I Remember: 30 Years After Three Mile Island

On March 28, 1979, my mother crouched low, gripped my shoulders, and told me this: “If they evacuate today, they’ll take you to the State Farm Building. There will be lots of kids there, because all the children in Harrisburg will be taken to the same place. Don’t be afraid. Keep your eyes on your teacher, and never leave her or let her get too far from you. You’ll probably have a partner, like on a field trip. Hold your partner’s hand, tight. Don’t let go for a moment. Don’t wander away. And don’t be scared. No matter what, I’ll be there. I’ll be coming. Don’t worry. Mamma will get to you.”

Then she hugged me close.

I nodded, said nothing more than our usual goodbyes, grabbed my book bag and my red Tupperware lunchbox, and walked to the bus stop. There, all the kids in my neighborhood were subdued. The quiet was deafening. Everyone’s mother, it seemed, had told them something meant to inspire calm but that had, by the sheer act of telling, instead inspired fear.

We were on our way to North Side Elementary School in the Central Dauphin School District, near the state capital in Harrisburg, the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania, several dairy farms, some Amish households, and, by a distance of about 12 miles, Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island power plant, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in American history.

Please read the rest of this feature by going to:

http://thedefendersonline.com/2009/06/05/getting-our-environmental-%E2%80%98glow%E2%80%99-on/