Blogs

I've lived in Northern California all my life just about, with a small stint on Grandfolks Cherry farm in Salem Oregon.....in the late 60s.

I've never lived in Southern CA. But that made it no less so shocking to learn of this particular part of our history here, which I simply did not know about.  --I'm not even sure how I did come to find out about it just three weeks ago...it may have crossed my ears in a news blurb on the tele .. to the computer I went, and googled it up "Santa Susana"...this song, the result......And lot's of reading...My way of processing the mind boggling info, is to say my two cents worth. Sometimes I wish I were not a naturally curious sort, who loves to learn. Sometimes learning, is not nice.

Most of the facts in this song, based in truth, gleaned in a course of research, online. The numbers do conflict (because "no one can agree"). "458 times"  is also found in articles as 240 times (higher radiation than Three Mile Island) I've written about two separate events within the song, one occurring in July '59 (reactor meltdown). and the other in 1994 (explosion from illegal waste burning resulting in the death of two men, injury of a third.) However,...there were even MORE mishaps in connection with this site. And coverup. Will we learn by our mistakes? I'm a parent, and so I certainly hope so. The next generation and all those thereafter and so on, depend upon it.

 In 1959 I lived in Redding CA. Some of my first "remembered" events were seeing shockingly beautiful and brilliant summer sunsets in what I'm fairly certain would have been the year of 1959. I have exactly 4 memories that took place in 59. At age two you don't remember alot!!  These sunsets were epic, not average skies--they were RED, Orange, Purple!! ...now I wonder,,,,perhaps they were radioactive sunsets? Modern day pollution here, rather than going West to East, and depending on the prevailing winds....sometimes travels South to North...mountain ranges penning it the flow, perhaps. I likely have slide captures of those sunsets, in the basement......(my G'ma a photographer)....she loved to learn, as well.

My heart goes out to the countless people who have been directly affected, are ill or who have lost family members, sometimes multiples! and the countless others who perhaps don't even know yet, that they were exposed. And the many who will never know justice or reparation. The "things you knew" refers to the overseers in charge, employees who as government employees could not speak about the nature of their jobs, they were sworn to secrecy. There are some Santa Susana lab techs still living who have lent eye witness accounts of the meltdown in '59. The "things you knew"  also refers to the very buildings themselves which have been torn down and taken away..(destroy the evidence?)...and the chemical contaminated dirt of the mountain itself which is undergoing "cleanup"....I read that truckloads of dirt have been trucked north, to Kern County......nice. And the controversy continues to this day as to the methods to clean up the site which is now not in operation. .

the Wikipedia page is a good read and place to start as well as simply googling it, there a wealth of info out there....
this educational vid is fairly concise, too:

History Channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRdC5I0Yn2k&feature=player_embedded

Facebook page connecting survivors, with links to "cancer map"
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Secrets-of-the-Santa-Susana-Field-Laboratory/337364244819

Slap in the face by Boeing:
http://www.boeing.com/aboutus/environment/santa_susana/healthstudy.html

a SSFL employee's account:
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2009/jul/12/field-lab-meltdown-50-years-later-delayed-59-for/

I'm no activist.....this is my say, my 2 cent "take" on a tiny part of the big old world.....
In looking back at my Mom's lifetime of produced artwork, I, as well as my Dad noted the somber and
almost depressed style she painted in, in the late 50s early to mid 60s...the "cold war and assassination era"
.....she was troubled in her heart and, and it never surfaced in word, but on canvas, it did. A little like my mom,
my "troubledness" is exorcised in song. Post war many were in a race for power, a race for space, likely the root of all evil=$$$ a cause for the push, too!!!

.....and California was a player, paying a huge price, to play.

I promise, a happier subject next time....!!

"Santa Susana"(the things you knew)

Where were you in July  of 59?
I was a wee lass of only two......
Out here in the West
They were experi-menting .....
Oh Santa Susana the things you knew , you knew..
Santa Susana the things you knew, you knew...
Oh.............

Your Safety is our business, is what the
Cap he wore, it said
Atomics International led the race
N.uclear E.nergy R.esearch and
D.evelopment
You can call it NERD
Let me lay some truths on you
Some things you may not
Have ever heard..........

It was a hot day, at the Hot Lab
That sad day in July...
No containment structure meant
The particles could fly
Mayday mayday meltdown!
It was the battle cry
Fire in the fourth reactor
Cap it lest we die,
Lest we die,..
Oh..........

They named it worst in US  history,
But I did not know it
Did you, did he, did they,...did she?
Did you know it?
mostly it was hushed and covered
till cover it they could no more
Boeing paid up 30 million
then stepped outside the
courtroom door
for plaintif Margaret-Ann
it shoulda been
shoulda been, much more,
much more, much more
oh............

458 times over, the
Radiation count
Higher than Three Mile Island's
later tallied score
The open air sodium burn pit
it was no Bar-B-Que........
22 out of 27,
of that government lab coat crew,
oh
22 died of their cancer,
I'd say that's quite a few,
Wouldn't you?
Oh .................

Oh RocketDyne, Oh RocketDyne
some how it don't seem so fine
That you'd ignite all those barrels
Full of waste
Doing their job there, in that place
Up went Mr Heiney, and Mr Pugh
they were blown to kingdom come, whoa
the sacrificial few
 whoa oh

You can't undo that
Which cannot be undone
It's the gift that keeps on giving
Nowhere to hide
And nowhere to run
Can it ever be, can it ever be forgiven?
The price to pay, it's an unknown
On which no one can agree
Zero to Eighteen Hundred
Is what the Sooths have shown ,
We'll see, we'll see, We'll see, Won't we?

Where were you in July of '59?
I was a wee lass of only two......
Out here in the West
They were experi-menting .....
Oh Santa Susana the things you knew , you knew..
Santa Susana the things you knew...you knew
Oh,..........

Copyright
LaurieLeeC
Nov 16th 2011