American Stories: 1940 - 1960

By Robert Livingston

The three decades spanning the 1940's through the 1960's were influential in creating present day America. Beginning with the Manhattan Project and continuing to the Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon, the country experienced change on an unparalleled basis: the G.I. Bills in the 1940's, the development of suburbia and the supermarket in

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookTrail Publishing
• Release date: Feb 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781953731746

Robert Livingston

Robert Livingston was a high school history teacher in Los Angeles for thirty-seven years. He taught U.S. History and Government, Economics, and Comparative Religions. In retirement he joined a local Kiwanis Club and supervised three high school Key Clubs. He has written four books, each of which explored America's racial history in the military and in our national pastime. He has written extensively on the causes of World War I and the reasons behind Japan's attack at Pearl Harbor.

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Copyright © 2021 Robert Livingston.

Paperback: 978-1-953731-73-9

eBook: 978-1-953731-74-6

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Contents

A FEW WORDS

DEDICATION

CHAPTERS

1.   THE ATOMIC BOMB

2.   THE WORLD WAR II VET

3.   THE G.I Bill

4.   LEVITTOWN

5.   SUBURBIA: CHALLENGES AND CRITICS

6.   ANTENNAS AND SILVER BULLETS

7.   THE GOLDEN ARCHES

8.   FRANCHISING THE COUNTRY

9.   THE MADMAN

PHOTO SECTION A

10.   IKE’S ROAD

11.   DETAILS

12.   THE VIRUS KILLER

13.   THE VIRUS HUNTER

14.   THE MOON LANDING

15.   THE RACE TO THE STARS

16.   DEBTORLAND

17.   BIRTH OF THE VISA CARD

PHOTO SECTION B

18.   THE LITTLE ROCK NINE

19.   POLITICAL VIOLENCE

20.   THE BABE

21.   BASEBALL HEADS WEST

22.   THE BATTLE OF THE RAVINE

23.   THE CHRISTMAS MIRACLE

24.   TRAPPED ON HIGHWAY 101

25.   YEP

PHOTO SECTION C

26.   SECOND PLACE

27.   ORPHANS OF THE GRIDIRON

28.   DECISION IN THE DESERT

29.   NORMAN AND ELEANOR

PHOTO SECTION D

30.   EPILOGUE – IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Other Books by Robert Livingston

THE SAILOR AND THE TEACHER

TRAVELS WITH ERNIE

LEAPING INTO THE SKY

BLUE JACKETS

FLEET

HARLEM ON THE WESTERN FRONT

W.T. STEAD AND THE CONSPIRACY OF 1910 TO SAVE THE WORLD

A FEW WORDS

To Those Who Love History,

The study of American history has always occupied a special place in my life. It was my major in college, and, as a high school teacher, the knowledge that earned me a living. I always considered myself fortunate that I could share this affection with my students and others. And that is what I propose to do now, leaving you with an understanding of America’s social history, 1945-1968. That is my intention.

Usually history is taught in a linear fashion; that is, the discovery and exploration of America precedes the American Revolution, which in turn spins a story before the days of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. What came first is generally taught first. The past is always that which occurred before today. Learning sequentially does have value. What came earlier helps us to understand what came later.

But there are also pitfalls to be avoided. First, there is the question of relevance. How is the past relevant to my life today? Students have always asked this question, and teachers have often struggled to find an appropriate answer. Next, there is the question of value judgments. How should we judge those who came before us? The danger is our tendency to judge others on the basis of our current values. Finally, there is the allure of modernism, and the desire to view our society as somehow more advanced today because of our present technology and science. This is another pitfall to avoid if we are to be passionate but not partisan in understanding the past.

Of course, in a real sense, there is no past in history. The past is always a quiet shadow in our lives. It is a constant companion reminding us that we are never alone. The dinosaurs still rummage around in our brain. Great sheet of glimmering ice cover North America during the most recent ice age. Brave Confederate troops charge across the wheat fields of Gettysburg in our memory, assaulting the Federal soldiers holding the line at Cemetery Ridge. Or we stand hushed and slightly to the left of President Lincoln as he signs the Emancipation Proclamation, our emotions caught up in the moment slavery is abolished. In a later century, we carefully slide down the short ladder attached to the Eagle landing craft just behind Neil Armstrong as he stepped onto the moon.

