Though a child is shaped by his parents, siblings, friends, school, religion, and other societal factors, no foundation laid by mankind in a child is immutable. Some are replaced or altered by society as a child grows. However, Almighty God remains the ultimate authority over the course of each individual as dictated by the course a person chooses to take. Though we all go astray due to our will, He lays His own foundations.
Image by author
Many of us who were around at that time remember Conelrad (CONtrol of ELectronic RADiation), a system designed to shut down most broadcast stations to activate emergency broadcasts on either 640kHz or 1240kHz, in the event of a Soviet attack. The radio shown above is from that time era, and you can see a little triangle marking the spot for 640kHz.
While the U.S. would prefer to see democracy come to every nation, the U.S.S.R. thought communism was what everyone needed. To us Americans, communism was a cancer that was spreading.
My relatives would discuss this confrontation. One of my cousins, Robert Maciuta (Robert feels that Maciuta, and not Macinta, is the correct spelling of our surname) served in Korea. Because he knew I liked science and was collecting “rare rocks,” he sent me some interesting stones from Korea, probably gneiss or schist.
The confrontations with the U.S.S.R. helped to fuel ethnic prejudice and distrust within us, though none of us realized it at that time. While my paternal grandparents who migrated here around 1914 might have faced some ethnic prejudice against them at times, we, their descendants, took part in it too. So the words “spic,” “guinea,” “whop,” and “nigger” were commonplace to us. Yes, I forgot “Polack” and the term, “dumb Polack.” However, while we were of Belorussian-Ukrainian descent, we also had Polish roots as well as Lithuanian, German and possibly Jewish. Jewish was according to my Mom but my sister Pat is not sure if she had been joking. It is plausible as one considers the history of eastern Europe.
Getting back to the Russians, I can remember my Dad getting angry a few times about something, striking our low ceiling with his fist and saying, “those filthy Russians!”
Nervous Times
I guess we were a little edgy, but I think I was more so. I had numerous fears, even before I learned that the U.S.S.R. could fry us quick by a nuclear attack on New York City.
Image from the author’s personal collection
Quite scary was a visit to Old Mill Pond (seen above with me in the foreground), which I believe was in Bergen County. I was quite young. I remember I was in the water, took a step forward and went under. It was either my Dad or Mom who rescued me. I would say it was quite providential I did not drown.
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