tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post1987272287403903761..comments2024-03-21T18:54:06.548-07:00Comments on Old Enough to Know Better: Infantile ParalysisSteve Perryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-64996772471784035662009-02-05T17:32:00.000-08:002009-02-05T17:32:00.000-08:00I had a terrible nightmare the other night that I ...I had a terrible nightmare the other night that I was interviewing for employment at USAMRIID. I won't really go into what went on in the dream, other than the fact that it was a "horribly unqualified" dream. And that was before the klaxons started. And it went on and on after that.<BR/><BR/>Biowar has always been what's given me nightmares. I had at least four nightmares in the last year about ebola, and one about weaponized rabies.<BR/><BR/>My best friend from kindergarten is actually a PHD at USAMRIID right now, working on the devil knows what. Better him than me.Stephen Greyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12561935944292699586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-77808490914527732362009-02-05T07:40:00.000-08:002009-02-05T07:40:00.000-08:00And tornadoes, that was the other sporadic nightma...And tornadoes, that was the other sporadic nightmare. My father drilled us in what to do -- which was wrong -- if one was approaching. We were to run and get into the car, which was under the carport. He felt a metal roof was safer than the wooden house, which had no crawl space or cellar.<BR/><BR/>I guess the glass in the car wasn't part of the equation.<BR/><BR/>And now and then, falling off the Mississisippi River bridge on Hwy 190 would creep in. During driver ed class when I was fourteen, I had to drive across that bridge and in the outside lane, both ways. That dream actually went away after I had been driving a couple of years -- my sense of control, I think.<BR/><BR/>These days, when I have dream-fights, my stuff works and I win. <BR/><BR/>The tornadoes and mushroom clouds still pop up now and again, though rarely. <BR/><BR/>Duck and cover, my ass.Steve Perryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-34251156652347749792009-02-04T22:24:00.000-08:002009-02-04T22:24:00.000-08:00I used to have nightmares about mushroom cloudsYou...<I>I used to have nightmares about mushroom clouds</I><BR/><BR/>You and me both. I used to have a recurring nightmare where I was standing at a window and looking out across Los Angeles and a nuke would go off and the wave front would shatter the glass into my face before the heat hit me. Had that dream a bunch. Wasn't an accident my first novel was "The Armageddon Blues."<BR/><BR/>The only other dream I ever had that frequently, I was driving a car down the street -- tampa avenue -- where we lived when I was a child. I'd be driving way too fast and would smash headon into the brick wall at the end of the street. Had that dream long before I could drive, and still had it well into my 20s.Daniel Keys Moranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12992599044462413412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-87488770097647588262009-02-04T07:23:00.000-08:002009-02-04T07:23:00.000-08:00I grew up outside Washington, DC. Nike missile si...I grew up outside Washington, DC. Nike missile sites were within a couple of miles of my neighborhood...<BR/><BR/>We didn't do duck & cover in the 70s when and 80s, probably because by then, the odds were good that if anything hit DC, we'd be glowing dust & ash, whether or not we hid under desks.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-75790014670836668902009-02-04T07:22:00.000-08:002009-02-04T07:22:00.000-08:00My mother-in-law was one of the unlucky who contra...My mother-in-law was one of the unlucky who contracted Polio. She was "cured". <BR/>But now decades later, the disease has resurfaced as a nightmarish cocktail of other maladies.<BR/>Her health is a complete and utter mess, poor soul.steve-vhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03889100992443991077noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-39359862640805098432009-02-04T06:27:00.000-08:002009-02-04T06:27:00.000-08:00I live in Omaha NE. Strategic Air Command is just ...I live in Omaha NE. Strategic Air Command is just a few miles down the road. We knew we wouldn't get just one bomb, we'd get several.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-52085444282848150312009-02-03T12:28:00.000-08:002009-02-03T12:28:00.000-08:00We were not too far from a naval airbase. I forget...We were not too far from a naval airbase. I forget where it was on the targeting list, not that high but not that low either.<BR/><BR/>What I do remember was that the base would be hit and we had bare minutes from the strike to being scorched off the face of the planet.<BR/><BR/>We did the duck and cover drills, but no-one believed them.<BR/><BR/>The two most accepted responses among the kids were to head toward the strike to shorten the wait or to jump into the tunnels under the town. (We had a bunch of tunnels/catacombs running under the town.)<BR/><BR/>Kids can be surprisingly practical.Jasonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15131978298661765427noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-31358985605843355172009-02-03T12:27:00.000-08:002009-02-03T12:27:00.000-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Jasonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15131978298661765427noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-58504717774862675372009-02-03T10:13:00.000-08:002009-02-03T10:13:00.000-08:00We were three miles from the largest petrochemical...We were three miles from the largest petrochemical complex in the U.S. Number three or four on the Soviet targeting list. My father worked there. <BR/><BR/>We knew we were gone if the balloon went up, and in that part of Louisiana, you couldn't do much of a bomb shelter -- the water table was only a few feet down. <BR/><BR/>I used to have nightmares about mushroom clouds.Steve Perryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29640480.post-81308364218340980862009-02-03T09:17:00.000-08:002009-02-03T09:17:00.000-08:00Although polio was never a concern for me, I still...Although polio was never a concern for me, I still grew up in the shadow of atomic annihilation (70s, early 80s). I still remember the air raid siren tests when I was in school … although, by that time, no one bothered to duck and cover. Living close to an aircraft parts manufacturer, we knew we were on the list. We also knew that survival was a pipe dream if the missiles flew.<BR/><BR/>As kids, we used to joke about the kind of shadows we’d leave on the wall from the blast. No different, I suppose, from the childhood rhymes about the plague (Ring Around the Rosies) or other dark things children teach each other and deal with in their own ways. I sometimes wonder what rhymes or games today's children are teaching each other about terrorists.<BR/><BR/>~ Jas.Menduirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08743860875458338385noreply@blogger.com