Vandergrift & Russia

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

Vandergrift & Russia

When I was growing up in a small western Pennsylvania town named Vandergrift, my elementary school, The Sherman School, had numerous fire drills.

One day, they added bomb drills.

This was a time in the 1950’s when the Russians had successfully launched Sputnik and Americans were very concerned that between the development of an A-bomb and a successful space program, the Russians were a serious threat to life, as we knew it.

Add to these facts the knowledge that Russia espoused a very different system of government and that they didn’t much admire the democracy of The United States.

So, a period of bomb drills as well as bunker building began in America.

You see, the Russians were coming!

Or more accurately, the Russians might come.

In our bomb drill we were trained to crouch down under our already too small desks and to remain there until the “all clear.”

I have no idea whether Ms. Blanche Willard, our principal, or the Superintendent of Schools, or some national agency thought we could be safe by hiding under a desk, but I know now that should that bomb have been dropped we would not have been spared!

Those days in Vandergrift were a long time ago.

No bombs were dropped.

Ms. Willard retired to her home in Apollo, PA and lived out her years. All of the students went on to experience life without ever experiencing an actual bomb drop.

I was reminded of all this as my wife, Pam, and I visited St. Petersburg, Russia recently. We met many Russians. We visited all the usual Russian historic sites. It was hard for me to accept that these people ever wanted to bomb my school, The Sherman School.

As we interacted with them, I wondered if they had bomb drills, too. Did they fear an America they did not know? Did people they never met frighten them? Did their elementary school children seek security under a small desk?

As I reflect on that experience I cannot help but wonder if the supposed “enemies” of today are any more real than the Russians were then.

Do politicians benefit from encouraging fear?

Do school systems willingly engage in preparedness exercises that would be woefully inadequate if an event actually happened?

Ms. Blanche Willard would have liked the Russians I met.

They would have liked her.

No one in my class would have wanted to bomb those Russians and, if they had met my Vandergrift classmates at The Sherman School, they would not have wanted to bomb them.

In the end, people meeting other people where they live and where they work is what brings international understanding.

I am sorry it took me so long to visit Russia.

People connect with one another pretty much anywhere.

It seems to be our leaders that have problems finding common ground.