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A mushroom cloud has tragic consequences for Jerry's wife Mary and her family...
It was a Spring day in 1945. Not unlike the many beautiful days of Spring in New Mexico.Nobody knew it, then, but it would be a day that would change the world forever.
Mary's family was having a "work-day." There was a War on, and if you wanted potatoes,
or any other vegetables, well, you'd better be prepared to grow them yourself......Otherwise,
you were into things like rationing........Nobody argued about the need for all this......The
War had to be won....
Mary's mother took care of the inside of the house......There would be housecleaning and
food preparation to tend to. Her father, Al Kendrick was taking care of the bean crop.
It was only Spring, but the beans were about knee high. Her brother Dick was being a good
farm boy and was helping his dad.......Mary, for her part, was weeding the garden, out about
the radishes and cucumbers.........
Mary's two older sisters were not around........Bertha was probably down at the drug store
flirting with boys, and Jannet was off to school.....She was a college girl.....
None of them suspected a thing when there was a clap of what they thought to be thunder.
Even though the sky was clear, thunder storms do come up suddenly......Then came billowing
clouds from the South and a peculiar cloud that was shaped just like a mushroom.
She'd never seen one like that before, but , oh well, weather is weather, and you've got to
have one kind of it or another.......
Then came the dust, the clouds, and a rain storm......Even her father wondered where that
peculiar weather had come from.
Where it came from was a site in the South of the state called "Trinity" by the government.
It was the first Nuclear Explosion in the history of the world.......Even the scientists in their
concrete bunkers acknowledged that the explosion was at least 3 times as powerful as had
been expected.
Then came the rain. Everyone in the field was soaked to the skin.....and the world would
soon learn a new word "Radioactive" for that was what the rain was.....and the people of
New Mexico started coming down with Cancer.
Public outcry? Indignation? There was none.....The steel hand of government secrecy
descended on the cases......Records were sealed.....on orders from Washington.....Officially?
Well, it didn't exist!
Mary's brother, Dick died first, then her father........After a wait, the 5 bouts of Cancer that
would kill Mary started.........The government, then , said it was all, "Rumors and Irresponsible speculation"
How could anything like Nuclear Bombs contain anything harmful?
Ah, but we are so much wiser today......Why, the government could never get away with such
a thing, now........Or could it?
The truth is, the government is just a bit more sophisticated in dealing with these matters.
Besides, we have so many more people to blame it all on, now.
