I was working in East Baltimore at the Battle Monument- Eastwood Special Education public school . When we heard of the nuclear meltdown I looked at my coworker and said, “Watch the students, I need to run to the office and call my grandmother in Essex and make sure she is there and not her Susquehanna Trails home!”
The pink rotary phones in her Ida Avenue home rang and rang and rang as sweat ran down my flushed face. On the way home I stopped off at her Ida Ave home and she was gone.
When I finally got a hold of her, she acted like they were just fine. Nothing was wrong in her neighborhood in Susquehanna Trails.
It wasn’t until a long while later she confessed to me of people coming to her door asking she and my Grandfather to not say a thing and paid them a great deal of money. She never told me how much they paid her off to be silent. I don’t know if I have photos of their home. And I sure don’t know if I have photos of the fields all laying flat as a rug as she said.
It was a frightening
time for sure.
Sandi
Sandi Leonard Polvinale