NTMWD 2025 Summer

Shelter from the storm

by | Mar 24, 2023 | Opinion

My uncle’s mother, Mrs. Ward, had a storm shelter. And I snuck into it every chance I got. Few others had one, so a storm shelter was absolutely fascinating to me.

At least, a storm shelter is what they told all of the kids it was. It doubled as a storm shelter, but it was actually a bomb shelter.

In mid-20th Century America, most kids were kept in the dark about a lot of things, including potential thermonuclear war.

When I was growing up in Ashdown, Arkansas, I thought little of a bomb shelter because adults talked little of the world’s real dangers and risks.

You could say this wasn’t a good idea because even children deserve the truth. But, I’ve come to the conclusion that kids have enough baggage of their own, just trying to figure out how to be who they are. Failing to tell them about every potential problem or illness might actually be doing them a favor.

Kids are smart. The reality of all the bad things will find its way into their understanding soon enough.

Today, adults talk freely about illnesses around children. When I was a kid, that wasn’t so.

The word cancer was whispered back then. Heart problems were minimized. And the reason was simple. Little could be done for a diagnosis of either.

It’s easy to discuss something with a child when you have a good answer to their inevitable question: “What’s going to happen?”

Half a century ago, when someone my family knew had a cancer diagnosis, the person wasn’t minimized, but their diagnosis was. That was because it was almost certainly a death sentence.

The same was true then of heart disease.

In 1978, my grandfather died of the very same heart problem that I would have 37 years later. The difference was advancements in treatment and technology.

He had been told he had a heart problem, but there was nothing that could be done. He’d need to slow down and limit what he did.

Basically, stop living life.

He chose to keep living until his time was up. He also chose to not tell the grandchildren. So, his death took us completely by surprise.

When I had the same issue, I notified my kids, went into the hospital, and in an hour they were rolling me out to the car to go home.

Again, solutions make problems easier to discuss.

Back to the storm shelter. If I’m honest, we kids weren’t too bright. We’d all been through enough southern spring weather that we should’ve realized we didn’t need 100 cans of pork and beans, a port-a-potty, 20 rolls of Charmin, and a case of Deet for the duration of a tornado or a storm.

But you trust the adults to know what they’re doing. If that’s what’s on the shelf downstairs in that small, dank, spider-infested place, then that’s obviously all you’ll need.

Then, we had both tornado drills and bomb drills in school. The latter should’ve helped us realize that the Cold War wasn’t going well.

And how naive were we to honestly believe that curling into a ball under our desk was going to provide any practical protection?

Just like calling it a storm shelter instead of a bomb shelter, the adults were smart enough to know that giving us something to do during an actual crisis would at least make us feel as if we had some control.

By the time I had kids, things were looking up. Vietnam was over, The Berlin Wall fell, Russia and the US began to de-escalate with all the bombs.

But now, things seem to be going the wrong way, again. Bomb shelter sales are on the rise. We’ve seen product shortages. People are afraid.

With social media and the Internet, we no longer live in a Beaver Cleaver world. Kids know what’s happening. Honesty is not only the best policy, it’s now the only policy.

Kids need us to be honest with them. Honest about medical diagnosis, storms, war, pandemics, and anything else that arises.

There’s very little comfort right now. True comfort only comes from a relationship with God. Above all, let’s make sure that we’re honest with the kids about that.

By John Moore

Collin Fall 2025

Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property ET_Builder_Module_Comments::$et_pb_unique_comments_module_class is deprecated in /home/csmediatexas/wylienews/wp-content/themes/Divi/includes/builder/class-et-builder-element.php on line 1380

0 Comments

Subscribe RH Love

Related News

Double time

Double time

Columnist John Moore is on a mission to save old timepieces. He needs your help. Photo: John Moore My friend runs a precious metals shop, selling mostly gold and silver. I was there to discuss those very things when a pocket watch caught my eye. An Elgin. My buddy...

read more
Abbott vetoes THC ban, calls special session

Abbott vetoes THC ban, calls special session

Gov. Greg Abbott just before the midnight deadline Sunday vetoed a bill on THC products and said he would call a special legislative session to regulate products containing the substance. The veto angered the bill’s chief champion, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Abbott’s...

read more
Clutching the past

Clutching the past

Columnist John Moore learned to drive on a stick shift. He still uses a clutch to operate his tractor. Courtesy John Moore One of the necessities of my youth is now one of your best bets to prevent vehicle theft: a stick shift. I watch a lot of YouTube, and...

read more
Polished

Polished

Columnist John Moore still shines his own shoes. As long as he can find the polish to buy. Photo: John Moore In some cultures, people wash the feet of guests who arrive at their home. At my parents’ house, I didn’t wash the feet of guests, but I did offer to shine...

read more
The chain gang

The chain gang

Columnist John Moore misses the old chain stores, one of which, Gibson’s, still exists in Kerrville, Texas. Photo John Moore Online shopping has turned us into couch potatoes who buy more than we ever used to. Adding items to an imaginary cart and clicking, “Buy Now,”...

read more
 A free gift inside

 A free gift inside

Columnist John Moore eats a lot of jelly, but not for the reason you might think. Photo: John Moore My sister and I would make a beeline for the cereal aisle at the Piggly Wiggly while my mom did the shopping.  Decisions, decisions. Did we want to roll the dice...

read more
Jumping to conclusions

Jumping to conclusions

Columnist John Moore finds himself a little lost with new technology. Sometimes lost a lot. Courtesy John Moore Folks aren’t counting on each other like we were 50 years ago. And technology is the wedge that’s come between us. Our parents didn’t worry about us much...

read more
Gardens and Grandma

Gardens and Grandma

Columnist John Moore didn’t like gardens as a kid. That’s changed thanks to his grandmothers. Photo: John Moore As a kid, I hated the vegetable garden. If you stood on our back porch, it was to your left. It took up the entire corner of our large yard. To me, gardens...

read more
Insurance crisis hitting public schools

Insurance crisis hitting public schools

Severe weather from hurricanes and other weather events has not spared the state’s public schools, resulting in skyrocketing property insurance costs, the Houston Chronicle reported. Insurance costs for districts have increased by 44% statewide in the past five years,...

read more
Order photos