Gentle Readers . . . and Maxwell,
I've been watching the Showtime series Weeds on Netflix. At one point in the show, the bad guys managed to dig a tunnel between Mexico and the U.S. to bring over drugs, but when they started bringing over young girls, it got to be too much for Nancy, who ratted them out, though she has increasingly become a bad guy, too.
The tunnel on the show reminded me of the tunnels under my elementary school, which I presume were not used for drug trafficking. When we had a tornado drill, or an actual tornado warning, large panels were removed from the floor and we had to jump down into the tunnels. No steps led down to them.
The tunnels were concrete all around. There was no place to sit down. So we'd all be packed in down there, and before long a teacher would scream, BE QUIET! IF WE REALLY HAD A TORNADO WE WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO HEAR THE RADIO.
Silence would reign for about five seconds and then the murmuring would begin again and the murmuring would quickly become a roar.
After a while the drill would be over or the all clear siren would blow, and it would be time to get out of the tunnel. I really hated that part. Two adults would be standing on each side of the opening and they would each grab one of our hands and they'd haul us out. It was creepy and uncomfortable. I always felt scared when we went in the tunnel. I wasn't afraid of a tornado. I was scared of getting back out. Would those people be able to grab my hands? What if they dropped me? What if it was my turn and they just ignored me? What if somebody pushed me out of the way and I fell and everybody stepped on me on their way out of the tunnel and I got left behind?
I'm surprised I'm not living in a tunnel under an old elementary school in Kansas today.
Infinities of love,
Janie Junebug
My motto as an editor: Authors are the authority on their work. I'm a full-service editor. For a reasonable fee, I'm your writing coach from the first suggested revision to the correction of the final typo.
Blimey, sounds like the air raid shelters school kids had to hide in during World War 2 over here.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they were intended to be fallout shelters in case the Soviets dropped the bomb on us. Like anybody was going to survive that.
DeleteI am glad you are not living in a tunnel under and old school too. ;-)
ReplyDeleteWhy, thank you, Beth.
DeleteHow awful, I would have hated that.
ReplyDeleteI would have probably gone home when no one was looking.
If there had been a way to sneak off, I would have done it.
DeleteWe used to play in some caves down on the rive bank, but the only tunnel I got to play in was when they were putting in new sewage lines. The road was dug up and these huge (to me back then) pipes were laid down. But on the weekend and after 5 o'clock in the evening, the workers were gone. No bracing on the dirt walls, but who cared. We got to play in the pipes. But did't go to far in them because we didn't have a light and we couldn't ask mom for one because she would have had a shit-fit if she had known.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I suspect any mom would have a shit fit over that.
DeleteSee, now that is something I've never thought of. I'd imagine that would be really awkward. Course, now a days I'm sure they have stairs and a HUGE list of requirements of how it should all be done...
ReplyDeleteWhen we were kids they didn't have all the rules and regulations that are in place now -- not that they're always obeyed.
DeleteI wouldn't like those tunnels. I wouldn't go down in our crawl space during a tornado. Too confining.
ReplyDeleteMaybe those tunnels are the reason I'm still a bit claustrophobic.
DeleteI hear a lot of people saying good things about this program but I haven't seen it.
ReplyDeleteI'm up to season five and it's getting darker all the time. Sometimes it's so dark I think I'm going to have to stop watching it and then Kevin Nealon or Elizabeth Perkins provide some comic relief and I can continue.
DeleteDear Janie, I've never heard of anything like this before. The closest are the air raid shelters in London during the Blitz. But those were mostly the subways. So truly what you experienced was unique----and scary! Peace.
ReplyDeleteI never knew of any other schools with tunnels. People probably think I imagined it, but my mom knew the tunnels were there. She had arrived at school one day to pick me up when the tornado siren sounded. I emerged from the tunnel to her smiling face when it was over.
DeleteTunnels under your school? How about that? I guess with all the tornadoes in that area, that sort of shelter was necessary. When I was in school, we had air raid drills. We'd line up along the hallway walls on our knees, hunched over with our head on the floor and our hands behind our necks. I'm sure it would have been "quite effective" had an atom bomb fallen...
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked at the nursing home we had an emergency manual that said in case of a nuclear disaster we were supposed to keep the windows and doors closed and not go outside. hahahahahahaha!
DeleteI have a hard time watching shows like that.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm really intriqued with the idea of tunnels under the school.
I used to live in a highly used Underground Railroad area of the country. So many of the old houses had tunnels.
It was absolutely fascinating.
The Hurricane's alma mater in Iowa was a stop on the Underground Railroad. The founder of the school, Josiah Grinnell, was an ardent abolitionist.
DeleteMy school was built in 1939 and there is still a shelter underneath, although it is now inhabited by all different kinds of vermin. How did the teachers clamber out of your tunnel? I'm sure there would be griping today...
ReplyDeleteI don't know how the teachers got out. I never saw them leave. I wonder if they stayed until all the kids were out and then climbed up. If we had been down there, we would have been able to see up their dresses.
DeleteWow, that's a pretty vivid memory to have. I'm thankful you were always pulled out! :)
ReplyDeleteI could have been like one of those Japanese soldiers found during the 1960s who didn't know that World War II had ended. I don't know what battle I would have been fighting. Maybe I would have been shut in the tunnel for protesting the bombing of Cambodia, as if I understood that when I was in elementary school.
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