{"id":7645,"date":"2023-09-06T14:59:59","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T21:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/?p=7645"},"modified":"2023-09-06T15:44:15","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T22:44:15","slug":"clubius-contained-part-13-third-grade-october-1962","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/2023\/09\/06\/clubius-contained-part-13-third-grade-october-1962\/","title":{"rendered":"Clubius Contained Part 13 – Third Grade (October 1962)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last night I was watching TV, but mom came down and said she wanted \u201cto hear what President Kennedy has to say about what\u2019s happening in Cuba.\u201d Dad was already down in the basement at his desk. He turned around in his wood office chair to watch too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That \u201cnews\u201d show came on with that Walter Cronkite guy. When the TV showed him, he turned his head and looked out of the TV at us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cronkite: Please standby for a statement by President Kennedy on the evolving situation in Cuba.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

Then the picture changed to that President Kennedy guy standing behind this little table with that circle thing with a picture of an eagle in the middle with the red and white stripes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kennedy: Good evening, my fellow citizens. This Government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military build-up on the island of Cuba. Within the past week unmistakable evidence had established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purposes of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh Jesus\u201d, mom said, putting her head down and her hand on her hand above her eyes. Dad didn\u2019t say anything. Some kids said that that \u201cJesus\u201d guy was in that Bible book and that he was either god or the \u201cson of god\u201d. Other people said it was swearing. That seemed strange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That President Kennedy guy kept talking about a bunch of stuff about how Cuba had \u201ccommunist missiles\u201d and how it was becoming a big \u201cbase\u201d for the Soviet Union. Then he said\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kennedy: To halt this offensive build-up, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba from whatever nation or port will, if found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons, be turned back. This quarantine will be extended, if needed, to other types of cargo and carriers. We are not at this time, however, denying the necessities of life as the Soviets attempted to do in their Berlin blockade of 1948.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about time!\u201d dad said, shaking his head. Mom looked at him and pushed her lips together, thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kennedy: It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I looked at dad. He shook his head and blew air out of his mouth and looked worried, but didn\u2019t look at me. I guess men had to be tough and ready to fight, even if it was shooting nuclear missiles at each other rather than guns and mortars and tanks. I looked at mom. She looked worried too, but also kind of fierce. She saw me looking at her and her eyes got less fierce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh sweetie\u201d, she said, shaking her head, \u201cIt\u2019s a challenging world we live in, trying to keep our contest with the Soviet Union from turning into a war. But Jack Kennedy is really smart, so I for one trust his judgment, and that he\u2019ll do the right thing.\u201d When you \u201ctrusted\u201d someone, you didn\u2019t worry that they would do something stupid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mom always liked grownups who were \u201csmart\u201d and kids who were \u201cbright\u201d, which I guess was the same thing as smart, but for kids, since we didn\u2019t know very much yet. If I always tried to do things that were smart, then mom would trust me too and not try to be in charge of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kennedy: The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are; but it is the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation and our commitments around the world. The cost of freedom is always high – but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I wondered about that surrendering stuff. In the Civil War, that General Lee guy who was in charge of the Confederates, he surrendered, and that was a good thing. In a war, like a game, somebody won and somebody lost. In a game, if you lost, you were supposed to be a \u201cgood loser\u201d and not be mad at the other team that beat you. In a war, if you lost, you were supposed to surrender. In the Civil War the Confederates surrendered. In World War Two, the Germans and the Japanese surrendered. I mean they were badguys, but THEY didn\u2019t THINK they were badguys. If they never surrendered, would we still be fighting them today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kennedy: Our goal is not the victory of might but the vindication of right – not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this Hemisphere and, we hope, around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

