Duck or Shop?
by
Dick Prosapio
© 2002
I lived in Chicago during World War ll. and we were
kept on alert from 1942 until late '44 by air raid drills. I know, it
sounds ridiculous doesn't it? Were the Germans really going to manage
to fly all the way from Europe to Mid America to drop incendiary bombs
on South Chicago neighborhoods? Well, they, those running the show at
the top, said we had to be prepared, so we had drills. This wasn't
like the Blitz in England you understand and it sounds utterly crazy
now, but this is what they did. Every now and then, and I can't tell
you how often, but maybe every two months or so, a small plane would
fly over our neighborhood and drop a cardboard cylinder with a paper
streamer attached. The color of the streamer told you what kind of
bomb had been dropped and, thus, what kind of action we had to take.
If it was a red streamer we had to get up on the
roof with a bucket of sand because that was a fire bomb. If it was a
black streamer, then we should have a bucket of water handy or a hose
because it might be an exploding type.
Does any of this make any sense at all?
Of course not. (By the way, I really don't remember
what color was what, but the rest of this is accurate.) Of course we
also had blackouts where we had to keep all lights off, and we had air
raid wardens who blew whistles at you if you had a light showing.
Now, I know that there were incidents of shelling
from Japanese subs on the West Coast, but there were no reports, no,
not even one, of the Luftwafa coming in over Lake Michigan. Nor were
any Zeros seen lifting off carriers in Lake Superior. Oh, and by the
way, we decided not to play the game any more after the first time we
climbed up on the roof of our three story apartment building. Even in
the forties we didn't stay stupid for very long.
Then we had the Big Red Scare. Any minute, so the
story went, the "Commies" were going to take over the State Department
and the Military and stage a Coup and there'd we'd be, standing in
line for bread. We bought that one for about ten or so years. That was
a nasty piece of business that hurt a lot of people and we all bought
into the paranoia fairly readily.
And then there was "Duck and Cover". We now know
what a farce that was.
And still is. And at the time I think we all thought
there was something weird about it all. A kind of denial of reality.
Our government actually tried to sell us on the idea that if we put
our hands over our heads and our butts in the air we wouldn't be
vaporized by a rain of nuclear bombs.
You had to be there.
Is it any wonder then that any of us know what to
believe when it comes to "color coded alerts"? What am I supposed to
do when the Government declares an "Orange" alert? Should I keep the
kids home from school? Should I send them to school bundled in Saran
Wrap and duct tape?
Should we all stop shopping or shop even more
frenetically in order to keep the economy afloat?
Should I get out the binoculars and watch my
neighbor? Barricade my dirt road against tanks? Should I go to the air
port and prepare to defend against boarders armed with scimitars?
Should I buy bigger guns or a bigger SUV?
Just what is it that I, or anyone else, should do?
Would it best to just do the one thing that all of
these "alerts" over the years have succeeded in creating?
Should I just worry?
Dick Prosapio ©2003, All Rights
Reserved
