A Childhood Memory of the 1960's
How close did we really come? How close are we now?

Every Friday afternoon, I bring my youngest son, Daniel, to his piano teacher for a lesson. I then, usually run to the local High School to see a language impaired student during that time, but on this occasion, I was sick and stayed in the kitchen of this little house/conservatory belonging to Russian musicians and teachers.
While I was nursing my cold with a cup of hot tea and conversing with the teacher's wife,Yelena (she also taught piano) she began to talk about learning to figure out a piece by ear and picked one that was broadcasting; a
victory song about how wonderful it was that Cuba was "liberated".
Both she and I were about 7 years old,living with our parents, Jewish, taking piano lessons and growing up in
our respective countries in 1960-1967. She grew up in Moscow, and I grew up in Miami, Florida.
When I was in school, I remember that we had regular air raid drills. At the sound of a siren, we were to stop what ever we were doing, get under our school desks and place our heads between our knees. (and kiss our tushes good bye!) Or sometimes we would file into the center hall of the school and do the same. Our school was a civil defense center, but we never actually went down to the area under ground. I'm not sure it was ever anything but a storage area.
In Florida, in order to build a bomb shelter, one has to dig through several feet of coral rock. I remember one neighbor did it. It was eerie, because no one else we knew had one. My parents figured we would not want to survive to see the devastation anyway. I was basically in agreement with that!
The shelves were lined with gallon jugs of water,cans of spam and pork and beans. There were boxes of powdered milk and flour. Propped up against another cinder blocked wall were cots and army blankets. There was a little vent that poked out of the top of the grass mound over the shelter that whirled around as the wind blew. I wondered whether the ventilation system filtered out radioactivity.
We often went on field trips to Homestead Airforce Base, with our school, just so we would feel alot safer. I think I was a little bit older by that time.
Even though it was really hot, we would ride in military vehicles (can't remember what they were, but I know they were green) on tour around the base. We got to see all those ACBMs or ABMs out and pointing at a 45 degree angle southward to intercept God only knew what. I never believed that anyone could destroy the beauty of the mangrove and the sea or an entire population.
That was my belief then, as a 7 or 8 year old girl
wanting a future.
Yelena had a very different experience. She told me that she remembers how the radio and TV would broadcast programs about how fortuneate Cuba was as a liberated country. There was alot of propaganda about how the people were better off because of communism. But she had, as a 12 year old a very different experience than I. When Yelena went to school, part of the curriculum included training in civil defense. She was trained on how to put on a gas mask and protect against chemical and biological weapons. They had regular air raid drills. She said that she was a terrible shot. She had to go to the pistol range and learn how to shoot guns at a target. Some kids were really good at it. She was never able to hit the targets and squeezed the trigger with her eyes slammed shut. She came from a professional family. Her mother was an OB/Gyn in Moscow and her father, a teacher. One day she relates that she was doing her homework just like I would have done it, but the reality of possible war and the responsibility of defending herself was devistating. Growing up, I was both aware and oblivious, focused on moment to moment issues.
Now,the threat of a nuclear holocaust always hangs next to me like a silent specter. I live in the moment, still, and I wonder how close we came then. Have we learned anything,yet?

If you have any experiences or stories to add to the 50's and 60's, please send and I will add them!