After the Brief, Hot Summer Comes the Long Cold Winter

63 Replies
winter-street-dale

PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson

Ours was an out of the way town.  We never learned to “duck and cover” knowing nobody would be so silly as to bomb us.

You know what? they were right.

I remember the night when over 4,000 fireballs, each hotter than the sun, grew over most of the northern hemisphere’s cities and military instillation with an equivalent of over four billion tons of TNT.

But our town was spared.  Not a kiloton exploded within 100 miles.

A few weeks of hiding in the cellar when the sky rained death, and everything looked fine.

Until the snow came in July.

***

Yes, a nice, happy little tale ;)  I recently watched “The Day After” and “Threads”.  I read an article that the danger of an accidental nuclear war is now higher than it has ever been, even during the cold war.  When people talk nuclear weapons, they talk about the 60 kt bombs used in WWII, not the 1 or 2 mt thermonuclear devices that would hit our cities.  Anyway, with that cheerful thought…

***

Word count = 100

Friday Fictioneers is hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields.  This week’s prompt is here and uses a photo © Dale Rogerson.  Read more or join in by following the InLinkz “linky“.

63 thoughts on “After the Brief, Hot Summer Comes the Long Cold Winter”

  2. Dawn Quyle Landau

    The Day After! Now that’s an oldie… but very upsetting. I remember that we were all warned that it might in fact cause emotional breakdowns. Now, I imagine, it looks a bit dated… like your story, it’s a sobering reminder that the world is full of risks. World peace is something I dreamed of, only as a child. Nice job, Trent.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Sorry, I somehow missed your comment from a month ago. In some ways The Day After was very dated. Besides the clothes and language, it had that odd late ’70s made for TV vibe to it. In ways it is still relevant – we decreased the numbers of weapons slightly, but there are still more than enough to destroy every city in the northern hemisphere.

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        1. trentpmcd Post author

          There were things that I caught as an adult that I missed as a kid which made it a little “scarier”. As far as the attack, although part of it was well done, in ways the British version, Threads, was “better” since it took place much closer to were the bombs actually struck. Of course, at the end of The Day After, they went to Kansas City and there was nothing – a metro area of over a million people gone, nothing, not a building, a few bare walls, no people. I missed that as a kid.

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  3. Fatima Fakier

    Snow in July really does switch things up a bit! I didn’t realise accidental nuclear threats loomed over us. Thanks for giving me something to worry about in those moments just before I close my eyes at night and my brain offers up random paranoid scenarios ;)

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  4. Margaret

    A grim story. I like how you had the people believing that no-one would take any notice of their little town. Illustrates the point well – everyone would be involved in such a scenario.

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. 4963andypop

    I remember seeing that movie the Day After in high school. And reading a lovely photo book with scenes from Hiroshima and Nagasaki years before that. Its weird that it took two world wars to come up with a weapon we dare not use. Most of us, anyway. Nice tale, maybe a bit too real.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks. I hope we dare not use it forever more…. Back in the day we stayed a little more on top of what these weapons could do while most people today have no idea. We don’t need to be paranoid like we were but a little knowledge is good.

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  6. gahlearner

    Lovely, happy little story you wrote there. :) And you’re absolutely right. ‘They’ tried to tell us that nuclear winter was an exaggerated threat but not so, it’ll be a lot worse than originally estimated, with the kinds of weapons that exist now. Not a great way to counteract global warming…

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I grew up during the cold war as well and, yes, we all knew that it was possible. I don’t think we need to be as paranoid about it, but I think people should think about more than they do…

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  13. patriciaruthsusan

    Good story though very dark, Trent. I remember when they used to build bomb shelters. They didn’t tell us where we would escape the year of radiation afterward. Bomb shelters are for regular bombs, not the big ones. Good luck on surviving after a big one. :( — Suzanne

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I remember in my college days reading that the temperature in any bomb shelters in the city where I was living, Columbus, Ohio, would be above boiling if a 1 megaton bomb went off over center city. Nope, not for the big bombs…. Thanks.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Yep, something for nice, pleasant dreams ;) Not that the stable genius in the White House would ever think of starting a nuclear war (OK, now you won’t sleep for a month….)

      Like

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  16. granonine

    There is no period in history in which war and/or the threat of war somewhere in the world does not exist. . I believe the only thing that keeps world leaders from unleashing the dreaded nuclear weapons is the fear of retaliation that could destroy

    Liked by 1 person

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    2. trentpmcd Post author

      You are right that there are always wars and I agree about why they restrain from using nuclear weapons. The article I read went into great depth about why accidents are so likely today and it all made sense when I read it, but of course I forget now…

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      After a few years without a growing season things should start looking up! No more worries about single use plastics or anything else like that…Higher rates of cancer, infertility, etc., oh well, goes with the territory ;)

      Liked by 1 person

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  25. J Hardy Carroll

    Something about a winter scene when winter has just retreated seems to put people in mind of war, death, murder, starvation, and homelessness. Go figure. Well done on the story, though. I’m going back to bed.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I’m not sure why this photo seems to have brought up a lot of dark images. perhaps, as you said, we just left winter and now this… Yeah, I think going back to bed and pulling the covers over my head is called for…

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