I was in my Freshman year of college at Shippensburg University (back then it was Shippensburg College) when the crisis occurred. As students we were pretty uninformed; no internet, no 24 hour news, etc. So I knew nothing about the accident until Friday late afternoon when I happened to be in my dorm room to take the phone call from my Mother. She was quite upset, and stated she and my Father were going to drive to campus to pick me up and bring me home.
I assured my Mother we were traveling south, and away from the Harrisburg area, so not to worry about me.
I was part of the Outing Club on campus, and we had a canoe trip planned for the weekend and I was packing up to leave. I assured my Mother we were traveling south, and away from the Harrisburg area, so not to worry about me. The truth was that I had no idea where we were going canoeing. I jumped in a van with the small group that was going and we were off.
We had a great weekend. None of us even discussed the TMI event – it was honestly not on any of our radar. Sunday late afternoon we met our contact at the take out. He told us with great relief that the crisis had blown over – all was well. We just shrugged our shoulders, as we never realized there was any great crisis. Unbeknownst to me when we began, we were canoeing on the Conodoguinet Creek, and the takeout was somewhere close to the Susquehanna River.
It started to sink in just how dangerous and tense things had really been.
The following week in school, every class was dominated by the TMI discussion. Professors shared how they had sent their families away, especially those who lived in the Carlisle/greater Harrisburg area. It started to sink in just how dangerous and tense things had really been.
Although not from this area, I ended up moving here after graduation, and have lived here ever since. As the anniversaries have come and gone, I would look back and think about my experience. Initially I thought about how stupid we were, not paying any attention to what was going on. As the years went by, I liked to think maybe we were the lucky ones who were oblivious. While everyone else in the Harrisburg area was stressed, and trying to decide whether to leave or stay, we were enjoying a beautiful weekend on the water, without a care in the world – as we floated towards the Susquehanna River just a few miles north of Three Mile Island!
Jane