By Bruce Schlabaugh

It was 1955 and I’m 8 years old walking to school with my Cub Scout uniform on. It was a three block walk which gave me ample time to worry about what I would do in the case of a nuclear attack.

We were told that if the air raid siren went off while we were in school, we should drop to the floor and hide under our desk.

This is how we could avoid the deadly flash. I realize how lame that plan was.

People all over the country were frightened about “The Bomb.” Some people took it a little further and constructed private bomb shelters in their backyards. You could take your family down a few steps where there were many comforts of home. You could hide out there for a few weeks.

This was also a place where we would not starve. It had loads of canned foods and water stacked on shelves. Unaware of this at the time but there must have been rolls of toilet paper stashed in that underground bunker. I wonder if any of the old bomb shelters are still in existence.

Now we are under a different kind of threat from the COVID-19. Still we are taking extra measures to insure our family safety during this perilous time. But do we really need to hoard toilet paper?

In the future, will builders add toilet paper sheds to new construction, with padlocks to prevent them from being pilfered by our paperless neighbors?

So here we sit watching sports reruns and old movies instead of the nonstop COVID-19 casualty count. Our family has developed a home gym with weights and a treadmill. We are taking some long walks in the sunshine to break the monotony.

As our family, including EmmyLou, shelters in place, I am thankful that spring is beginning to return with warmer weather. The Iris plants are popping up around our office as well as our front yard. Also because my clothes dryer just died we can hang clothes to dry outdoors! I find myself walking around the house making a mental list of home improvements to be done during this enforced down time.

There is something about this country that says, “We will get through this together.” There is something about the Life After 50 staff that affirms we will continue to monitor the local situation and keep all our readers informed. This issue has several ways we can cope with being house-bound and what facts and realities go along with this disconnect from society.

We may not print a traditional issue in May because many of our distribution outlets are closed. We will be online with a May version of Life After 50. Visit www.lafifty.com to read it online, have it emailed to you or keep tabs on our Facebook page.