"Fallout" by Suzanne Cottrell
– “All clear! Time for math.”
We scrunch into balls like armadillos with our fingers clasped over the back of our necks.
Suzanne Cottrell, a member of the Taste Life Twice Writers and NC Writers’ Network, lives with her husband in rural Granville County, NC. An outdoor enthusiast and retired teacher, she enjoys reading, writing, knitting, hiking, Pilates, and belly dancing. Her prose has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including the Personal Story Publishing Project, Inwood Indiana Press, Quillkeepers Press, and Parks and Points. She’s the author of three poetry chapbooks: Gifts of the Seasons, Autumn and Winter; Gifts of the Seasons, Spring and Summer; and Scarred Resilience; and Nature Calls Outside My Window, A Collection of Poems and Stories. www.suzanneswords.com
Author’s Talk
Suzanne Cottrell
Having grown up in southwestern Ohio, I was used to tornado drills at school. I saw first-hand the extensive damage of the F-4 tornado that hit Eaton, Ohio on April 25, 1961.
As a parent and former classroom teacher, I took emergency practice drills seriously, but they should be purposeful and practical. I questioned the value of the “Duck and Cover” drills practiced by myself and other school children in the 1950s and 1960s. Educating and preparing can reduce children’s fears. Crawling under a desk might have protected us from a top assault of flying glass, wood, and metal debris if our school was outside the impact radius of an atomic bomb. Otherwise, we were naïve to believe we could survive a direct hit or the waves of radiation.
Bert the turtle smiled, and the tune was catchy. I remember it some sixty years later. Watching Bert retreat into his shell for safety may have reassured very young children. However, older children, knowledgeable of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th and Nagasaki on August 9th of 1945, and having seen photographs of the devastation, were less gullible, and many suffered from anxiety and nightmares. Having to watch the “Duck and Cover” film and practice sheltering under school desks repeatedly, was the government’s foolhardy attempt to convince school children and the public that their safety was not only a priority but was a certainty.
Perhaps, retreating to the cafeteria in the basement of McGuffey Hall would have been more reassuring than crawling under the desks of a second-floor classroom. I suppose the school administration did not deem the size of the cafeteria and the time needed to evacuate the K-6 classrooms feasible in an emergency situation.
Today’s public is better informed and more likely to question government officials and politicians using propaganda, as well as the media’s tendency to sensational news events. My hope is diverse perspectives will help negate foolhardy attempts to misinform or worse to disinform the public.
