A sixty-year mystery solved ...
- Thread starter donna723
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donna723
Well-Known Member
Wow, Star! Being patted on the head by Richard Nixon is a claim to fame that not many people can make! The closest any of my family have ever come to a famous politician is when my son almost got arrested by the Secret Service for driving his pavement-rumbling Chevelle right through Al Gore's motorcade when he was VP so he could get to the convenience store to buy a can of Red Man! "Mr. Impatient" couldn't wait for it to go all the way by! Apparently the Secret Service frowns on that!
So if Miami is all Russians and Brazilians now, where did all the Cubans go? Orlando, probably! A lot of them settled around Tampa too. That's where all the cigars come from! I used to work with a man about my same age whose family had come to the US from Cuba when he was a kid, right after Castro first came in to power. His family was very wealthy in Cuba, had a lot of land and owned some very valuable properties and businesses. They took it all and the whole family left and came to the US as some of the very first Cuban refugees. There was pretty much nothing left but the clothes they were wearing! It must have been pretty rough.
So if Miami is all Russians and Brazilians now, where did all the Cubans go? Orlando, probably! A lot of them settled around Tampa too. That's where all the cigars come from! I used to work with a man about my same age whose family had come to the US from Cuba when he was a kid, right after Castro first came in to power. His family was very wealthy in Cuba, had a lot of land and owned some very valuable properties and businesses. They took it all and the whole family left and came to the US as some of the very first Cuban refugees. There was pretty much nothing left but the clothes they were wearing! It must have been pretty rough.
Hound dog
Nana's are Beautiful
Donna that made me cry too, which is hard to do. I'm so glad the bro was able to hear about someone who still remembered his baby sister with fondness. I'm sure that mean a lot to him.
We didn't do the under the desk drills. We did the "go to the basement" drills, regularly. Our school was a fallout shelter. Never freaked me out. I was difficult child enough to think of how stupid it was that if something DID hit we'd all be buried in the basement and no one could probably find us. Yet I dunno. That school was built in 1850 or earlier, one of the first buildings in the town...started out two big rooms and they kept adding to it.........was built rock solid. It's weathered tornado after tornado after tornado and even a serious explosion that cause serious damage to surrounding houses from the rail yard and is still standing.
Those drills, however, are why I will NOT go to a basement for a tornado. lol
We didn't do the under the desk drills. We did the "go to the basement" drills, regularly. Our school was a fallout shelter. Never freaked me out. I was difficult child enough to think of how stupid it was that if something DID hit we'd all be buried in the basement and no one could probably find us. Yet I dunno. That school was built in 1850 or earlier, one of the first buildings in the town...started out two big rooms and they kept adding to it.........was built rock solid. It's weathered tornado after tornado after tornado and even a serious explosion that cause serious damage to surrounding houses from the rail yard and is still standing.
Those drills, however, are why I will NOT go to a basement for a tornado. lol
donna723
Well-Known Member
Lisa, we used to do that too sometimes. Our school was really old too and had a full basement under it. The rooms where we went to watch the "educational" movies were down there. About all I remember about it was there was this huge round fountain like thing that squirted water out in all directions from the middle when you stepped on this thing on the bottom. It was big enough for a whole class of kids to stand around and wash their hands at the same time and we'd go down there every day before lunch to wash our hands. It was ancient even back when we were in elementary school. I'll bet they don't make those anymore!
They used to send us down to that basement for some of the air raid drills too. They would always tell us it was a drill, but then one time they didn't, and it scared us all silly - since they didn't tell us it was a drill, we assumed it was the real thing! We were all thinking, "That's it! We're all gonna die in this smelly old school basement!"
They used to send us down to that basement for some of the air raid drills too. They would always tell us it was a drill, but then one time they didn't, and it scared us all silly - since they didn't tell us it was a drill, we assumed it was the real thing! We were all thinking, "That's it! We're all gonna die in this smelly old school basement!"
flutterby
Fly away!
What a touching story, and I'm so glad you finally got the truth. I think emailing the brother is a good idea. I imagine after 60 years, everyone but him has forgotten - especially since she was such a young child when she passed. I imagine he would like to have someone to share memories with.
