Our Bomb Shelter Won't Protect Us

STORY BY: Debbie Matheson
YEAR: 1962
LOCATION: Montreal, QC

Debbie grew up in Montreal, with parents who had lived through the German 'Blitzkrieg' in World War 2. In 1962, around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, her parents had set up a bomb shelter in the cellar, complete with cans of Sterno and Spam, and they had emergency plans to sleep on cushions from the veranda. Debbie was young, but she could read, and she came across a newspaper article that described the bombs that the Russians were building. They were more powerful than what her parents had lived through, and the bomb shelter wouldn't do much to protect them. Debbie remembers being very afraid because of this. Thanks for sharing.