{"id":3499,"date":"2019-08-09T15:47:11","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T19:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=3499"},"modified":"2019-08-09T15:48:45","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T19:48:45","slug":"the-air-raid-shelter-caper-hydrogen-bomb-changed-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=3499","title":{"rendered":"THE AIR RAID SHELTER CAPER…. HYDROGEN BOMB CHANGED EVERYTHING"},"content":{"rendered":"

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THE AIR RAID  SHELTER CAPER…
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MEMORIES OF FEAR
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<\/div>\n

alan skeoch<\/p><\/div>\n

august 2019<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
This Victorian desk\/bookcase\/vanity mirror brings back the fear I  felt in 1954 when atom bomb<\/div>\n
laden B52 bombers overflew Toronto each day high up in the stratosphere.  Their vapour trails<\/div>\n
were chilling.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
More chilling was my sure and curtain belief that a nuclear war was very possible and that<\/div>\n
Toronto could be a target of Soviet Union missiles.  Or Toronto could be hit by accident of an<\/div>\n
American B52 crash.   I drew a circle with my compass.  One point on our city hall and the <\/div>\n
other pencils point tracing a circle.   We were just outside the circle of mass destruction.  Survival<\/div>\n
was possible.  With care.   American atom bomb tests had  been  moved to Bikini Atoll, depopulated <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

islands in the south central Pacific Ocean.  The population of 167 had been  moved.  They would never<\/p><\/div>\n

 return as test after test of atomic weapons were conducted.   <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n


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BUT I figured  we might survive an atom bomb<\/div>\n
explosion\u2026just barely do  so if precautions were taken.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
THE VICTORIAN DESK BOOKCASE
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This cabinet was the heart of our basement air raid shelter.  It had to be stocked so I began slipping<\/div>\n
cans of tomato soup, pork and beans and canned  peaches down the back stairs to the cabinet.<\/div>\n
Never gave any thought to how the soup could be cooked.   Pork and  beans and peaches could be<\/div>\n
eaten cold.  What else was needed?  A big bag of Quaker rolled oats tucked  away in a tin with a lid lest<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

  the mice erode our food supply.  Rolled oats  do not need to be cooked and are considered nutritious.
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Alcohol? A year of so later  I stuffed a full bottle of Hennessey\u2019s cognac in the ceiling gap<\/div>\n
between heating pipes and floor joists.  Water?  That was easy.  \u201cMom, in the event of nuclear war, could<\/div>\n
you rush down and fill the cement laundry tups with water?\u201d  \u201cWhat if I am working?\u201d ?\/ Right, anyone home<\/div>\n
must fill the laundry tubs before the detonation.?
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What else should I put in the old desk?  Books, perhaps a Steinbeck or<\/p><\/div>\n

Dickens or Cowboy Western by Luke Short.  A bible?  Might get around<\/div>\n
to reading it to allay fear or increase it?  Toothpaste.  The thought of<\/div>\n
toothpaste raised another distasteful thought.   Toilet paper.  But where<\/div>\n
would we relieve ourselves?  I had no answer except the tenant\u2019s<\/div>\n
downstairs toilet on the other side of the wood panelling between my<\/div>\n
air raid shelter and their bathroom.  <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Thoughts of Mr and Mrs Douglas, our tenants at 455 Annette Street, <\/div>\n
Toronto west end. raised the thorny question of who would  be let into<\/div>\n
our raid shelter and who would be left to die of nuclear burns.  Shelters<\/div>\n
had to be kept secret.  A terrible fact.  Our shelter would only have<\/div>\n
room for brother Eric, mom and dad.   Four people.  And, oh yes,<\/div>\n
our cat Tinker.  She would not be a  problem and she was family.<\/div>\n
All others would be kept out which meant the hook latch on the back<\/div>\n
door would have to be reinforced somehow.  Thoughts of friends like<\/div>\n
Big Red Stevenson, Russ Vanstone, Good Sanford or Kaye  Donovon yelling for entrance<\/div>\n
was unsettling.  Sadly my girlfriend was on the eastern side of the <\/div>\n
circle of death.  She would not survive.  The relationship was tenuous<\/div>\n
at times anyway.<\/div>\n
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   We would need to keep a record.   Maybe have to live for two or three<\/p><\/div>\n

weeks in the air raid shelter.  So the desk side was stocked with pens, pencils
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

and green spiral bond notebooks.  Who knows,  maybe a great novel will<\/p><\/div>\n

result providing we all survive.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Survival?  The shelter was between the old cement block coal bin and<\/div>\n
the huge furnace.  Some protection on the north particularly since the coal bin<\/div>\n
was  double walled.  The western wall had no windows… solid  cement blocks.  <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n