All those grownup men on TV, like President Kennedy, who were in charge of stuff, usually said something about god when they sounded worried. The grownup men that I knew, like dad, his friends, and my friends\u2019 dads, DIDN’T talk about god, even WHEN they were worried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This all sounded really bad and made me worried. Were those Soviet Union guys going to fight a war with us and shoot missles. I pretended in my mind seeing the giant hydrogen bomb explosion with that \u201cmushroom cloud\u201d that I had seen on TV. Ricky said that if you looked at the explosion it would \u201cfry your eyes out\u201d before it \u201cmelted your skin off\u201d and you were dead. I wondered what it would be like to be dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I looked at mom and dad. Dad was still blowing air out of his mouth and shaking his head, but didn\u2019t look back at me. Mom still looked worried and like she was thinking very hard. She finally looked at me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSweetie\u201d, she said, \u201cDo you understand what\u2019s going on?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think so\u201d, I said, but I didn\u2019t say anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is like a very serious game\u201d, she said, \u201cBetween our country and the Soviet Union. Each side makes a move and then the other side makes their move. We just have to hope all our leaders, and their leaders too, are smart enough to work this out without wanting to start a damn war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI still don\u2019t trust Kruschev\u201d, dad said, shaking his head slowly, \u201cHe\u2019s just another two-bit Stalin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell I trust Jack Kennedy\u201d, mom said, \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever had a brighter mind in the President\u2019s chair.\u201d I remembered mom saying that Molly and I were \u201cbright\u201d kids, like that was really good. I remembered her saying that it should be a GAME between us and the Soviet Union instead of a war, where both sides tried to win but not kill anybody with their bombs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She looked at me really hard like she was trying to figure out what I was thinking. \u201cI bet this is pretty scary for you Cloob. Right?\u201d I remembered that dad said he wasn\u2019t brave in the war, he just tried to \u201cdo his job\u201d. I thought about Lieutenant Cord who was brave but got killed when the Martian dinosaurs attacked. Men were supposed to be brave or they were \u201ccowards\u201d or even \u201csissies\u201d. Or at least they had to do their jobs like dad said. Us boys pretended we were brave so that maybe someday we could really be brave and fight in a war against badguys. I figured I should at least pretend to be brave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m okay\u201d, I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAre you sure?\u201d mom asked, like she didn\u2019t think I was saying what I was really thinking. I remember dad saying he was okay when I could tell he really wasn\u2019t, like when he burned his hand on that frying pan on the stove. I guess that was being brave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I nodded and said, \u201cI\u2019m okay.\u201d I remembered when I saw President Kennedy talk at that Union place before he got to be the President. \u201cPresident Kennedy will figure it out\u201d, I said. I figured mom would like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mom nodded, but didn\u2019t say anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next morning, walking to school, I was thinking that I had been in third grade for six weeks now and it was hard and not very fun. I still liked seeing my school friends, Gabe, Jake, Herbie and Amanda, mainly when we went outside for recess. That was fun, but other stuff wasn\u2019t. The teacher Mrs. Rodney was older, and not as nice as our other teachers had been. She didn\u2019t let us talk to each other much in class, and at free reading time, she didn\u2019t let us sit together at a table, we had to sit by ourselves at our desks. And when she asked us questions we always had to raise our hands if we knew the answers. I usually knew the answers so I would raise my hand a lot and tell her if she called on me, so she\u2019d think I was good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herbie and Amanda liked her, because they said she didn\u2019t talk to us like we were stupid little kids, but more like we were \u201cregular people\u201d, which I guess meant like grownups. But I liked our first grade teacher Miss Zimmerman better, because even though she talked to us like kids, she didn\u2019t think we were stupid, and she seemed more like an older kid herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mrs. Rodney gave us pieces of paper called \u201chomework\u201d, that we were supposed to work on when we got home and bring back the next morning and give to her. They were usually \u201cdefinitions\u201d, where you had to write down what each word meant, or \u201cproblems\u201d where you had to do adding and subtracting, like second grade, but also \u201cmultiplying\u201d or \u201cdividing\u201d, which we hadn\u2019t done before. She would \u201ccheck\u201d them and give them back to us and put a red check by the ones we got right and a circle around the ones we got wrong. If we gave her our \u201chomework\u201d with all our answers she would put a silver star on our paper and give it back to us. And if we got all the answers right, she would put a gold star instead, because gold was better than silver I guess. She would also put the same color star on this bulletin board on the wall that had all our names down the side and the days of the week across the top, so we all could look at it and see who was doing the best, which was usually Amanda or Mary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the kids in the park who were older than me said that third grade was harder than second grade or first grade, and that Mrs. Rodney was really \u201cstrict\u201d. Even mom said that it was harder. She said that you learned \u201cbasic stuff about reading, writing and math\u201d in first and second grade, but now in third grade you learned more complicated stuff about how to use all those \u201cbasic skills\u201d to now learn more \u201ccomplicated skills\u201d for figuring stuff out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor example Coop\u201d, she said, grinning, \u201cIn order to learn how to multiply or divide big numbers, something you have to do in the real world, first you need to know how to add and subtract.