I can't tell you how depressing it is to have memories that are half a century old, but here it is:
When he was in high school, my older brother, Ted, was something of a science geek. Between building models of missiles, I remember that he built a Geiger counter and performed an experiment that measured the amount of radioactivity that made its way to Bergenfield, New Jersey, when the Chinese began testing their nuclear bombs (which, as Tom Lehrer pointed out, we called "a nuclear device"). As I recall, and Ted correct me if I'm wrong, the increase in radioactivity was quite measurable.
Imagine that.
The madeleine that set off that memory was this little walk down history lane by Josh Marshall, who reminds me – if I ever knew – that in 1962 alone the U.S. conducted 105 nuclear tests (two every week). And we put some of them on the tips of missiles, one of which veered out of control!
I'll have to hold on to this factoid. Sometime when I get really discouraged about the rate of progress the world is making, when the Fox News morons and Ayn Rand cultists seem to be in the ascendancy, I'll pull that out and feel a little better.
Endnote: In fact-checking this post, I realize it must have been a Russian or American nuclear test Ted was monitoring, since the Chinese didn't start testing until 1964. But I left the story the way it was because 1) memory plays tricks on you, and 2) I like the Tom Lehrer quote so much I just had to leave it in.
And because I love you:
5 comments:
I don't remember Ted being a rocket geek but I was a bit younger. I do remember, however, the nuclear attack warning posters they posted in the halls at good old Franklin School. Instructions on how to brace yourself for an attack by getting your head under your desk and protecting your head by clenching it firmly between your knees. Of course Bob McGivern, in his neatest handwriting added to each one; "and kiss your ass goodbye."
My oldest brother, Mike, who was at Harvard in the 1950's (which makes him my oldest brother)wrote this:
Pardon me if I look down my nose at all you pathetic souls who only found out about Tom Lehrer in the /*1960s */after the _/*second*/_ pressing (this one in a proper recording studio no less) of his /Songs by Tom Lehrer/. I'm happy to say that I was one of those who bought his first 10" record for $3.95 at the Harvard Coop (recorded somewhere in Boston for a total cost of $15, and it sounded it) in about 1955/56 when I was a student and he was in the Army. Among the undergraduates who heard and listened to it, it was pointed out the he had a Harvard BA in mathematics, /magna cum laude. /Age has some pluses. :-)
Several of us NROTC cadets sang "Who's Next" at the "O" Club in Corpus Christi during our summer cruise - the club's piano player picked it up quickly - it was a big hit! I like to think that we were at least partially responsible for the 1960s recording.
And brother Ted, who said he posted this, but didn't, wrote this:
Well, thanks for labeling me a science geek. I thought I was just a standard-issue geek. At least science gives it some stature. And it was rockets I was making, not missiles. Rockets go into space--the moon and Mars, e.g.; missiles are designed to blow up cities. As for the geiger counter: my memory is foggy on that (possibly from over- exposure to radiation, but I'm thinking I was monitoring a U.S. test, probably about 1961 or so. BTW, thanks for the link to "madeleine." I had to use it. --Rocket Man
Shutterhand,
I remember a nuclear attack drill when I was in fourth grade (Miss Trautwein) where we had to go into the hall and brace ourselves against the wall. Two ranks: girls on the inside, with their forearms against the wall and their faces buried in the inside of their elbow, and boys on the outside, with one arm extended straight out and against the wall (to separate us from the hot fourth grade girls) and our faces buried in the bend of the other arm. I remember feeling very protective of the women-folk.
Of course, had there been a real nuclear attack our bodies would have fused together shortly before being vaporized. But we didn't know that.
"...And it was rockets I was making, not missiles. Rockets go into space--the moon and Mars, e.g.; missiles are designed to blow up cities."
See what I mean everybody? A science geek.
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