I was in 6th grade, at Seven Sorrows, a catholic elementary school in Middletown, PA. It was a warm sunny day. I remember the Principal coming in and whispering to the teacher, when she left the teacher closed the windows and turned off the lights. We did not know what was happening. Soon, parents started picking up their kids from school. A little time passed and school was dismissed. Buses didn’t pick us up at the school, we had to walk to the local public school, about a block away, to get buses home. We walked to the local middle school and waited in the auditorium for the buses to come.
it really did feel like we were the only family left in town
Once we were on the school bus, our route took us through downtown Middletown. The windows were down on the bus and we saw lots of reports on the corner where what is now Brownstone Restaurant, we were waving to them out the windows of the bus.
Once at home, my mom was working and my dad was home, they didn’t know much but the news just said keep doors and windows closed. I can’t remember any more how long we were out of school, but, at that time, it seemed like weeks. The next few days were pretty scary to me, I was 12 at the time. We knew something was happening at TMI but didn’t know the severity of what was happening (that wouldn’t come until years later).
I remember people in the neighborhood leaving, packing their cars so full (a full size TV in a trunk that wouldn’t close). There was never a mandatory evacuation, at some point only pregnant women and young children were told to leave, however, it seemed to be that the entire town left but my family. We had our bags packed ready to go. We had family from out of town calling for us to come to their homes but we never left. Looking back I think that was for 2 reasons. One, they never said it was mandatory and two, my mom was working at a local restaurant called the Mansion House, they were feeding all the people working on the TMI problem, so she had to work. We stayed up late, had the TV on 24/7 “just in case”, we all slept in the living room. I was scared but wasn’t really sure what was happening.
I thought how cool is this
I remember, playing outside, we were off school so why not, the town was all but deserted, it really did feel like we were the only family left in town. While playing outside, my brother, who was 8 or 9 at the time, was approached by a TV station from New York and they interviewed him, I thought how cool is this.
I remember Jimmy Carter coming to town. We all lined the streets around the MCSO, where he would go inside and speak. There were apartments across the street from the MCSO, people were looking out their windows and the Secret Service quickly made them get out of their windows.
I remember a truck coming to town, you were supposed to be able to get inside, I guess there was some machine in there to determine how much radiation was on you. I never went in that truck. I remember someone holding something up to the door of the local hardware store that detected radiation and the machine “went nuts.”
After things calmed down, I remember everyone wearing t-shirts, saying things like…I survived TMI, kiss me, first I radiate, then I meltdown. It was a very interesting/scary time. My family never left Middletown throughout the entire TMI accident.
Veronica
