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On October 22, 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis begins when President Kennedy announces on TV the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba were discovered by a U2 spy plane and suddenly nuclear war with Russia became more real.  Everyone knew about the atomic bomb and the threat of nuclear with Russia, it was talked about on the TV news and in the paper.  Children in school were made more aware of it from Civil Defense lessons taught in school, with Civil Defense meaning what to do if there was an atomic bomb.  School Civil Defense drills begin with an announcement on the speaker, then all the kids would hide under our desks until another announcement which told us to go outside and gather at our designated location on the school grounds where we were told that in a real event, we should wait for our parents to come pick us up.  It all was a bit scarry and we were relieved when a few weeks later the Soviet Union agreed to remove its missiles from Cuba, President John F. Kennedy had triumphed and was a national hero. [civil defense school paper]  A few years later I was visiting Hank who had moved over near Westwood and Hank took me on a short hike into the near by woods where there was a huge hole with a two story tall concrete bunker in it, a bomb shelter. The top of the bunker was six feet below the surface of the woods around it with the walls of the surrounding hole four or five feet away.  We climbed down into the hole and entered the bunker though a single door size opening at the bottom. It was dim inside with sunlight streaming down through a door sized rectangular opening in the ceiling twenty feet above to a pool of water on the floor providing a dim light to see the bare concrete walls.  Other than a few scrap pieces of wood it was totally empty.  I thought it was amazing, thinking what a cool fort or hideout it would make and have wondered since then imagining it finished and being some guys ultimate man cave.

The Florida Gators didn’t start out all that well when the lost to Georgia Tech in September but did better the rest of the season beating Texas A&M in October  and then beating both Auburn and Florida State in November.   Dad was happy.

Thanksgiving came and went, my birthday arrived on a Saturday this year and a couple of the neighborhood boys came for cake and ice cream, but everyone was more focused on Christmas just three days away.  Christmas was the usual affair, buying and decorating a tree, buying gifts and wrapping them, special church service on Christmas Eve and then opening presents on Christmas morning.  David and I again got socks from Grandma Junior.  It had been a good year.

Updated: 07-14-2022

1963.