What to do when there's no plastic sheeting

[abigailnus <abigailnus@yahoo.com>]

Ah... plastic sheeting.  That takes me back.  Here in Israel, the 
government has had to step in to prevent price-hiking.  My 
mother has been trying to decide which room in our house to 
seal up if and when it becomes necessary - as it turns out, the 
room we used last time around has a porous cieling!

But if you want to trade funny plastic sheeting-related stories, 
I'm afraid I'm going to win.  I was 10 during the first Gulf War, 
and I remeber it mostly as one big joke.  That's a fairly common 
reaction among people my age.  After all, there's so much to 
laugh about - an entire country collectively paralysed for over a 
month, people lugging gas masks wherever they go, the almost 
religious adoration of the then-Spokesperson for the Military, 
whose very face on the TV screen gave you a warm fuzzy 
feeling inside.  And for kids - the fact that the schools all closed 
down, and we'd show up in groups of 5 once a week for a 
"lesson".  The fact that everyone, and I do mean *everyone* 
decorated their gas mask box with wrapping paper or pages cut 
from comic strips.  The special shows they put on all day to keep 
the house-bound kids entertained (Israeli commercial television 
traces its origin directly to the Gulf War).  And for me personally 
- the way my dog used to be in the sealed room before the rest 
of us had even registered the air-raid siren.  The way my mother 
kept us entrertained by making cookies (there's a recipe that we 
all loved so much that to this day was call them Saddam Hussein 
cookies).  The way that, after much coaxing and pleading, I got 
three of my brother's friends to come over, each with a parent 
surgically attached, for his 4th birthday party.  The entire thing 
was an excercise in absurdity.

Well, at least I have something to look forward to.

Abigail