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd\u201d, she said, raising her hand, pointing her finger up and wiggling it, \u201cYou have to know how to multiply small numbers, like one through twelve, in your head, without even thinking about it, by memorizing what they call the \u2018times table\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTimetable?\u201d I asked. I had heard that word before and seen it in books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo\u201d, she said, \u201cThe TIMES table. The basic multiplication table. When you multiply, you\u2019re adding the same number over and over again. So like four plus four equals eight, right? That\u2019s adding. But you could also say you\u2019re adding four TWO TIMES, or \u2018four times two equals eight\u2019. And if you add four plus four plus four, then you\u2019re adding four THREE TIMES, or \u2018four times three equals twelve\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd THEN\u201d, she said, making her eyes open really wide, \u201cYou can multiply and divide really big numbers by just using a pencil and paper and the basic adding and subtracting that you\u2019ve already learned, plus the times table that you\u2019ve memorized.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMemorized?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah\u201d, she said, nodding her head and thinking, \u201cMemorizing is like learning all the words to a song so you can sing them perfectly without having to have them written down so you can read them while you sing.\u201d I nodded. That made sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then she made a pretend sad face and said, \u201cBut memorizing the Times Table is not much fun, not like memorizing a song you like to sing. I remember I had a really tough time memorizing the Times Table when I was in third grade.\u201d I frowned. I still couldn\u2019t imagine mom, dad, or any grownup ever being a kid like me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut don\u2019t worry\u201d, she said, shaking her head and waving her hand in front of her face, \u201cYou\u2019ll have to work hard at it but you\u2019ll figure it out. And for the rest of your life you\u2019ll remember it, and be able to use it to do all sorts of complicated math problems, even how much fuel to put in your rocketship to get to the moon!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabe said Mrs. Rodney was \u201csneaky\u201d, because she always made us do hard stuff that we didn\u2019t want to do before recess, which was our favorite thing. This morning before recess she did those \u201ctimes tables\u201d again that mom had told me about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s try to make this more fun\u201d, she said, and then she looked around at all of us and asked, \u201cWho wants to start?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About half the kids raised their hands, including me, all my friends, and Mary. She picked this girl Sarah, who was one of Mary\u2019s friends. Most of the other girls in class were Mary\u2019s friends, except for Amanda, who didn\u2019t like Mary at all. Herbie said the other girls liked Mary because she was the prettiest girl and she also got the most gold stars on her homework on the bulletin board, except for Amanda, who ALWAYS got gold stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay\u201d, said Mrs. Rodney, \u201cI will say the first multiplication problem and Sarah, you\u2019ll try to answer it. If you get it right, I\u2019ll give the next problem to Millie behind you. If you don\u2019t know the answer, or get it wrong, I\u2019ll ask Millie the same problem and we\u2019ll continue down the row. When we get to the end of the row I\u2019ll start at the front of the room with the next row and work my way back. You\u2019ll all get the hang of it, and even figure out when your turn is coming up and maybe even be ready with the answer before I even ask you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay ready?\u201d she asked all of us. I nodded, and most everyone else nodded too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne times one\u201d, Mrs. Rodney said to Sarah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne\u201d, said Sarah, then looking behind at Millie. Mrs. Rodney took a step toward Millie\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne times two\u201d, she said to Millie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo\u201d, said Millie. Mrs. Rodney took a step towards the girl sitting behind her at the end of the row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne times three.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThree\u201d, that girl said. Mrs. Rodney walked up to the first desk in the next row closer to the windows and continued down the row. Everyone was getting them right, but they were \u201cone times\u201d and \u201ctwo times\u201d, so they were easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she got to me it was two times five, which was ten, and I answered that. These \u201ctwo times\u201d problems were super easy, because since the way she asked them, you just had to add two to the last answer to get the next one. When she got to Gabe he knew it was going to be two times eight, which was 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSixteen\u201d, he said, before she even asked him the question. She laughed through her nose and said, nodding her head, \u201cThat\u2019s right Gabe, but please, I\u2019d like everyone to hear the problem first before they hear the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the new kid Joey that was the first to mess up when she asked him \u201cthree times seven\u201d, and he didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDamn!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJOEY!\u201d she said in a very fierce voice, \u201cYou will never hear me use those kinds of words in class, and I expect you, and all my other students, will not use them either. If you swear again I\u2019ll send you to see the principal.