Fifth Grade: A World Outside Silver Bay Intrudes

The Japanese earthquake, the tsunami and the nuclear reactor crisis all bring up memories of fifth grade, the year I learned the term radiation. Mrs. Jauhola's class.  Campton Elementary.  Silver Bay, Minnesota. School year 1961-62, during the Cold War.

Here we are:   Mrs. Jauhola and her Fifth Graders, living in the safety and comfort of Silver Bay and reading about bomb shelters in the Weekly Reader.  One day Mrs. Jauhola warned us about snow.  We should not lift our heads to let the soft white flakes fall onto our tongues.  The snow might contain radioactive particles.  We could die.   The world, suddenly, was a more dangerous place.