A story of recent Chorlton in 20 objects nu 2 ......... A badge

It was at the height of the second Cold War when there was a growing feeling that the world was a less safe place.

Relationships between the two super powers had entered a more hostile phase.

This was only in part due to the election of hard line politicians in the west and the elevation of equally conservative leaders in the Soviet Union but also to events across the world where the USA and USSR were engaged in a new round of support for proxy governments.

What made it all the more dangerous was that a new generation of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems had come on stream just as the Cold War deepened and hardened.

The US cruise missile which was being deployed in Britain and West Germany took just 15 minutes to reach its targets in the USSR while American Pershing missiles and the Russian equivalent took just 4 minutes from launch to detonation over the cities of Europe.

So there we were in the Rec on a hot day listening to music, engaged in some politics but above all just relaxing with friends and family.*

It all seems a long time ago and despite the continual conflicts around the world, nothing quite prepares you for a world where the obliteration of millions of people in a nuclear instant were a background to everyday life.

And for those of us who were aware of the crisis in the October of 1962 when the USA and the Soviet Union faced each other in an all too scary brinkmanship it now seems all faintly surreal, including that chilling concept of Mutual Assured Destruction.

So twenty or so years later when it all seemed to be heading the same way again, badges and festivals were a natural response.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson & Tony Walker

*Dangerous times and peaceful protests http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/dangerous-times-and-peaceful-protests.html