I Read the News Today, Oh Boy
CUBA ORDERED QUARANTINED - Soviet Retaliation In Berlin, Other Points Hinted - Reds Abed When JFK Hits Cuba - Security Council Session Requested - President Orders Cuba-Bound Ships Stopped, Searched - Organization Of American States Meets In Emergency - Airbases In Arizona Put On Alert - Moscow Charges Caribbean Action Is 'Provocation'

Those were the headlines in The Bisbee Daily Review on Tuesday, October 23, 1962. Things looked pretty tense, didn't they? Of course, that was a very long time ago. In fact, it will be exactly 45 years ago this month, and right in the thick of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Fortunately the world made it through without a nuclear war.

I actually have this newspaper from that time. Now (finally) neatly framed. You may notice that it features a typical American family on a little sightseeing jaunt to the local Lavender Pits, which was a giant hole in the ground where they mine copper. The odd thing is that this is my family... that's my Mom and Dad, sis and bro, and me the littlest of the bunch. I don't remember much of it, but there was an interview and a photo taken, and we were on the front page the next day.

Now it has a strange, Twilight Zone quality to it as I look at it. Dad even resembles Rod Serling to me. "Submitted for your approval... the world is on the brink of nuclear war... but somewhere in Arizona a family is on vacation..."