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hedgehog

(36,286 posts)
Tue May 29, 2012, 11:54 AM May 2012

Those of us of a certain age, share your experience of our friend, the Peaceful Atom!

After WWII, there was a big push to assure people that radiation wasn't all that bad, so it crept into a number of uses that make one cringe today:

My sister and I both had birth marks taken off our legs with some sort of radiation - I was left with a small scar, she was left with a patch of scarred, burned skin the size of your palm.

I can also recall seeing vans where you could get a walk-in chest X-ray to check for TB!

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Those of us of a certain age, share your experience of our friend, the Peaceful Atom! (Original Post) hedgehog May 2012 OP
You could go down to the shoe store Downwinder May 2012 #1
I remember those fluoroscopes really well! Mairead May 2012 #2
Those used to be made here in Sheboygan. Archae May 2012 #6
My Dad contracted TB (it was a popular disease) Mairead May 2012 #3
I remember the promise of limitless, inexpensive power and cheering as we passed San Onofre... slackmaster May 2012 #4
As I kid I had a watch with radium-painted numbers... cthulu2016 May 2012 #5
My mom had xrays when she was pregnant with me. Brickbat May 2012 #7
 

Mairead

(9,557 posts)
2. I remember those fluoroscopes really well!
Tue May 29, 2012, 12:51 PM
May 2012

It was simply fascinating to watch my very own toe-bones wiggle. I could have stood there and watched them for hours (and not had any feet by now, probably).

Archae

(46,262 posts)
6. Those used to be made here in Sheboygan.
Tue May 29, 2012, 01:00 PM
May 2012

When the dangers of radiation became apparent, (I wonder how many shoe salespeople got cancer?) the company quickly folded.

 

Mairead

(9,557 posts)
3. My Dad contracted TB (it was a popular disease)
Tue May 29, 2012, 12:55 PM
May 2012

and it seemed to me that we kids had to troop down to the hospital and have a chest-xray every month (it probably wasn't that often, but it seemed like it) for years after.

 

slackmaster

(60,567 posts)
4. I remember the promise of limitless, inexpensive power and cheering as we passed San Onofre...
Tue May 29, 2012, 12:56 PM
May 2012

...on our way to Disneyland, where we were encouraged by the prospect of flying cars, robotic servants catering to our every whim, a 30-hour work week, and the Picture Phone, all by the year 2000.

One out of five isn't so great.

cthulu2016

(10,960 posts)
5. As I kid I had a watch with radium-painted numbers...
Tue May 29, 2012, 12:59 PM
May 2012

...and we had some very, very, very, very beautiful glow-in-the-dark icicle Christmas tree decorations. Also powered by radium.

(It is incredibly beautiful... a deep crystalline blue, not the yellow-green of that safe glow in the dark stuff.)

I think the painters of glow-in-the-dark watch faces (with radium paint) were the first cases recognized of the problem. Painting those tiny numbers on a watch is close work and one has to continually "point" the brush in her mouth while working.

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