What an awesome story. I am so sorry you lost your friend adn were never told about her. I know my mom lost her mom around that time and it was years after she died that mom learned what killed her. She spent several, a lot actually, years as a kid thinking that she killed her mom by being too noisy or demanding. I know her mom wouldn't want that. I never learned a lot about her until after J was born. I named my daughter after her and my aunt (mom's 15 yr older sister) called me in tears asking why I picked that name. She told me some really neat stuff that made me glad I picked the name - and it was stuff my mother still didn't know until I told her. That was how death was handled back then. I am glad that loss isn't handled that way now. In the 70's it wasn't much different. I had a friend who lived on the street an aunt lived on. She got a brain tumor and died and I never really knew what happened until I was an adult and talked with a neighbor on the old street.
Suz
(the future) MRS. GERE
Donna, a couple of similarities here. I lived in Coronado during those "dive under your seat" years. Coronado is/was a man-made island in the San Diego Bay. It's different now than it was then but it is still directly connected to the North Island Navy Base and Amphib Base, across the Bay from MCRD, Pt. Loma, down the road from Camp Pendleton, you get my drift. Those were VERY scary years. Why my parents let me go see "On the Beach" (OTB) when they wouldn't let me go to "Beach Blanket Bingo" (bikinis and boys---OMG!!!) is beyond me. OTB and diving under my seat traumatized me for years.
And...........the summer between 7th and 8th grade, a lovely girl a year older died suddenly. I wrote her parents a letter and still have the news clipping and her Mom's letter back to me all these years later. She was the first person I knew to die.
Coronado has several Facebook pages devoted to students and living there. A few months ago her little sister posted on FB looking for anyone who remembered Nancy. I wrote her. It meant the world to her that people remembered her beloved big sis. She said Nancy's death changed the lives of everyone in her family- she became a therapist for kids who suffer trauma. Anyway, she loved being able to talk about her sis and to know that Nancy left a legacy behind of such sweet memories.
It sounds like your friend's brother would welcome the opportunity to share memories, too.
Suz
And...........the summer between 7th and 8th grade, a lovely girl a year older died suddenly. I wrote her parents a letter and still have the news clipping and her Mom's letter back to me all these years later. She was the first person I knew to die.
Coronado has several Facebook pages devoted to students and living there. A few months ago her little sister posted on FB looking for anyone who remembered Nancy. I wrote her. It meant the world to her that people remembered her beloved big sis. She said Nancy's death changed the lives of everyone in her family- she became a therapist for kids who suffer trauma. Anyway, she loved being able to talk about her sis and to know that Nancy left a legacy behind of such sweet memories.
It sounds like your friend's brother would welcome the opportunity to share memories, too.
Suz
Donna - what a small world it is. It must be very comforting to Barbara's brother to know that there are others who also carry her memory.
I had to chuckle over the recollections of the air-raid drills. Wee had to write a paper this spring on how the cold war affected his parents. Air raids was one of the topics that came up. I was such a gullible kid that I actually thought we would be safe under our desks, LOL. We had them regularly until I moved from GA to St. Louis in '72 - guess the folks were smarter in St. L, because I don't recall ever having a air-raid drill there.
I had to chuckle over the recollections of the air-raid drills. Wee had to write a paper this spring on how the cold war affected his parents. Air raids was one of the topics that came up. I was such a gullible kid that I actually thought we would be safe under our desks, LOL. We had them regularly until I moved from GA to St. Louis in '72 - guess the folks were smarter in St. L, because I don't recall ever having a air-raid drill there.
Omg donna, I thought I was the only one who experienced those things. We hid under our desks with our arms over our heads too. We were told to hold our breaths for as long as we could and soon helicopters from Canada would come to save us. And I never did understand why elementary schools were the target. We were told to never leave home mad at our parents because we may never see them again. We were told that the communists were going to come and ask us if we were catholic and if we said yes we would be shot and if we said no we would live but go to h*ll. I had nightmares for years and worried myself sick. It's no wonder we didn't all grow up scarred for life.
That was a very touching story of your friend. The book sounds like a wonderful keepsake. I wish our old neighborhood had done the same. It was a very old ethnic place with a lot of those hushed stories.
Nancy
That was a very touching story of your friend. The book sounds like a wonderful keepsake. I wish our old neighborhood had done the same. It was a very old ethnic place with a lot of those hushed stories.
Nancy
donna723
Well-Known Member
Sue, St. Louis was where I was living when we were doing the hide-under-your-desk drills and the walk-don't-run trips to the school basement! But this was back in the mid to late 50's. I think most of this was over by the 70's.
