This is my view of the end of the world.
I was born in 1955 and grew up in Silver Lake, a small idyllic suburb of Akron, Ohio. If you looked out the picture window of our house this was the picture you saw. It was the big grass playground of the elementary school visible on the left. I miss that view. The sky dominated. Weather. Lightning storms, wind, huge towering cumulonimbus. To a small child the never ending sky was timeless. It was the reality that held all else in the overturned palm of it's hand.
In October of 1962 I stared at that sky and imagined the rising, rumbling mushroom clouds that would be the tombstones of Cleveland, Youngstown and Pittsburgh. Over my right shoulder was Akron, targeted with at least 5 to 20 megatons. Akron's blast wave would arrive a few seconds after the flash wiping Silver Lake from the surface of the planet. But my imagination was concerned with the targets to the East and North. They were much farther away and from this view the giagantic mushroom clouds might be seen.
Then it was time for supper.
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charming little site that shows the rings of annhilation for your home town- select Akron and, oh what the hell, let's go for it and select the 50 meagaton Tsar Bomb!http://www.carloslabs.com/node/16
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