MUCH, MUCH worse than I've seen this time - people were wandering around aimlessly sobbing hysterically.
I wasn’t around for the Cuban missile crisis, but I think the panic and anxiety levels are right up there with it.
MUCH, MUCH worse than I’ve seen this time - people were wandering around aimlessly sobbing hysterically.
I remember our principal sending us home, telling us we only had a half an hour to live. He was actually crying over the intercom.
Before my mom passed she had told me there were two things in her life that she feared-the early 1950’s polio epidemic and then the Cuban Missile Crisis.
She said people that could afford it were installing fallout shelters or stocking basements. They regularly practiced drills at school and the evening news was frightful. Imagine the crisis today with the overlay of our current social media and 24/7 news cycle.
When Kennedy announced the naval blockade she asked my granddad, whom was hard working independent hardware store owner, if they were going to get bombed. He reassured her they wouldn’t but was trying to not get emotional. That had to be scary as hell period. By all accounts we were a miscalculation away from getting into a shooting war with the Soviets.