\u201d That\u2019s what she always said she would do, and one time, when Herbie told everyone that Mary was wearing pink underwear, he had to go to the principal\u2019s office. Joey looked really mad but just looked down and didn\u2019t say anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had talked to Joey in the park a couple times in the summer. He had moved to Ann Arbor from a place called \u201cKalamazoo\u201d, which was a strange name for a city. He always liked to tell me how good he was at everything, which made me want to tell him how good I was at stuff too. Older kids called it \u201cbragging\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we got up to the \u201csix times\u201d and then most kids didn\u2019t know the answers. I didn\u2019t know them either, but Amanda and Mary still knew them, but Mrs. Rodney decided to stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay\u201d, she said, \u201cThat\u2019s enough for today. You are all doing pretty well, and if you all keep practicing, we can get up to \u2018twelve times twelve\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne hundred and forty-four\u201d, said Amanda. Mary made a grunting noise, like she wanted to say that first, and pulled her arms around her chest and shook her head back and forth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mrs. Rodney looked at Amanda and grinned, then looked at Mary and said, \u201cMary my dear, this is not supposed to be a competition. The multiplication table is just something you all need to learn in third grade. It is a lot of memorizing I know, but if all of you practice every day, and we practice in class, I feel you will be able to learn it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She clapped her hands together and said, \u201cWell now, there is something VERY IMPORTANT we need to do after recess this morning. We will have a \u2018civil defense drill\u2019. This is nothing to worry about, just a routine precaution that all school children in the country are required to participate in. I will explain more after recess. Now everyone please line up at the door in\u2026\u201d. A lot of us started jumping up from our desks and headed for the wall of the classroom by the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSTOP\u201d, she said with a loud fierce voice. Everyone stopped and turned and looked at her. \u201cTHANK YOU\u201d, she said, still loud and fierce, \u201cNow please all of you line up in an orderly fashion. Once you are all quietly lined up and looking at me, Then I will open the door and I expect you to WALK out through the hall also in an ORDERLY fashion.\u201d She looked at all of us and said, \u201cIs that clear?\u201d Everybody nodded, except for Amanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmanda?\u201d Mrs. Rodney asked, \u201cDo you have a problem with this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo\u201d, Amanda said to her, not fierce at all, \u201cI already always walk out in an orderly fashion so I don\u2019t have a problem, so I don\u2019t have to nod.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary made a clicking noise with her mouth like she thought Amanda said something bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMARY\u201d, Mrs. Rodney said, fierce again, \u201cDo YOU have a problem with what Amanda said?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmanda should have nodded\u201d, Mary said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs that any of your business?\u201d asked Mrs. Rodney. Mary looked worried and like she was thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUhh\u2026\u201d, she said, \u201cNo?\u201d like she wasn\u2019t sure that was the right answer and was asking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s right\u201d, said Mrs. Rodney, slowly nodding her head, \u201cIt\u2019s not.\u201d Then she walked to the door and opened it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay\u201d, she said, \u201cPlease walk quietly through the hall to the outside doors.\u201d We all walked out. Amanda, as usual, was the last one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we all got out in the playground behind the school, Gabe waited for Amanda and then walked next to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you nod when Mrs. Rodney asked if it was clear?\u201d he asked her. Herbie, Jake, Lenny and I all heard him ask and moved towards Gabe and Amanda to hear what she was going to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She did one of those \u201csigh\u201d things where you blow air out of your nose kind of loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause Mrs. Rodney should already know that I always do what she tells us to do\u201d, she said, kind of mad, \u201cI\u2019m already clear, so I shouldn\u2019t have to nod like I wasn\u2019t already clear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabe really liked Amanda so I could tell he thought that what she did was really neat. But Herbie liked to tease girls, and Amanda too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSooo\u201d, Herbie said to her, \u201cYou think you\u2019re such a tough guy!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amanda looked at him fiercely and shook her head. \u201cI\u2019m not a GUY, Herbert\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid you guys\u2026\u201d, Gabe started to say, but he stopped talking and looked at Amanda, \u201cAnd you too Amanda. Did you see President Kennedy on TV last night?\u201d Amanda, Jake and I nodded. Herbie and Lenny shook their heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to blockade Cuba\u201d, Gabe said, \u201cJust like the Union did to the Confederates in the Civil War!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah\u201d, said Jake, \u201cSo the Russians can\u2019t send them any more nuclear missiles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know\u201d, said Gabe, sounding kind of mad, \u201cI was just going to say that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theo heard us talking and came over. \u201cMy brother said that when you blockade a country that\u2019s an act of war!