I WASN'T NEEDED.

   THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5TH., 2019
               I WASN'T NEEDED.

     Tuesday's weekly auction was moved to
yesterday because of the snow storm this week
so we made the trip in the hope of finding a
bargain or two.
      One item half hidden in the Tool section
captured my attention and sparked some
memories. It was a Geiger Counter!
       Many years ago  I volunteered a couple
hundred hours of my time watching the skies
for aircraft as part of The Ground Observer
Corps. It was an attempt to account for all
aircraft flying above the U.S. before radar
protection covered all of our borders.
        When the Corps was disbanded I joined
several other volunteers and enrolled in a
Civil Defense unit trained to check for
radiation after a nuclear attack. That assumed,
of course, that anyone would still be around
after a nuclear attack! And that our group
would be among them.
           We learned how to read Geiger Counters
and carried dosimeters, a device to check the
amount of radiation to which we had been
exposed should an attack have happened.
              We didn't get a lot of press coverage
but I can assure you we had a group in my
hometown, and volunteers in other communities
as well, set to go into the field if the worst
happened!
                You have to remember the "Cold War"
was pretty darn cold back then!
                 I didn't bid on the Geiger Counter.
I think it sold for about 5 bucks.
                  I figured I didn't really have a use
for it, not even for sentimental reasons. Highly
unlikely I'd find any uranium in my backyard
anyway.
                  And I'm glad I wasn't needed back
in the days when it was brand new!
                   Hope all your NEWS is good!