We are all astronauts in that moment, explorers of the cosmos. As so it goes.

This book will cover the period 1945 through the 1960’s in American history. Why these years? Very simply, there are good stories to be told beyond dry facts, uninspiring dates, and unfamiliar names too often associated with retelling our nation’s narrative. But there is more.

The first years following World War II unquestioningly influenced the world of our parents and grandparents, and, by extension, our lives. All the topics discussed have one common focus: ultimately, they had a positive influence on our society, and our nation was better off because of what took place. As an example… Chapter I, The New Age – The Atomic Bomb describes our entry into the atomic age with the Trinity Test in 1945 in New Mexico. One might ask, given the fact that the test paved the way for atomic bombs falling on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, how this event can be considered positive? But, of course, this leads to other questions. Did the bombs end the deadliest war in history? Did the bombs maintain a post-war period of peace, if not by goodwill, at least by mutual terror? As in all the stories, it will be up to the reader to decide.

Other stories changed our post-war America. The G.I. Bill, a legislative milestone enabling millions to attend college or buy a home (Chapter3 2/3); the advent of Levittown and a sprawling suburban lifestyle, complete with the supermarket, a new concept in grocery shopping (Chapters 4/5); the cultural revolution wrought by television (Chapter 6); the franchising of Golden Arches and the appearance of fast food outlets in every town and hamlet (Chapters 7/8; and the world of in-your-face sales pitches in almost every industry (Chapter 9).

Additional stories deal with our interstate highway system and how it came about (Chapters 10/11); the struggle to end the polio threat in the 1950’s (Chapters 12/13); landing on the moon in the 1960’s (Chapters 14/15}; and the birth of the VISA Card and the origins of a cashless society (Chapters 16/17).

Other stories deal with desegregation of our public schools through the eyes of the Little Rock Nine (Chapters 18/19); the Babe, the most famous female athlete, perhaps of all time (Chapter 20); the migration of major league baseball from the East Coast to Los Angeles and San Francisco in the late 1950’s (Chapters 21/22).

Four stories have a strong ethical twist to them; that is, what does a person do when difficult questions of right and wrong challenge him? Chapter 23 deals with the Korean War and five babies miraculously born at sea as the Cold War exploded in Asia in 1950. Chapters 24 tell the story of one man who fought to save of State Parks in California and the National Parks of the country. Chapter 25 is about a man who rebelled against the Japanese relocation camps of World War II in a most unique way.

The last stories have a definite ethical message dealing with the issue of race. Chapter 26 is about the second man to play in major league baseball in 1947. Chapter 27 is about an undefeated football team that was denied an Orange Bowl game in 1951. Chapter 28 is about the only non-Japanese American to voluntarily enter a relocation camp during World War II. The final story, Chapter 29, is about an artist and an elderly lady who fought racial discrimination.

There are many different topics, each with a story to both entice and enlighten the reader. Hopefully, this will prove to be the case.

Robert Livingston

Northridge, California

September 2019

DEDICATED TO ALL THOSE WHO WANT TO LEARN ABOUT THE PAST

Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.

John Adams

"Freedom is not merely a word or an abstract theory, but the most

effective instrument for advancing the welfare of man."

John F. Kennedy

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

CHAPTER 1

THE ATOMIC BOMB

We live in a dangerous world defined by the existence of nuclear weapons of unimaginable destructive power. The story that follows is about the beginning of the atomic age, which began with the Trinity Experiment in New Mexico in 1945. This was the first test of a device, which, if successful might end World War II through the use of atomic bombs. As a matter of historical fact, they did. The destroyed Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki attest to this.

What follows is the unusual perspective of a Russian spy who witnessed the dawn of a new chapter in human history.

––––––—

The Spy – July 16, 1945 – Midnight – New Mexico

The intruder gazed carefully though his night glasses from his concealed position. It had taken him ten days from Mexico City to reach this hidden perch some 10,000 yards from the steel tower, whose spindly, skeleton-like frame held his rapt attention. He had been fortunate. He had evaded the sentries and the dogs. He had cut his way through the barbed wire and then carefully retied the strands to avoid detection. He had burrowed into the grimy desert sand, lying prostrate as low-flying, single-winged Army planes flew overhead searching for saboteurs or espionage agents.

