The Cuban Missile Crisis is my first clear memory. I was only 4, but I remember my parents being scared, stocking up on bottled water and canned goods, and then bundling me into the car and traveling 400 miles north from San Antonio to the Texas Panhandle, where my uncle had a farm and they thought we might be safe from from something called atomic bombs.

I remember asking who these Russians were and my mom telling me they used to be our allies and how it was a shame this was happening. I remember seeing Titan missiles sticking up out of the Texas prairie, steam venting from them.

I remember the farm, good food, and a day where all the adults relaxed and then the drive back.

This time, instead of missiles, there were grazing cows. To this day I associate cows with peace. It was this experience which drove me to learn all I could about the Russians, and Cubans, for that matter. And why countries did such things. It never made much sense until I read Marx. THEN I understood why.