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It was  on the east side I had a problem.  Two cellar<\/div>\n
windows\u2026flimsy.  If the shock wave hit them they would shatter and render <\/div>\n
the shelter useless.   I decided to ignore the window on the other side of the<\/div>\n
furnace and  proceeded to consider bricking up the other window.  Mom and dad<\/div>\n
did not approve so instead I covered the window with short pine planks and kept<\/div>\n
a small supply of bricks ready if needed. <\/div>\n

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The silliest part of this shelter was the sleeping arrangement.  One old moth<\/div>\n
eaten studio couch was all I could find.    We would have to take turns to sleep.<\/div>\n
Three chairs and the couch \u2026 and the Victorian desk that had been converted<\/div>\n
into a larder of sorts.  Enough food for two or three days  at best.<\/div>\n

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Funny thing about the shelter was the floor.  For some stupid reason I began<\/div>\n
construction by laying down a wooden pine floor. Made no sense really and  reduced<\/div>\n
our headroom by  a few inches.   But it made the shelter look rather homey.<\/div>\n

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THEN, in 1956, a Hydrogen bomb was detonated on Bikini Atoll.   A hydrogen<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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bomb was 1,100 times more  powerful than the two atomic bombs dropped<\/div>\n
on Hiroshima  and  Nagasaki. ELEVEN  HUNDRED  TIMES!   That information<\/div>\n
changed  everything.  The new  circle of  total devastation went way beyond our house<\/div>\n
in West Toronto\u2026way beyond  Etobicoke\u2026beyond Malton airport.  <\/div>\n

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There was no point in my air raid  shelter.  Like thinking people around the world<\/div>\n
I began to imagine a world without people.  One secret report from the scientists<\/div>\n
testing nuclear weapons  on Bikini Atoll was  that the human race was about to<\/div>\n
be depopulated.  Of humans only a \u2018vestigial\u2019 fragment would  survive and for them<\/div>\n
life  on earth would  be unimaginably horrific.<\/div>\n

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So the Skeoch  air raid shelter just mouldered away.   Raids on the food supplies<\/div>\n
occurred.  \u201cAlan, go down and get two  cans  of tomato soup from your air raid <\/div>\n
shelter.\u201d \u201cAny rolled oats left down there?\u201d  Finally all that remained was  the bookcase <\/div>\n
desk lathered with a dash  of coal dust.<\/div>\n

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About a decade later I remembered something really important.  That bottle<\/div>\n
of Hennessy\u2019s Cognac beside the stovepipe.  Eric  and I rushed  down and sure<\/div>\n
enough, there it was.  Dusty like fine century old  wine.  But intact.  We had never<\/div>\n
 tasted cognac and twisted  the top open.  Poured a bit of the nut brown liquid into<\/div>\n
two glasses and then\u2026.YUCK!   This was not cognac.  It was water with colouring.<\/div>\n

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Dad had found the bottle long ago.  It must have given him a bit of pleasure as<\/div>\n
he shovelled chunks  of anthracite  coal into he furnace.  And he must have<\/div>\n
grinned to himself thinking that someday  his sons would remember the bottle.<\/div>\n
And would they be surprised.<\/div>\n

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We  found it.   But we were not surprised. Nothing our dad ever did surprised  us.<\/div>\n
Eric and  I were the luckiest of children.  Poor but we did not know it.  Treasured<\/div>\n
but we did not know it.  Being taught but we did not know  it.  Loved  but we took<\/div>\n
if for granted.   <\/div>\n

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\u201cWhat kind  of Tom foolery are you up to now?\u201d  <\/div>\n
\u201cBuilding an air raid shelter for all of us, Dad.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNow, if that is not the stupidest goddamn notion you have ever had, I\u2019ll<\/div>\n
be a monkey\u2019s uncle.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYou could  help get this  bookcase desk into the cellar..\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhere in hell\u2019s  half acre did you get the goddmaned thing?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSalvation Army store\u2026delivered.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYou payed good money for this thing?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cTwenty dollars.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAnother proof  of your stupidity.\u201d<\/div>\n