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got more nuclear bombs than the Russians do so we\u2019d win\u201d, said Herbie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amanda made a clicking noise with her mouth, that she did when she thought something was stupid. \u201cHERBERT\u201d, she said, \u201cSo we blow up millions more of them than they do of us. Still millions of us get blown up!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah Herbie\u201d, Gabe said, \u201cAs a brighter than the sun nuclear explosion fries your eyeballs and melts your skin off your bones, at least for your last thought you can think, \u2018This is happening to more Russians than to us\u2026 that\u2019ll show \u2018em\u2019!\u201d Jake and Theo started to laugh, and I laughed too. Amanda didn\u2019t laugh very much, she grinned and shook her head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herbie looked at all of us laughing at him and said, \u201cWe\u2019d still win!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d heard that \u201cfrying your eyeballs and melting the skin off your bones\u201d stuff before about nuclear explosions. But hearing Gabe say it again made me pretend what it would be like, your skin melting down to just your skeleton. How would that feel? Would it hurt so bad you\u2019d WANT to be dead? It made me really worried, and I wondered if it could really happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all looked at each other and no one said anything more. I wondered how we could stop it from happening. But we were just kids, what could we do? It wasn\u2019t fair! We liked to pretend that things got blown up, and even liked to pretend sometimes that WE got blown up. But not for real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of recess, as we all followed Mrs. Rodney back into our classroom, there was one of those \u201cprojector\u201d things set up in the middle of our room and a \u201cfilm\u201d screen was opened up in the front of the room behind her. She clapped her hands together and said, \u201cOkay class, now everyone please take your seats and please, no talking!\u201d We had seen this projector before to watch movies about stuff that had happened a long time ago, or science stuff about plants and animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for our very important civil defense drill\u201d, she said. I could tell Mrs. Rodney was worried but was also trying not to look worried. Gabe looked across the room at me and he made his eyes really big.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFirst I\u2019d like us all to watch this film\u201d, she said, clapping her hands together again, \u201cAnd then we can practice ourselves.\u201d All of us kids were looking at our friends, and many of us were starting to talk quietly to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo talking please\u201d, Mrs. Rodney said again fiercely, \u201cI need all of you to watch and listen to this carefully.\u201d She went over to the windows and pulled those \u201cshade\u201d things down on each one so we couldn\u2019t see the outside anymore. Then she went over to the projector and turned it on. It started making its special noise and I could see a light come on inside it that made a movie picture on the screen in the front of the room. There was that box thing that the sound came out of on her desk that made a crackling noise at first. Then Mrs. Rodney turned off the lights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The picture was a cartoon of a turtle guy walking like a regular person down a road with trees behind it. There were voices like grownups singing a silly song with stupid words for kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

SINGING VOICES: (off screen) Dum dum, deedle dum dum<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Then the voices started singing regular words as the turtle guy continued to walk down the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

SINGING VOICES: (off screen) There was a turtle by the name of Bert and Bert the turtle was very alert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(A lit firecracker appears on a string just behind his head.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SINGING VOICES: (off screen) When danger threatened him he never got hurt, he knew just what to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(A monkey in the tree above him holds a long stick with that lit firecracker on a string from the end. The turtle turns and sees the firecracker about to explode and grabs his head with his hands, drops down on the ground and goes into his shell. The firecracker explodes.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SINGING VOICES: (off screen) He ducked, and covered. He ducked, and covered.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Then the movie showed the same part again with the monkey holding the stick with the firecracker on the string on the end and the turtle looking back and seeing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

SINGING VOICES: (off screen) He did what we all must learn to do. You and you and you and you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(The turtle drops and hides in its shell again as the firecracker explodes again.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SINGING VOICES: (off screen) Duck, and cover!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Then there was a different grownup man\u2019s voice talking instead of singing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

MAN\u2019S VOICE: (off screen) Be sure and remember what Bert the turtle did, friends, because everyone of us must remember to do the same thing. That\u2019s what this film is all about!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Then the words were there on the screen, \u201cDuck and Cover\u201d, and that man\u2019s voice said them too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the movie showed a grownup man teacher in front of a class of kids that looked like they were our age. He said something that we couldn\u2019t hear and all the kids got down on the floor under their desks and put their hands on their heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