Parents were so different back then! On one hand, they could tell you, "Don't take candy from strangers", and feel very confident that their children were then protected from any and every predator that might lurk out there. On the other hand, they didn't worry too much about what might be going on in kids' head and didn't mind using fear as a teaching tool if it worked. I, for one, grew up afraid of EVERYTHING! I just knew that if those atom bombs didn't get us, something else surely would! Even the prayer we used to say before we went to bed contained the line, "If I should die before I wake ... "! So I figured that there must have been a whole lot of kids out there that went to bed and never woke up! I saw it as a distinct possibility! I was told that my eyes would be permanently damaged by crossing them at my brother (while sticking my tongue out at him) and that I would go blind from sitting too close to the TV. When I found a small piece of electrical wire outside I was told that it might shock me because "there might be some electricity left in it!" I was told to always be very careful not to swallow any cellophane because "you can't digest it and it might kill you!" I distinctly remember unwrapping and eating a little piece of candy one time and then noticing that there was a tiny piece of the cellophane wrapper that was missing! OMG! I must have swallowed it! That was it! I was doomed! And I remember laying awake that entire night, staring at the ceiling and waiting to die! I was about 4 or 5 at the time. And it wasn't just our mother, most mothers were like that! She may have even believed this crappola herself and thought she was protecting us ... who knows! But like I said before, it's a miracle that my generation didn't grow up even more warped than we were!
Parents were so different back then! On one hand, they could tell you, "Don't take candy from strangers", and feel very confident that their children were then protected from any and every predator that might lurk out there. On the other hand, they didn't worry too much about what might be going on in kids' head and didn't mind using fear as a teaching tool if it worked. I, for one, grew up afraid of EVERYTHING! I just knew that if those atom bombs didn't get us, something else surely would! Even the prayer we used to say before we went to bed contained the line, "If I should die before I wake ... "! So I figured that there must have been a whole lot of kids out there that went to bed and never woke up! I saw it as a distinct possibility! I was told that my eyes would be permanently damaged by crossing them at my brother (while sticking my tongue out at him) and that I would go blind from sitting too close to the TV. When I found a small piece of electrical wire outside I was told that it might shock me because "there might be some electricity left in it!" I was told to always be very careful not to swallow any cellophane because "you can't digest it and it might kill you!" I distinctly remember unwrapping and eating a little piece of candy one time and then noticing that there was a tiny piece of the cellophane wrapper that was missing! OMG! I must have swallowed it! That was it! I was doomed! And I remember laying awake that entire night, staring at the ceiling and waiting to die! I was about 4 or 5 at the time. And it wasn't just our mother, most mothers were like that! She may have even believed this crappola herself and thought she was protecting us ... who knows! But like I said before, it's a miracle that my generation didn't grow up even more warped than we were!
donna723
Well-Known Member
Oh, Nancy, I had forgotten about the gum thing! Yes, their theory was that if you swallowed gum it would remain in your stomach forever. And if you kept on swallowing gum, eventually there would be enough of it down there to completely block off your digestive system and you would ... DIE! (or explode!)
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Hound dog
Nana's are Beautiful
Hahahaha. Well someone forgot to give our city the message. We were still doing it until I went to Jr High.......oh about '76. By then it felt weird to NOT do it. Except to replace them we had bomb scares every other day. Only half of them weren't 'scares" at all but the real deal, we just didn't know until much later how real about half of them were. I'm almost 50 and STILL don't have a clue what the whole bomb scare/bomb thing was about. I just remember we learned fast to get our fannies into gear and clear out of that huge old school in record speed........and how to endure standing in 15 degrees in snow up to your knees with no coats or anything for hours until they either gave the all clear or found the bomb. We didn't take the first several seriously. Of course the school had no choice.....but even teachers ect thought it was students trying to get out of class. Until the first bomb was found. One went off.......They told us it was a coincidental lab experiment explosion.......but I found out a few years later from an old teacher it was indeed a bomb they didn't find in time. Had their been students in the classroom it would have been a high death count.
I look at schools today and think........ok. We did duck and cover drills constantly. We had bomb scares and bombs. And no metal detectors were needed to police the schools. And we survived and grew up.
Still would like to know what caused all that though. We had some in HS too but not near as many........until after I graduated. Idiots decided to cut costs and condense the city High schools. It put mine and our biggest rival (I mean football games could cause riots ect) together. Now how utterly stupid could you get? There were mob riots that year, bomb threats, bombs, fires, stabbings, a shooting and heaven knows what else. Took THREE years to get it under control. (in other words 3 yrs for those who remembered the old rivalry to graduate leaving only those who had only attended the combined school behind)
The thing is..........when you do something even like that repeatedly over a long period of time it just becomes routine and you stop consciously thinking about it anymore. The actual fear factor drops as you adjust to it.