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But he helped  lay the floor and get the old couch past the octopus<\/div>\n
we called our furnace.   Neither Eric, Mom or I ever occupied the air raid<\/div>\n
shelter.  But Dad did.  Shovelling coal beside the couch in winter. Then<\/div>\n
reading the racing form from front to back and back  again. In summer the <\/div>\n
coolness of the cellar was as good a launch pad for Woodbine, Fort Erie, or<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

even Batavia Downs…as good  as he could  find.  Racing forms<\/p>\n

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were great literature to him.  Who did he  love more than mom and his  boys?<\/div>\n
Northern Dancer comes to mind\u2026a great Canadian horse.  Dad  did  not spend<\/div>\n
time\u2026waste time\u2026thinking about the possibility of nuclear war.  He was  a man<\/div>\n
of the moment.  A horseman.   If nuclear war was about to depopulate the planet<\/div>\n
then Dad  just did  not want to be around such a stark landscape that had no horses. <\/div>\n

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Then why did  he help the construction?  I think he saw me slip the bottle of<\/div>\n
Hennesy\u2019s into the the slot in the joists.  Just saying this creates  a false <\/div>\n
impression.  Dad  was  not a drinker in the sense of becoming an alcoholic.<\/div>\n
He drank beer with friends and particularly his argumentative brothers\u2026Art, <\/div>\n
Jack, Archie and Norman.  And Uncle Earnest who was really a cousin.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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He also had  a  beer or two with his racetrack<\/div>\n
cronies of which there were legions it seemed.  He was a social animal<\/div>\n
rather than a solitary boozer.   I bet he shared that cognac with old Mr. Cook<\/div>\n
on the corner house.  I bet they both laughed a lot.  <\/div>\n

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Fear of a depopulated world was not part of their lives.  I envy them now.<\/div>\n
Nothing was to be taken too seriously.  As  mentioned  far too often in<\/div>\n
these stories is Dad\u2019s comment which  he repeated with glee.  \u201cWe have two<\/div>\n
sons, one is a  gutsy bugger and the other is as stupid as Joes dog.\u201d<\/div>\n

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As an adult I rather liked to be known as a gutsy bugger but Now, <\/div>\n
in retrospect I think Dad thought I was as stupid  as  Joe\u2019s dog.<\/div>\n
Building an air raid shelter when the world  was about to be destroyed.<\/div>\n
Now that is stupidity.  <\/div>\n

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The Hydrogen bomb ended  the illusion of survivability anyhow.<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
August 2019<\/div>\n


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BIKINI ATOLL<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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  Nearly 100 ships were anchored around Bikini Atoll in 1946 as American Nuclear test<\/p><\/div>\n

explosion began in earnest.  The  population of the Atoll, around  147 people, were<\/div>\n
displaced never to return.   Many of the anchored warships now like in deep waters<\/div>\n
around Bikini.   One surprising result now over  70 years later is the return of fish life<\/div>\n
and coral life to the waters and the verdant growth of palm trees.  Radioactive soils  remain<\/div>\n
though and efforts at re populating the islands has been considered too dangerous.
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BIKINI ATTOL\u2026GHOST SHIPS OF WORLD WAR II\u2026CONTAMINATION<\/div>\n

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In 1946 the United States had  a huge supply of surplus ships including the <\/div>\n
ships surrendered by the Japanese Navy.  So one of the most startling atomic test<\/div>\n
was  planned  by anchoring 78 of these ships at varying distances  and angles to Bikini<\/div>\n
Atoll where a test atom bomb was detonated.  Most were inside the Bikini Atoll lagoon.<\/div>\n
Five sank and 14 were severely damaged but, surprisingly the rest survived. <\/div>\n

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The USS Independence was one  of the test ships.  She Survived and sailed<\/div>\n
back to port where she was stuffed with drums of radioactive  waste and  then<\/div>\n
sunk 30 miles off the coast of California where she  rest spright to tis day.<\/div>\n

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What followed was a series of 66 more  test atomic  explosions  at Bikini.  Above<\/div>\n
ground testing of atomic weapons continued through the 1950\u2019s until such testing<\/div>\n
was stopped as a result of scientists like Canadian Ursual  Franklin who roved<\/div>\n
radioactive Strontium 90 was beng concentrated in children\u2019s teeth.  How?  Very<\/div>\n
simply.  Atomic  blast created clouds of radioactive dust that circled the globe.  Eventually<\/div>\n
that dust settled on the ground.  Cattle ate radioactive  grass.  And  children  drank<\/div>\n
radioactive milk.    That fact led eventually to world wide ban on above  ground<\/div>\n
nuclear testing.<\/div>\n

