I was in the 5th grade in March of 1979, age 12, when TMI crisis occurred. I remember it well. Early morning in that cold March morning, my mom woke me up from a good night sleep to tell me something bad happened up in Middletown, PA. I was good at geography, and knew proximity to Harrisburg and it seemed like it was 100’s of miles away at 12 years of age, but more like 30 plus miles. We lived in a small farming town called Gordonville,PA, near Intercourse,PA.
Jeff
I do remember also the news about it just smothered the 3 main networks then while I got ready for school. Yes, we still had school, we were not evacuated since we were on the outer fringe of major threat but still on standby.
Talked about it at school, the horror images in our preteen heads of dead fish washing down Susquehanna River into the bay, big mushroom cloud above the plants steam stacks.
I also remember when we entered middle school at Pequea Valley in 6th grade, we had a field trip to go to Scream in the Dark, which a Youth for Christ hosted for many years during Halloween. It was the original better version of Jason’s Woods and other scary attractions today. We happen to be going the same night as the middle schoolers from Middletown/Lower Dauphin Area, and we all had to sit in a huge auditorium and watch a 20 minute video that the YFC put together. It had many topics covered with images and video of our dying planet and how us GenX’ers can change it for the better….and then the image of the TMI towers came into focus….it was haunting, then completely silenced the 800 plus kids in the room…then shortly after a huge uproar of clapping and hollering from the kids on the one side of the room, which we later found out they were from Middletown!
It put things in perspective that 30-35 miles was a large difference between Middletown and Pequea Valley in the Amish Country of Lancaster County.
I will always have that memory emblazoned in my mind for rest of my life.
Jeff