It is easy to forget nowadays how much fear of nuclear war there used to be always lurking in the background. One anecdote to illustrate: My secondary school was built on top of the region's nuclear bunker. They were short of classrooms so we sometimes had lessons inside the bunker. At the start of these we were grimly advised that if nuclear war broke out during the lesson we would have to evacuate the safety of the bunker to make way for the local dignitaries who had been assigned spaces there, i.e. doctors, the local MP etc. (Not exactly helpful for building a sense of self-worth in the impressionable young.)
back
2 comments
Feelings of self worth are transient and alterable. That lesson about self worth vs reality will last a lifetime.
Indeed. As easy as it was to grow up hating "the system", with the benefit of perspective it has to be said that a good selection of well-trained doctors, well-connected councillors etc. are likely to be more useful in a post-nuclear-holocaust recovery scenario than a bunch of school kids whose survival story would probably end up reading more like Lord of the Flies.
> It is easy to forget nowadays how much fear of nuclear war there used to be always lurking in the background.
Not as good as your story, but I was walking home from school when the air-raid siren went off, sounding exactly as it does at the start of "Two Tribes". I was briefly very, very scared indeed, and very relieved to survive the next four minutes without being blown to atoms or fatally irradiated.