietnam")
