Bombs

When I was a young girl growing up in the south in the "duck and
cover"days. The terror that I felt was so horrible it almost got the
best of me. Children were seen and not heard then. It was a time when
just trying to make a living was hard enough on poor people like
us.

The walton family did not exist in our lifetime. Noboby said much of
anything to each other at our house unless it was about work. We worked
from daylight untill dark in the cotton fields. Chopping out the weeds
in spring, and picking the cotton by hand in the fall.

We went to school alright the government saw to that but they let
school out in early May so that the farming people would have their
crews to work the fields--(thank you so much Uncle Sam)

Khrushchev said that he would bury us and I just knew that he would. No
one told me that things would be okay and try not to worry. And so I
worried constantly.

When the news came on the radio I would grab my ears and run out the
screen door mumbling so that none of the news could get through to my
brain.

See you just didn't ask questions and none of my family seemed to
notice or didn't care about the strange way I was acting every time the
news came on.

I used to sleep with my head in an open window , propped up with a
stick in the summer trying to catch a breeze. We didn't have a fan. I
would pray that no planes flew over the top of our house and dropped
the big one on us while we slept.

Russia was a name that I did not want to hear. When I looked around at
everyone else at school they all seemed to be okay with the way things
were. They didn't look worried at all. Well I can assure you I worried
enough for all of us.

If someone had taken the time to ask me what was the matter. It would
have saved me from the God awful weight that I was carring around.
Maybe I could have enjoyed that time in my life.

I had the world on my shoulders, and it could have been lifted with a
few simple words and a hug. With all this talk of war and weapons of
mass destruction that we hear daily. Please take a moment and ask your
children if they have any worries or questions about anything.

And make it plain that they can ask anything even if they think it
might be silly. You might be surprised at the answer you get. Oh and
don't forget the hugs.