MAN\u2019S VOICE: (off screen) That is why these children are practicing to duck and cover, just like you do in your school. We all know the atomic bomb is very dangerous. Since it may be used against us, we must get ready for it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Then there was more stuff in the movie about being safe from fires and from cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

MAN\u2019S VOICE: (off screen) We must be ready for a new danger, the atomic bomb. First, you need to know what happens when an atomic bomb explodes. You\u2019ll know when it comes. We hope it never comes, but you must get ready. It looks something like this. There\u2019s a bright flash, brighter than the sun, brighter than anything you\u2019ve ever seen. If you\u2019re not ready, do not know what to do, it can hurt you in many ways.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Then they showed a cartoon with a tree and a house. There is that bright flash and the tree breaks up into pieces that are blown away by a giant wind. The house gets wrecked too and leans over in the wind but doesn\u2019t fall down completely. While we watched this the man\u2019s voice kept talking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

MAN\u2019S VOICE: (off screen) It could knock you down hard. Or throw you against a tree or a wall. It is such a big explosion it can smash in buildings and knock sign boards over and break windows all over town.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Then we see that Burt the turtle guy going into his shell while the big explosion and all the wind happens around him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

MAN\u2019S VOICE: (off screen) But if you duck and cover, like Bert, you will be much safer.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Mrs. Rodney turned off the projector. None of us kids said anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s enough for you all to get the idea\u201d, she said, \u201cI know it\u2019s pretty scary, and we know our government in Washington is working hard to make sure it never happens. But just in case, we all need to know how to stay safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabe, still sitting at his desk, put his hand up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA question, Gabe?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t use atom bombs anymore\u201d, he said, \u201cThey use hydrogen bombs! They\u2019re a lot bigger!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes Gabe, you\u2019re right\u201d, she said, \u201cThis film is somewhat out of date, but the same safety rules apply now.\u201d She walked up to the front of the room, turned and looked at all of us and clapped her hands together. She clapped her hands together a lot!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay boys and girls\u201d, she said, \u201cWe need to practice our own duck and cover drill.\u201d A lot of kids nodded. I looked around the room and most kids looked worried like I was. Even my friends look worried, except maybe Gabe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I say so\u201d, she said, \u201cI want all of you to get on your knees under the front part of your desks and then put your head down to the ground with your hands over your head.\u201d She tried to look at everybody in the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay, ready?\u201d she said, \u201cWe all see the bright flash of light in the sky outside! What do we do?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All us kids did our best to get under our desks. It wasn\u2019t easy because our desks were small and there wasn\u2019t much room between the metal \u201cleg\u201d parts of our desks. Everybody was looking around at everybody else. You could see some of the girls\u2019 underwear if they were wearing dresses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo looking around everyone\u201d, Mrs. Rodney said, \u201cWe\u2019re supposed to put our heads to the floor, close our eyes and cover our head with our hands. I\u2019m seeing a lot of open eyes down there!\u201d Most kids tried to do that. A few others looked like they couldn\u2019t figure it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herbie, on his hands and knees under his desk, looked at our teacher and asked, \u201cWhat about you Mrs. Rodney? Don\u2019t you need to do it too?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHERBIE\u201d, she said fiercely, \u201cNo more talking out of you. If it were for real, of course I would be down there on the floor with the rest of you. But this is a DRILL, and I need to watch all of you to make sure you do it correctly!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGot it!\u201d said Herbie. But he didn\u2019t sound like he really did. He sounded like he figured our teacher was just another grownup telling us stuff that wasn\u2019t true. Other kids figured that out too and were laughing a little bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cQUIET everyone!\u201d she said, \u201cI want to see everyone with their eyes closed, head against the floor and hands over your head.\u201d She waited and I guess everyone did it that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay\u201d, she said, \u201cThat finally looks good. Now we\u2019re going to try it one more time. Everyone up, and back in your seats. Let\u2019s see how quickly we all can do it this time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we did it a second time and everyone tried to do it quickly. Most of us boys tried to do it really quickly, trying to be the first one to do both the duck and the cover parts. Joey banged his head against the metal part of his desk chair and said, \u201cOuch!