I found out from a cousin this weekend that many people on my dad's side [View all]

of the family are "Downwinders" who watched nuclear tests in the 50s in the remote area of NV where they lived; who saw the clouds, who saw the fallout come glittering down and covering vegetation, who played outside and got radiation burns as small children, and who have suffered multiple cancers.

My own father, who died of cancer very young, drove under the cloud of fallout while traveling home to visit his parents. My grandmother eventually died of lung cancer. My grandfather would have if farmer's lung hadn't got him first.

You hear about these things in the news and it sounds bad enough. And then you realize that it happened to your own family.



ETA: Now I am wondering what role my dad's radiation exposure might have played in some physical abnormalities my sister and I have.