Phil, your story about the Ground Observer Corps reminds me of my own
experience at about the same time.  I was in the Boy Scouts and was
recruited as a courier and telephone operator in the little Civil Defense
post in Springville, Erie County.

We met about twice a year for a couple days (and nights) for what amounted
to a nuclear attack drill.  Springville was the second-line post for
western New York.

Much of the time, I staffed a phone, taking reports of "a bright flash"
being seen in the direction of Lewiston, or Orchard Park, or Niagara Falls,
and suddenly having the people I'd been talking with in those areas no
longer making reports.  It was a bizarre and frightening (though much more
in retrospect than I recall it having been at the time) experience.  I
remember feeling some sadness at the thought of those people having died,
yet determined to continue to do my job and ignore the possibility that we,
too, might get a message telling us to shut down our post, that we had
"become victims".

It was, indeed, a time of innocence amidst arguably the most dangerous
times the world has ever known, wasn't it.

At the same time, there was a much tougher mental state.  I was no more
than 13, possibly only 10 or 11, and undertaking a task that we would be
accused of child abuse if we allowed a child of that age to undertake today.




Craig Bond
Lufkin, TX
http://www.etexscouts.com

     To be a winner, all you need to give
           is all you have.