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\u201cCan we ever go home?\u201d  So asked the displaced islanders of  Bikini Atoll.  They were awarded<\/div>\n
a cash settlement of a two billio dollar land damage  claim but payment seems  to have stopped<\/div>\n
when the initial fund  was  exhausted.  In 1970 the islanders were  allowed  to return but that<\/div>\n
did  not last long since any food they tried to grow was  a radioactive danger to their health and they<\/div>\n
were once again exiled, likely forever. \u201cI do not believe its  safe,\u201d said islander Evelyn Ralph-Jeadrik<\/div>\n
even tough her island atoll called Rongelap, was a distance from Bikini.  \u201cI don\u2019t want to put my<\/div>\n
children at risk.\u201d<\/div>\n

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She was talking about the Bravo cnuliear test on March  1, 1954.  A  hydrogen bomb test that was  <\/div>\n
\u201ca thousand  times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Ir took a while for the implications  of  the  1956 Hydrogen bomb to be clear I\u2019m my mind.  I was building<\/div>\n
the air raid shelter in the cellar based  on the hypothetical circles of devastation expected from an atomic<\/div>\n
bomb.  That was  sometime in 1955.   By 1956 even a person  as  stupid  as  me realized that<\/div>\n
there was  no hope of  survival.  Humanity had to rely on the Strategic Air Command bombers to <\/div>\n
provide some kind of  mutual  stalemate with the Soviet Unions  Bomber command.  No room for<\/div>\n
error.<\/div>\n

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So the Skeoch Air raid shelter was  forgotten by all but Arnold \u2018Red\u2019 Skeoch as a  place to fantasize<\/div>\n
about putting $20 on the nose of horses like Northern Dancer at the old Woodbine Racetrack while<\/div>\n
he rested on the air raid shelter couch sipping Hennessy Cognac.<\/div>\n

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Events have a strange way of  interconnecting.  A few  years  later, in 1960,<\/div>\n
I was a young geophysical prospector sent to test survey instruments at the bottom<\/div>\n
of  CanMet uranium mine.   One of the Canadian mines that provided raw uranium<\/div>\n
for the manufacture  of  atomic bombs.  <\/div>\n

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The account of that adventure has  been<\/div>\n
attached in a separate email.  <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

august 2019<\/p><\/div>\n


<\/div>\n
PICTURE GALLERY SOMEWHAT RELATED TO THE AIR RAID  SHELTER CAPER<\/div>\n
(What kind  of parents would allow their son to build and air raid shelter?)<\/div>\n

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Here we are emulating Red Skeoch whose White Owl Invisible cigars gave him<\/div>\n
great satisfaction.   He taught his  grandsons, Kevin and  Andrew, to smoke them<\/div>\n
when they were six and eight years old.   We all survived the  fears of the 20th century.<\/div>\n

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WHAT ABOUT YOUR MOTHER\u2026ELSIE  (FREEMAN) SKEOCH?<\/div>\n

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MOM, Elsie was her real name but Dad  called  her Methusalum which is  a corruption of the biblical  Methusalah who was the oldest person in the bible.  Mom<\/div>\n
was  a year older that Dad so it was natural for him to draw that to everyone\u2019s attention.   Mom ran  the show.  She was the real breadwinner\u2026the homemaker\u2026<\/div>\n
the common sense person.  And, as  such she was taken for granted.  Happens  to a  lot of people\u2026being taken for granted.  Sort of a backhanded compliment.<\/div>\n
Marjorie noted the picture  of Dad and Mon in their courting days\u2026\u201dhis hand is perilously close to her breast.\u201d   True.  Mom had the most important job in the<\/div>\n
air raid  shelter caper.  \u201cMom, you rush right down and fill those laundry tubs while the city still has a  water system.”<\/div>\n

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ARNOLD \u201cRED\u201d SKEOCH<\/div>\n

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THESE pictures will give you some idea of  how dad just loved to make fun of his children.  A delight for us.  And you might understand how Dad  helped <\/div>\n
build the air raid shelter even though he thought it was a  damn fool idea.  He had the last laugh\u2026for he got the bottle of Hennessy\u2019s.  See if you can<\/div>\n
find the two sons\u2026the gutsy  bugger and the kid stupid as Joe\u2019s dog\u2019.  To Dad the air raid shelter caper was a source of great humour.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

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That\u2019s Dad holding the plow handles AS we did another damn fool thing.   <\/div>\n


<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE AIR RAID  SHELTER CAPER… MEMORIES OF FEAR alan skeoch august 2019 This Victorian desk\/bookcase\/vanity mirror brings back the fear I  felt in 1954 when atom bomb laden B52 bombers overflew Toronto each day high up in the stratosphere.  Their vapour trails were chilling. More chilling was my sure and curtain belief that a nuclear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}