Lost and Found

     Those were the days!  It was the 1950's and the Cold War was raging between the United States and the Soviet Union.  School children were issued dog tags defined as civil defense metal identification necklaces.  The threat of nuclear war was so real that these tags were to help the military identify bodies!-as if there would be anything left to identify

     The first dog tags were issued by New York City school districts in 1952.  Children were instructed to wear them at all times. "Duck and Cover" drills were conducted at school reflecting the fear and paranoia of the time.  Students hid under their desks, covering their heads much as they would now for a tornado drill.

     The memory 're-surfaced' so to speak this summer at the Utopia Beach Club when the dog tag of Carole Rossman Price was discovered this summer 63 years after it was first issued.  Name, address, birth date, and religious affiliation  still clearly visible.

     Ironically, just down the street Holy Cross Church was being built as a fortress with extra thick walls and bore the designation of Fallout Shelter.