The Beatles? On The Last Day, we had not heard about them in Connecticut. As I said, one of my lasting memories is hearing "Telstar" by The Tornados on WERI just before the broadcast was interrupted by "we interrupt this program."
I was halfway through The Boxcar Children when the next argument broke out. It dealt with food and water. My memory isn't clear about this, but I think that there were about 300 people jammed into the library. Outside, the Westerly Police were actually directing anyone else who wanted to get into the Washington Trust bank across the street and the high school, further up on Ward Avenue.
There was an A&P and a local market called McQuade's within walking distance from the library and groups of men from the library and the bank went out to scavenge for food. Another one of my memories of that day is a parade of shopping carts, piled high with groceries winding its way from the A&P ad McQuade's. Surprisingly things were fairly calm and organized, but as a 10-year-old, I didn't realize that there would be no "big trucks" hauling groceries to replenish the looted supplies.
The consensus of opinion was that "the government" would fix things, given enough time.
Surprisingly there was a lot of small talk dealing with the Yankee World Series win over the San Francisco Giants and the successful 6 orbit flight of Wally Schirra. However, among some of the people in the "shelter", fear and anxiety was written on many faces because they were missing family and loved ones. The smell of cigarette smoke and the surreptitious passing around of flasks were two more sights permanently engrained in my memory.
We did hear Arthur Godfrey's pep talk. Godfrey was roundly booed. Many people in the shelter had remembered how he unceremoniously fired Julius Larosa at the end of the Godfrey radio hour.
By the middle of the day, the electricity failed. The big cabinet radio fell silent but not before Govenor John Dempsey from Connecticut came over WERI. In a quavering voice, Dempsey addressed the citizens of Connecticut assuring them that our retaliation had inflicted losses on the Soviet Union many times greater than those inflicted on our nation. He added that the destruction of Groton/New London was avenged by the total destruction of the Polyarny naval base He also echoed Govenor John Notte of Rhode Island by saying that the National Guard units of both states would start evacuating those in the Groton/New London area. There was no mention of the hordes of New Yorkers flooding the western boundary of Connecticut attempting to flee atomized New York city.
Around noon, Westerly Chief of Police Raymond Meikel made his way into the library and told the shelter dwellers that Westerly, and Stonington Police were going street by street urging residents to take shelter in more secure areas. He said that a state of emergency existed nationally, and locally, there was a dusk to dawn curfew. Violators of the curfew would be arrested, and looters would be shot on sight. He mentioned that several looters had been shot, predictably looting liquor stores and pharmacies.
After digesting this, my eyes caught the sight that made my heart stop beating. Margaret, who sat 2 rows from me at West Broad Street School was there.
(To Be Continued)
I was halfway through The Boxcar Children when the next argument broke out. It dealt with food and water. My memory isn't clear about this, but I think that there were about 300 people jammed into the library. Outside, the Westerly Police were actually directing anyone else who wanted to get into the Washington Trust bank across the street and the high school, further up on Ward Avenue.
There was an A&P and a local market called McQuade's within walking distance from the library and groups of men from the library and the bank went out to scavenge for food. Another one of my memories of that day is a parade of shopping carts, piled high with groceries winding its way from the A&P ad McQuade's. Surprisingly things were fairly calm and organized, but as a 10-year-old, I didn't realize that there would be no "big trucks" hauling groceries to replenish the looted supplies.
The consensus of opinion was that "the government" would fix things, given enough time.
Surprisingly there was a lot of small talk dealing with the Yankee World Series win over the San Francisco Giants and the successful 6 orbit flight of Wally Schirra. However, among some of the people in the "shelter", fear and anxiety was written on many faces because they were missing family and loved ones. The smell of cigarette smoke and the surreptitious passing around of flasks were two more sights permanently engrained in my memory.
We did hear Arthur Godfrey's pep talk. Godfrey was roundly booed. Many people in the shelter had remembered how he unceremoniously fired Julius Larosa at the end of the Godfrey radio hour.
By the middle of the day, the electricity failed. The big cabinet radio fell silent but not before Govenor John Dempsey from Connecticut came over WERI. In a quavering voice, Dempsey addressed the citizens of Connecticut assuring them that our retaliation had inflicted losses on the Soviet Union many times greater than those inflicted on our nation. He added that the destruction of Groton/New London was avenged by the total destruction of the Polyarny naval base He also echoed Govenor John Notte of Rhode Island by saying that the National Guard units of both states would start evacuating those in the Groton/New London area. There was no mention of the hordes of New Yorkers flooding the western boundary of Connecticut attempting to flee atomized New York city.
Around noon, Westerly Chief of Police Raymond Meikel made his way into the library and told the shelter dwellers that Westerly, and Stonington Police were going street by street urging residents to take shelter in more secure areas. He said that a state of emergency existed nationally, and locally, there was a dusk to dawn curfew. Violators of the curfew would be arrested, and looters would be shot on sight. He mentioned that several looters had been shot, predictably looting liquor stores and pharmacies.
After digesting this, my eyes caught the sight that made my heart stop beating. Margaret, who sat 2 rows from me at West Broad Street School was there.
(To Be Continued)
