By the time readers pick up this issue of the Cook County News-Herald, Halloween will be over. All of the little princesses and pirates, cuddly critters and creepy creatures, and ghosts and goblins will be done with parties and treat gathering. The silly spooky stuff is done and it’s time to get back to reality.
And unfortunately, reality for today’s kids can be a bit scary, with the threat of terrorists and strange diseases and children gone missing. I don’t remember having so much to worry about when I was a kid.
We talk about this a lot, the people that I grew up with. With them, I recall leaving the house early in the morning and wandering far from home. I grew up on the west end of County Road 7—the “old highway”—and I remember heading to a cousin’s or friend’s house a half mile away or more and playing there for hours. We rode our bikes all over the back roads never worrying about “stranger danger.”
We didn’t worry much about getting sick with some strange respiratory influenza or an exotic illness carried from a Third World Country. I’m fortunately not old enough to really have had to worry about polio or measles. I grew up in a relatively healthy time for American children.
Back then 9/11 was just a date in mid-September. The last time the United States had been attacked was in 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. It was something we read about in history books. It wasn’t something that grownups talked about in sorrowful voices.
I do remember worrying about nuclear war, which seems odd I know, given my somewhat idyllic childhood. But as I’ve mentioned before in Unorganized Territory, it was because of those scary yellow and black FALL-OUT SHELTER signs at the school and courthouse—and the educational component that went with them.
I remember sitting in school hearing the reassurance that even if Russia attacked us with atomic weapons, it would not destroy the planet. It wouldn’t blow the earth apart or kill us all with radioactivity.
No, only those in the immediate vicinity—in the area that could see the giant mushroom cloud explosion—would suffer the horrific consequences. And supposedly, our Civil Defense instructor Mr. Knowlton told us, we would be okay if we made it to one of those Fall-Out Shelters.
I remember clearly the instructions in case we couldn’t get to a shelter. Shield yourself in any way you can—in a basement or just a ditch. To keep from getting tossed about or hit by flying objects, lie flat on the ground or press up against the wall. Hide your face in the crook of your arm, we were advised, to protect ourselves from flash burns.
Of course there were a number of suggestions for how to cope with the after effects of nuclear war and how we would survive in the bomb shelter—the scary, narrow, cinderblock hallway in the high school with solid wood doors to keep us “safe.”
I shudder to think about it— locked in that tight space with the entire student body, not knowing if my family had made it to the only other Fall-Out Shelter I knew of at the courthouse. Not knowing how long we would have to stay there or what awaited us when we emerged.
Scary stuff for a kid, but it was easily put out of mind—unless I had to hang out in that creepy hallway for some reason.
But nowadays, kids are constantly being reminded of the possible dangers around them. We don’t dare let them walk or bike to a friend’s house alone without checking in the minute they arrive. Every year we remember 9/11—as we should—but it’s scary for kids to think that could happen again. They are bombarded with images of illnesses spreading across the United States such as Enterovirus—or now, Ebola.
And children have their fears reinforced—as I did—by disaster drills at schools. At school board meetings, Superintendent Beth Schwarz—doing her due diligence—informs the school about safety drills. Instead of just fire drills, schools are now required to act out a host of other scenarios. At a meeting last year, Superintendent Schwarz informed the school board that School District 166 had completed nine fire drills, one relocation drill to Bethlehem Lutheran Church, a tornado drill and five lock-down drills.
The lock-down drill is perhaps the most frightening event, practicing for a dangerous intruder on the school campus.
Schwarz recently reported on another lock-down drill, explaining that classroom doors are equipped with devices that can be set to allow easy access most of the time, but can allow for complete lockdown of classroom doors instantly in the event of an emergency. During the last drill conducted, Schwarz said it took just 47 seconds to lock down the entire school.
Hearing that brought flashbacks of my elementary—and middle school—bomb shelter fears.
I know practice for these disasters is necessary. It’s good to be prepared for the very worst possible circumstances. I just hope that today’s kids have less vivid imaginations or thicker skin. I hope they don’t spend precious playtime worrying about disaster scenarios and how to respond. I certainly hope they don’t stay awake thinking about it.
And most of all, I wish that none of us had to worry about these things.
Even a minor event in the life
of a child is an event of that child’s
world and thus a world event.
Gaston Bachelard
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