\u201d Some of the boys and girls around him laughed. When my forehead touched the cold floor I couldn\u2019t help pretending that all the houses around the school were getting wrecked and the trees blown apart and the glass of our big windows were breaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I opened one eye, with my hands still over my head and I saw Gabe, looking at me from under his desk through another desk between us. He said in a quieter voice so Mrs. Rodney couldn\u2019t hear him, \u201cWe\u2019d be SO dead right now!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay\u201d, Mrs. Rodney said, \u201cThat was MUCH better!\u201d She clapped her hands together three times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay\u201d, she said again, \u201cEverybody up! Joey? Are you all right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah I\u2019m fine\u201d, he said, standing up and pretending he couldn\u2019t walk right and moving his head around like he was dizzy, which made the kids around him laugh again, especially the girls, which he liked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pretty soon the bell rang and it was time to go home for lunch. Gabe and I walked up Fifth Street together, the way home to both our houses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat duck and cover thing is pretty stupid\u201d, he said, \u201cIf you aren\u2019t killed by the explosion you\u2019ll get killed by the radiation! That\u2019s what my dad said.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGrownups think they can tell us stuff that isn\u2019t really true\u201d, I said, \u201cBecause they think if they do we won\u2019t worry about it.\u201d I was using that \u201ctrue\u201d word now, instead of saying \u201cright\u201d, and also that not true word, \u201clie\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah\u201d, he said, \u201cPretty stupid. See you back at school after lunch!\u201d He went across Fifth Street and up his street towards his house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I now walked by myself up Fifth Street towards the park, I still pretended what I saw in that movie that our teacher showed. A bright flash, like looking in the sun where it hurts your eyes, but everywhere. All the trees coming apart and the houses getting wrecked and leaning over broken. The wind from the bomb full of parts of trees and houses and maybe even people too. I wondered if I\u2019d be dead before I knew what was happening. Or would I have just enough time to know that we were all getting dead at the same time while my body melted off my skeleton. What would that feel like, to know you were going to be dead, but you were not dead yet? Would I be more scared than I had ever been before with no one around to help me? Would mom and dad already be dead?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I wondered what would happen when I was dead. Some kids said that when you were dead you went up to the \u201cgates of heaven\u201d, but there was this Saint Peter guy who had to figure out if you should go to Heaven or Hell. Not that Hell place up by Silver Lake that dad took us to, but the real Hell place, under the ground or wherever they said it was. Those kids said that if I didn\u2019t believe in God, even if I\u2019d been good, I would still have to go to Hell, and go there FOREVER! That was pretty scary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wondered if I needed to believe in God, at least a little bit, just in case there really was one. I mean if you believed in God and there wasn\u2019t one, then that really wasn\u2019t a problem, I figured you were just the same dead anyway. But if you didn\u2019t believe and there was one, then that was a really big problem. But how did you figure out if God was real and not just pretend. Some of the kids in the park believed in him and said he was this old guy in the sky with a beard that told you the stuff you\u2019re supposed to do. But I had never seen him and he had never told me anything. I\u2019d never even wanted to pretend he was real. I wanted to figure stuff out for myself, or ask mom or dad if I couldn\u2019t. I didn\u2019t need this God guy in charge of me telling me what I should do or shouldn\u2019t do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think a lot of grownups believed in God too, but I never asked mom or dad if they did. I was afraid they might say, \u201cOf course we believe in God, don\u2019t you?\u201d. Then they\u2019d figure out maybe I didn\u2019t, and think that I was a really bad kid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So was I ready to go to Hell if I didn\u2019t believe in God and he was really up there, in that Heaven place? I didn\u2019t want to have to read that scary Bible book and do all the things it told me to do. I didn\u2019t want anyone to be in charge of me, not grownups or anybody. So I figured, at least for now, I wasn\u2019t going to believe in god, and I was going to \u201chope\u201d that I didn\u2019t get killed by a nuclear bomb. You \u201choped\u201d something when you really wanted it to be \u201ctrue\u201d, but you weren\u2019t sure it would be. But I also figured I was going to have to keep worrying about it, maybe forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night I was watching TV, but mom came down and said she wanted \u201cto hear what President Kennedy has to say about what\u2019s happening in Cuba.\u201d Dad was already down in the basement at his desk. He turned around in his wood office chair to watch too. That \u201cnews\u201d show came on with that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1777,13,1774,1773,1799,1800,1775],"class_list":["post-7645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","tag-1960s","tag-ann-arbor","tag-autobiography","tag-childhood","tag-free-range-kid","tag-growing-up","tag-memoir"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7645"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7656,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7645\/revisions\/7656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}