Hazard of Radium Clock Hands

[Sandy G]

Here's my "Nooclur combat, toe to toe w/th' Rooskies" story. I think I've told it, but its still a good story I can't vouch for its accuracy, but its still a crackin' good tale. US 11-W passes thru Greater Bugtussle here. Back in the times past, you could go from Canada to Nawlins on it. Now, its just a hardened artery of our nation's past. It has several big old, classic Southern Mansions on it, one of which belonged to a Mrs John Thompson, who eked out a small stipend as an elementary school teacher. Mr Thompson had passed on a long while back. During the War, Mrs T augmented her income by renting out rooms, & fixing a small breakfast for her guests. She developed a pretty respectable clientele, & had quite a few folks who paid her return visits, all thru the War. There were one group of men who always came in threes, usually staying overnight, missing a day or 2, then all three would return, & maybe see her again in roughly a month. Naturally, Mrs T was curious about all this, but she never asked questions. This kept up all thru the war years, & after it was all over with, a few of her guests stopped by & told her good bye. One day, out of the blue, this one bunch of guys stopped by. They were the crew who always showed up in threes. there were 2 of 'em who wore uniforms, the one fellow always wore a suit. He asked her if she'd ever wondered what was going on.... Sure, she said, but it wasn't any of my business.. He asked her if she remembered the night all 3 of 'em stayed in the truck... Yep, I figured it was a big deal. Mrs Thompson, you had most of the Atomic Bomb in your driveway that night, he said.. Here in Greater Bugtussle, they were about a half day's drive to Oak Ridge . They'd spend some time there, go on to some other facility, & then would check back thru in a week or so. So there's my story. I can't confirm it one way or the other, but I knew Mrs Thompson-She was a substitute teacher when I went to elementary skule in the Sixties. She was NOT the kind of person who could ever possibly cook up a tale like that, so I tend to believe its the truth. There was another little old lady who lived here who was a big mucketty-muck in the Women's Air Corps, she bought ALL the spark plugs for the B-24 Liberator, I only got to meet her a time or 2, another sweet little old lady that I got the DEFINATE impression that you prolly DIDN'T wanna cross her. I'm thinkin' she had a pretty high rank, maybe a full-bird Colonel.