The intruder wasn’t a saboteur. He wasn’t going to blow up anything. But he was a Soviet agent on a serious mission. He was here in this desolate part of New Mexico to observe and record, and, if his luck held out, reach his contact with the latest information about the gadget, the American code name for an atomic bomb

He didn’t think of himself as a spy, certainly not as a traitor. He was a member of the Communist Party. That was true. He had joined it in the early 1930’s just after graduating from the University of Wisconsin in the midst of the Great Depression. He had wanted to be a science teacher He liked kids. He liked science. The combination was irresistible to him. However, he had not been able to find work. School districts weren’t hiring. Soon he saw the long breadlines and the faces of defeated, forlorn, desperate men, who felt abandoned and forsaken by their government and an economic system that had collapsed all around them.

Like them, he felt a terrible sense of hopelessness. He had seen the hungry children and the tearful mothers, dispirited and homeless folks cast adrift in a world beyond their control. In time he had lost faith in the prevailing political parties. He found himself drifting toward the message of American socialists. From there, he migrated even more to the left, finally finding a home as a Marxist, even as he held one non-descript job after another, including a stint in the Civilian Conservation Corp in New Mexico. A dollar a day, plus three square meals, kept him going.

After Pearl Harbor, he was quickly drafted and served in the Army before being severely wounded in North Africa in late 1943. That ended his military service. He returned to America and finally got a job teaching physics in a high school in Santa Fe. There he taught while remaining quietly committed to the ideals of communism: not the brutality of Joseph Stalin’s Russia, but rather the liberal goals of Karl Marx to create a worker’s paradise. At heart he was a utopian who dreamed of a just world.

––––––—

While visiting Tijuana in early 1945, he was unexpectedly contacted by a Mr. Gold. He was a most secretive man, who seemed to know all about him. He recalled their first conversation.

The Party needs you.

The war is almost over. Why now? Why me?

The Americans are working on something, very secretive, a new type of bomb, we think.

I’m a science teacher.

Exactly and necessarily.

Evasive answers.

Mr. Gold gave me my assignment.

Your codename is George.

And you’re?

Goose. Never my real name, never.

Exactly, what do you want?

You’re versed in chemistry and physics?

Not an Einstein, but educated, yes.

You’re young and fit?

Survived North Africa.

You’re not fearful of danger?

If the cause is worth it, no.

It is.

Mr. Gold had then explained the assignment.

You understand its importance, George?

Yes. But if I’m caught, I’ll be shot as a traitor.

If you are successful, you will be a hero.

Unsung and unknown, Goose?

But a hero nonetheless.

That’s the way the whole business began. Of course, he knew very little about Mr. Gold, his operative. The man didn’t look like a master spy. Physically he was short, a bit plump, not very athletic looking, and unassuming. If he walked into a room, he went unnoticed and was easily forgotten. He had been recruited in the late 30’s and given the code name Goose. Years later an important espionage task was entrusted to him. He was to learn all he could about a secret American war effort to build a super bomb, codenamed the Manhattan Project. To do so, he needed an operative on the ground.

––––––—

Chilled by the night air and hardly daring to move, the intruder remembered the long ride northward to Ciudad Juarez in the battered old Ford pickup. Mr. Gold had driven him there. Dressed as a Catholic priest, he had crossed the US-Mexico border alone and headed for El Paso, where he stayed for two days before continuing on to Las Cruces in New Mexico. His priestly disguise worked perfectly. He was an American priest returning from Church business in Mexico and heading for the small town of Carrizozo. Along the way he would pass through an area called White Sands and the small town of Alamogordo. There he had slipped off the Greyhound Bus and disappeared into the milling crowd at the bus station.

A few days later after making some purchases, he was no longer impersonating a Priest. Dressed and disguised as an old prospector he wandered out into the desert on foot, a heavy backpack straining against his back.

Eventually, he got to the test site.

