August 14, 2107--Fallout Shelters

I was reading about how people who live on Guam received information about what to do if North Korea launches missiles their way.

They were warned not to look directly at the arriving missiles as they will be glowing from the heat of reentry and possibly exploding and thus it will not be safe to ones' eyes to look directly at them. People were also told not to shampoo their hair as radioactive fallout can cling to it. And residents and visitors were urged to seek shelter, to look for below-ground spaces to huddle in.

Then, in Friday's New York Times there was an article about Cold-War-era fallout shelters. I remember them quite vividly. Pretty much every apartment house in the city was deemed a shelter and some even stocked supplies of water and canned food.

The Times article included a picture of a building in downtown Manhattan where the sign designating it as a fallout shelter was still quite visible.

Scrutinizing it, Rona said, "This looks familiar. See what you think."

I stared at it and said, "I recognize it as well."

"Well, you should, she said, "It's our building in the city! The Randall House."

Randall House Service Entrance

"I think some people up here in Maine are stocking up on bottled water and canned goods."

"True," I said, "Saturday, in Hannifords, there was no water left on the shelves."

"But then again," Rona said, "it's Old Bristol Days here and the busiest weekend of the season."

"I wonder if in Manhattan there's any water and canned tuna fish stashed in our basement."