Shelter Question

 

For Christmas 2007 my Mom and I took my Sister-In-Law, my Nephew and my Niece to London, England and Edinburgh, Scotland – we had been there many times before, but it was their first time. Their Father (my Brother) was deployed in either Iraq or Afghanistan and we wanted to help take their minds off of things.

We planned a bunch of fun things: ice skating at the Tower Of London, going to Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, seeing “The Lion King” on the West End, seeing Santa at Harrold’s, ice skating at Edinburgh Castle, going on a cruise of Loch Ness, seeing Santa at a Scottish Aquarium, etc.

While walking around we saw this picture on the street. My 6 year old Niece asked me what it meant. I gave her a brief explanation of what an Air Raid was and why there was once a need for Air Raid Shelters – many years ago. I didn’t want to go too much into the bombings and War since it was Christmas and we were trying to distract them from their Father being at War.

My Niece then asked if I had to go to an Air Raid Shelter when I was younger. I told her I didn’t because it happened decades before I was born. A few moments later she then asked me the following: “Surely, Grandma was old enough to go to a Shelter?”

That made me laugh. I explained to her that her Grandma (my Mom) wasn’t born when an Air Raid Shelter was needed. At 6 years old, my Niece just couldn’t fathom that. Soon enough we came upon a big public Christmas tree and everything else was forgotten.

My Mom and I did other trips over the years to help them as well as to have fun with them. We went to: Costa Rica, we had them come visit us here in NH and took them to Upstate New York, we took them to New York City one Christmas, we took them to a Dude Ranch in Colorado, we took them to Sea World and had Easter Dinner with Shamu, etc.