––––––—

He had watched the beehive of activity for three days now. On July 12th, the core of the bomb had arrived at the test site. He was convinced of that. The next day, he had seen the scientists and technicians working feverishly to assembly the gadget. On the 14th, the weapon had been hoisted up the 100-foot high tower to a small landing platform. Based on what Goose had told him, he knew what was probably happening. Highly skilled and very nervous men were attaching the detonators to the bomb in preparation for the test. Nothing had happened on the 15th. The weather was foul. Lightning split the sky and thunder rolled across the stark landscape. No test, he determined, was possible under these conditions. But toward late afternoon, the weather improved. Instinctively, he knew the test would take place the next day.

The intruder knew the stakes. The information he would give to his handler would make the world safer. That he believed with all his heart. If the test he was about to witness was successful, it was his responsibility to share this information with others. Such a weapon, he believed, should not remain the sole possession of any one country.

Hours later, the test took place. The intruder scribbled into his notebook the following:

On the grounds of the military Trinity Site at 5:29:45 a.m. Mountain War Time, an explosion took place near Alamogordo, New Mexico that would forever change the face of war. I saw the explosion.

Trinity

Trinity was the code name of the first experimental detonation of a nuclear device on July 16, 1945. The test was conducted in the Jornada del Muerto desert (the Journey of Death) about 35-miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, at the Army’s White Sands Proving Ground.

Today the site is known as the White Sands Missile Range. Trinity was the test of a plutonium device informally nicknamed the gadget. The successful detonation of the test weapon produced the explosive power of 20,000 kilotons of TNT, or more than enough power to destroy a city. The date of the test is considered by historians to be the beginning of the Atomic Age.

On August 9, 1945, a device nicknamed the Fat Man, a plutonium bomb, was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, Japan, ending the Second World War. Three days earlier, a first bomb, code-named Little Boy, and using uranium 235 as its fission source, was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

The atomic bomb was now part of human history.

––––––—

Background

The creation of atomic weapons emerged from political and scientific developments of the late 1930’s. Specifically, the rise of Nazi Germany and new discoveries about the nature of the atom influenced the American government to consider funding research for a weapon using nuclear fission. The fear was that a potential enemy, whether Japan, the Soviet Union or Germany, might develop such a weapon first. Of the three countries, Germany was initially most advanced in its research.

The first successful experiments in splitting a uranium atom occurred in the autumn of 1938 at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin. Over the next six months additional discoveries by physicists in many countries led to an inescapable conclusion. Nuclear energy, a new form of energy, could be achieved by splitting the atom. This energy would be millions of times greater than any source known at that time. This energy might be used to generate electric power for peaceful purposes. It could also be used to create a bomb of incredible explosive force.

In conjunction with other scientists, Albert Einstein wrote a letter in 1940 to President Franklin D. Roosevelt alerting the Commander-and-Chief to the potential danger of a conceivable atomic weapon, and advising that the government secure uranium supplies. The underlying assumption was that such a weapon was inevitable.

At almost the same time another letter was sent to Adolf Hitler’s War Office in Berlin. It was written by Paul Harteck, a physical chemist in Hamburg, on behalf of a number of German scientists. He echoed Einstein’s warning. It was possible to build a bomb more powerful than conventional ones. He concluded correctly that the first country to possess such a weapon had a military advantage over its enemies.

––––––—

The Manhattan Project

The American effort was placed under the authority of the Army and became known as the Manhattan Project. The effort was led by two dominant personalities who somehow found a way to work with each other. One was Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, who had administered the construction of the Pentagon, the largest building ever built. He would direct operations with military precision and an obsessive concern for security. His civilian counterpart was a J. Robert Oppenheimer, a brilliant scientist from the University of California at Berkeley, who would direct the challenging research involved in making a workable bomb. Upon these two men rested the fate of the American effort.

The weapons development portion of the Manhattan Project was located in Los Alamos Laboratory in northern New Mexico. It was here that basic research was conducted and, if possible, a prototype bomb would be tested. The scientists at Los Alamos discovered that both uranium 238 and plutonium were fissionable and could be used to make an atomic bomb. At Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a huge processing plant was constructed to separate uranium 235 into uranium 238. At Hansford, Washington, nuclear reactors were built to produce plutonium. The scientists were convinced of the explosive capabilities of uranium 238. They were not so convinced that a plutonium bomb would work in actual use. A full-scale test would be required. In late 1944 a plan was devised for such a test the next year.

