Childhood anxiety and the Cuban Missile Crisis

Sometimes you read a book which mimics your childhood and brings back memories and fears of long ago. "Countdown" by Deborah Wiles did just that for me. The main character, Franny, is in 5th grade and I was in 4th grade in October 1962. The setting of the book is near Andrews Air Force and Washington, DC. I lived in rural Eastern Idaho on a dairy farm, but like the main character felt the gut wrenching anxiety that was the Cuban Missile Crisis. Both of us practiced evacuation drills and hiding under our desks while at school. Both of us lay awake at night as our fears and imaginations took over.

Forty-eight years ago today, on a Tuesday, I spoke in hushed tones at recess to my friends as we pondered what might happen next after hearing President John F. Kennedy give an address on Monday evening to the nation in which he challenged Nikita Khrushchev of the USSR to remove the missile sites in Cuba.

Deborah Wiles in her documentary novel, which is both a novel and a sort of scrapbook, has taken her childhood experience and recreated a time of great historical significance for the USA. I found myself thinking about and reliving my life as a 9 almost 10 year old. Franny lived in a place most in danger of attack. I tried to take solace in the fact that I lived in a place that surely was so remote the missiles would have no interest. Then an adult, I don't remember whom, informed me that we were indeed a target being just miles from a new nuclear research lab in the nearby Idaho desert.

"Countdown" is the first of a planned trilogy, so it looks like I will be able to relive the whole decade that was the 60's with Deborah Wiles. The book may be written for middle schoolers, but adults will be drawn in by the history, pictures, and music lyrics. For a more definitive and less personalized review, go HERE. That is where I first learned of "Countdown."

Here I am in my 4th grade year at Plano Elementary School. Do we look scared and nervous? I do, can you pick me out? Hint: I was too vain to wear my glasses and was the tallest kid in the class. My teacher, Mrs. Kunz, always seemed a bit frazzled. I can see why. Look at the size of that class. When I look at this picture it seems like playing kickball with my friends was just yesterday. My two best friends were Julie Atwood standing next to the teacher and Ann Shirley seated directly in front of the teacher. Ann was also my neighbor on Moody Road. (I just realized as I tried to add an "e" to the end that she could have been Anne of Green Gables :)