This is my father's side of a phone conversation. I asked him about the nuclear tests that occurred in the 1950's just a few miles from his home, specifically timed while the wind was blowing away from Las Vegas - and towards St. George, Utah.
"My boss, Art Crosby, was out looking for uranium
[that day], he thought he’d get rich quick. Wave of the future.
"He left his Geiger counter sitting on his desk [at the gas
station]. I set it to its lowest setting and the needle just slammed against
the stop. I thought I’d broken it. And that was inside. The government came
around and gave news conferences telling everyone not to worry...but they also
offered to wash everybody’s car.
"I stayed inside. I didn’t go out much those days. The
president of Dixie college in those days had been a biology teacher and an
outdoors guy, best teacher I ever had, and he took his family out on some
mountains like 40 miles closer to ground zero to watch the explosions, get up
at 3 o’clock in the morning.