One bomb called "the Fat Man’ had been built using processed plutonium. In the laboratories and on the proving grounds, each one of its many intricate components passed repeated tests. There was only one question. When finally assembled as a whole, would the bomb explode? It wasn’t possible to find out with a model in the lab. The only way to find out was to detonate the real thing. For a split second, scientists were going to create on earth something that had not occurred since the creation of the planet, something that no human being had ever witnessed. They were going to create a chain reaction by splitting the atom.

Jornada del Muerto was the perfect place for the test. The government already owned the land, which was flat, unpopulated, desolate, an arid piece of real estate that brought to mind the early Spanish pioneers who had perished there from exhaustion and thirst. It was a place of real death.

Prior to the test, an intricate system of observation posts for recording instruments was set up. The south observation point was the control center for the test. It was built of wood and concrete with dirt piled around it. It was only 10,000 yards from ground zero. Oppenheimer was stationed there along with key project personnel. It was from this location that an automatic firing device would be triggered. A second observation point, the base camp, was located ten miles southwest of ground zero. Most of the scientists and support personnel were located here, including General Groves. The last observation point was at Compania Hill about twenty miles northwest of ground zero. VIP’s were placed there.

The Gadget

The test bomb, as already noted, was called the gadget. It was not called a bomb in order to fool, if possible, espionage agents. That, of course, did not prove possible. For the test, the gadget was lifted to the top of a 100-foot steel tower. A detonation at this height would provide a better indication of how the weapon might actually behave when dropped from an airplane. It was assumed that detonation in the air would maximize the amount of energy applied directly to the target and would generate less nuclear fallout. Before the test, some feared the explosion might ignite the earth’s atmosphere, eliminating all life on the planet, although exhaustive calculations considered this possibility very unlikely.

Other estimates were less wild. The state of New Mexico would be incinerated. The most reliable mathematical figures suggested an explosive yield between 0 (if the test didn’t work) to 20 kilotons (if it did work). Eventually, the final test figures indicated a blast equivalent to 18 kilotons. The state of New Mexico survived the eventual blast, as did the earth’s atmosphere.

The Trinity test was set for Monday morning, July 16, 1945. All the measuring devices were calibrated and in place. The gadget was on the tower, armed and ready for detonation. The scientists and observers were positioned. Everything was checked and rechecked. But there was one worry – the weather. Through the night of July 15th, rainstorms pounded New Mexico. If detonated under these conditions, it was feared that rain and wind would spread dangerous radioactive fallout over populated areas. Already. a heavy wind was blowing off the desert. The steel tower stood out like a lightning rod in the middle of the desert. If cables and wires were exposed to excessive moisture too long, short circuits were possible and a resulting misfire. A $2,000,000,000 project hung on the fickleness of Mother Nature. As one day gave way to another, General Groves decided to postpone the test until the storm passed.

At 2:00 a.m., the weather began to clear. At 4:00 a.m., the rain stopped. At 4:45 a.m., a final weather report changed history: the winds aloft were very light up to 40,000 feet. At the sea level the winds were almost too calm. The humidity was holding at 80% between 12,000 to 18,000 feet. The cloud patterns were breaking up. These conditions might hold for the next few hours.

Detonation

The decision was made to test.

At 5:10 a.m., the countdown began. Over assorted loud speakers and radios, the countdown was heard, first at five-minute intervals, then in minutes, then in seconds. At minus 45 seconds, a switch was thrown that started the precise automatic timer. At ten seconds, the last countdown began… nine, eight, seven… At 5:29 a.m., the gadget was detonated.

What happened next had never been seen before in human history. There was no frame of reference for the observers. The most immediate recollections of the nuclear explosion centered on the light emitted by the blast.

In a brief moment, according to military and scientific observers, the light within twenty miles was equal to several suns at midday. It was seen in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, El Paso, and other points as far as one hundred and eighty miles away.

The light challenged description. The whole county was lit by a searing light with the intensity many times that of the midday sun. The light had many colors – golden, purple, violet, gray and blue. The mountains were illuminated. Every peak, crevasse and ridge was seen with absolute clarity. There was an awesome beauty that was beyond anything moral man might imagine, either in his dreams of paradise or Dante’s Inferno.

In describing the test blast, words were found wanting – beautiful, unprecedented, terrifying, magnificent, stupendous, and tremendous. How do you depict something that has never occurred before in human history?

