The generation that grew up in the shadow of
The H
Bomb and the constant threat of
nuclear war. Okay, maybe that's
more than one generation but I remember growing up in the seventies and
being in an almost constant state of terror. I lay awake at nights
listening to the sound of airplanes going by and wondering if any of
them was the missile that would end it all. I had
recurring
nightmares and would often think to myself that maybe this is it,
maybe the world ends in
30 minutes.
At school we were shown films about Hiroshima and Nagasaki but I
could seldom stand it. I suppose it was meant to be educational,
much in the same way we were supposed to remember the
holocaust. Perhaps it was a twisted display of shared guilt,
even though my country hadn't even participated in WWII. But all it
did to me was associating the word 'Hiroshima' with dread, torn
buildings and burnt skin.
I imagine I am not alone in this. There must be many others like me,
people who grew up in the same kind of environment. How did that
affect us as a generation? Are fear and phobias more common
among us than other generations? Do we have more trouble sleeping at
night? Are we more aware of how fragile life as we know it really
is?
Anyway, one day I stepped out of our house and heard a roaring sound
and as I looked up I acutally saw The Missile go by and
disappear over the treetops. I just went
blank and braced myself, waiting for impact,
waiting to be erased from existance by a flash of white light. But
it never came. Slowly I began to realize that what I had seen was a
cigar-shaped baloon used for target practice by the Air Force and
the sound came from the plane that was towing it. The world would remain to see another day.
I think that was the last time I really got frightened over the
thought of nuclear war. I don't think about it anymore; no one
does. We live under constant threat but we never seem to talk about
it. Maybe we should?