DDD
Well-Known Member
OMG! In a million years I never would have guessed that those drills continued past the 40's and 50's. I'll have to ask my adult children if they ever had drills...if they did they didn't share it with me and all of them were talkers. In a sick way this thread is really funny. The "gum" and "paper" threats and the "no candy" all were part of my childhood but at least at my house those never were shared. on the other hand, I did stress that it was impossible to know a "bad person" from a "good person" based on their appearance so never be friendly with strangers. Who knows?? Maybe that caused fear in the kids, too. I just grew up with a visual picture of scarey bad men taking children away so I was sure that nice looking adults were ok. Thanks heavens I didn't appeal to strangers and my kids didn't either! DDD
H
HaoZi
Guest
School in the 80s - tornado duck & cover drills and fire drills. Then the bomb threats in middle school and the lockdown the day we had a drive-by shooting (no one got hurt).
I wasn't sure when the whole "hide death" thing really started to take. A vast change from the generation prior to it that laid out the dead in the living room and stayed up all night with the corpse.
I wasn't sure when the whole "hide death" thing really started to take. A vast change from the generation prior to it that laid out the dead in the living room and stayed up all night with the corpse.
DDD
Well-Known Member
Nancy...I just figured out what about your post rang a bell. Yeah, I'm a little slow on the uptake lately, lol. I bet the Nuns were teaching about the Martyrs. That I remember clearly. We were taught that we should be like those people who admitted that they were Christians even though it meant they would be tortured or crucified. My best friend and I spent hours trying to decide if we would tell the truth or lie to save our lives. We were around ten or so and finally decided that it probably would never happen but if it did we would lie, save our lives and then since we were alive we would be able to save other Christians. Yikes, such heavy thoughts for young kids. Was that it?? DDD
H
HaoZi
Guest
I didn't even go to Catholic school but I recall those teachings and thoughts from Sunday school. One of many things that made me decide early in life that I was anti-organized religion altogether.
donna723
Well-Known Member
OMG! I must have been the most profoundly neurotic little fatalist on the block! It's just a darned good thing that I didn't have to go to Catholic school like all my cousins! That probably would have finished me off! We have "Catholic school" stories in my family that go all the way back to when my 89 year aunt started first grade! I never would have made it through Catholic school! I had a hard enough time with the Sunday School teacher in our protestant church who, for some reason, went into great detail week after week about the poor lepers in biblical times and how they would be horribly sick and shunned by everyone and then were run off to live in isolation because their body parts kept falling off! She never bothered to tell us that very few first graders in suburban St. Louis got leprosy, so of course, on top of everything else that scared me, I was also terrified of getting leprosy ... and I wasn't the only one! I would spend hours examining my fingers and toes to make sure they were securely attached and looking at my nose to make sure there was no sign it was coming off!
Fran
Former desparate mom
Donna, what a sweet sad story of your friend. Remembering is a good thing even when it makes us sad. Hugs to you. I'm sure your tender little heart missed your friend.
I had a very smart nun who in the middle 60's told us to not be afraid of Russia and war but to worry about China because of the population. Boy she was really smart and had a great ability to project into the future. We will be out educated and won't even have to lose a war to lose our status. No bomb shelters protect against the poorly educated.
She was scary but because she was strict and demanding. Good things now that I look back.
I had to laugh about leprosy. I used to be horrified of body parts falling off.
My parents lived in Europe during WW 2. Bombs were scary but very little food was the worst. We in the US have no real clue of how to protect ourselves in time of war if we don't learn from the survivors of past wars. My mom kept a basement storage area full of food items and a freezer packed to the seams with frozen food in the event that there was "no food".
I hope you feel like your friend was honored to have you remember her all these years.
I had a very smart nun who in the middle 60's told us to not be afraid of Russia and war but to worry about China because of the population. Boy she was really smart and had a great ability to project into the future. We will be out educated and won't even have to lose a war to lose our status. No bomb shelters protect against the poorly educated.
She was scary but because she was strict and demanding. Good things now that I look back.
I had to laugh about leprosy. I used to be horrified of body parts falling off.
My parents lived in Europe during WW 2. Bombs were scary but very little food was the worst. We in the US have no real clue of how to protect ourselves in time of war if we don't learn from the survivors of past wars. My mom kept a basement storage area full of food items and a freezer packed to the seams with frozen food in the event that there was "no food".
I hope you feel like your friend was honored to have you remember her all these years.