The closest observers were in general agreement about other aspects of the nuclear explosion. About 30-seconds after the bomb exploded the roar of the blast reached the human ear. It was an awesome sound, long, strong, and continuous, as if all the dragons of our imagination were bellowing at the same moment. For some, it sounded like the wail of a doomsday cry, a rumble that made you feel puny before this newly released force science had tampered with in the arid desert of New Mexico.

For a few seconds time stood still… All of human history focused on the moment. Physics, chemistry, and mathematics had together emulated the Gods. Theoretical studies had recreated Genesis when God said, Let there be light.

Film cameras recorded the Trinity test. First, there was the explosion, a fiery ball of flame that rose into the sky. Within a few seconds the brightness of the flames receded and a huge cloud of smoke was seen. The head of the cloud had the appearance of a mushroom. Continuing to rise, the cloud rose to a height of over 30,000 feet. There the smoke plateaued before the winds began to disperse the ugliness of the cloud.

Certainly, these things were known about the blast. First, it occurred at 5:29:45 in the morning. Second, the sky seemed to ignite. Third, a yellowish-reddish fireball appeared. Fourth, the fireball was brighter than the sun. Fifth, the fireball reached temperature 10,000 times greater than the sun. Sixth, the fireball would ascend eight-miles into the sky. Seventh, night was turned into day for more than a hundred miles.

The test was a success. The plutonium bomb worked. The ‘Fat Man" bomb could be used. The question was now what to tell the public? The blast had been seen all over a good portion of New Mexico. People knew that something unusual had occurred. A press release, prepared in advance, was released at the Alamogordo Air Base. It suggested that a large explosion had occurred on the Air Base. Apparently, a remotely located ammunition magazine containing a considerable amount of high explosives and pyrotechnics exploded. There was no loss of life or injury to anyone. Property damage outside of the explosives magazine itself was negligible. Unfortunately, weather conditions affecting the content of gas shells exploded by the blast might make it necessary for the Army to evacuate a few civilians from their homes. The evacuation would be temporary.

That’s what the public was told. The truth would come out a few weeks later after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed in August 1945. In time the public would understand that a new weapon of unprecedented power ended the Second World War. And they would soon comprehend that a "new age’ was inaugurated.

Aftermath

Today the 51,000-acre Trinity area has been declared a national historic landmark and is open to the public twice a year, the first Saturdays in April and October. The site is now a part of the White Sands Missile Range. Visiting tourists can see where the scientists lived and ground zero where the bomb exploded. A dark obelisk denotes the spot where the first atomic bomb was detonated. Only one small stump of the steel tower remains. The rest was vaporized in the blast. On the ground there is a curiosity – a new mineral called trinitite, green-colored, and glass-like. It was created by the blast from the exposure of the surrounding sand to intense heat. The material is still slightly radioactive to this day, and is the property of the United States Government.

One lingering question remains. Did the Trinity test contribute to a better future for mankind? In answering this question, at least three things can be said: First of all, two atomic bombs ended the worst war in human history. Next, the atomic bomb was no longer a scientist’s dream or an unproven theoretical abstraction. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were all too real. The A-bomb and its successor, the hydrogen bomb, have the potential, if used in anger, to destroy civilization. Indeed, these weapons have the capacity to destroy the human specie. Lastly, according to many historians, it is this very power, however, which has kept the peace. Nations with such weapons in their arsenals cannot use atomic weapons without endangering themselves, either from radioactive fallout or a retaliatory nuclear strike from their enemy. The atomic bomb, it can be argued, has prevented a Third World War by its very existence, leaving us with an uneasy peace.

––––––—

As for the intruder…

He could still hear the blast ringing in his ear. His eyes, initially half-blinded by the flash, were just beginning to focus again. What he had seen from his perch staggered him. A giant mushroom seemed to hover above him, ugly and dirty, a hellish spectacle grinding upward into the morning sky. His skin felt warm and he seemed to have a full-scale sun burn on his hands. And the dust; it was all over him, whitish and grayish, unpleasant to look at. It seemed to cling to his body, finding tiny refuges in his ears and nose, and his hair. He wondered if the dust was radioactive. It must be. He