Brother Mine — Dee Phillips

America in the 1950's was a time of great anxiety. There was the constant threat of the hydrogen bomb exploding and a sense of unease became a real part of everyday life. With the possibility of a nuclear war, as the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union escalated, many Americans considered their options of survival. Ordinary Americans, often hiding their actions from their neighbors, created bomb shelters in their backyards in order to survive what seemed at the time an inevitable nuclear attack. They also lived in fear that if an attack did occur, they would be invaded by friends and neighbors seeking shelter when the ‘big one' dropped. So they built their shelters in the dead of night so neighbors wouldn't see, secret places that held the hope of a future in a ravaged world. But, the bombs never fell.

Now, many years later, we can all wonder what really happened to all those backyard bomb shelters that frightened families built? Did they all become wine cellars, or fruit cellars, or have they just quietly filled up with water? Have they really been forgotten?

This is the story of just one of the possibilities…