Q: What goes through your mind when I say Friday?
MP: First of all, I call it Black Friday. We thought everything was getting
better but, boy, there was the Associated Press story of the, I think it was a
2,000 millirem release over the plant. And that sounds like a big number, and
unfortunately most of us in the media at that time, at least the local media,
had no clue about nuclear power, so that was scary in itself. You get Jack
Herbein from the utility company who's kind of arrogant and during a news
conference in Middletown says, "I don't understand why we have to tell you
people every specific thing that we do." Well, why not, Jack? You know, we
only live here, and you may kill us here before you're all finished. And then
the Governor comes out, and says at about midday that day, a -- first they said
stay indoors, because of this release of radiation. Stay in, keep your windows
closed, keep your door closed, stay indoors. And that's scary enough. So now
we're thinking this is serious. And then, pregnant women, preschool children
should leave the area. And our phones are ringing like mad. And I remember
the general manager of the radio station comes in, he says, what will we do? I
said, why don't you answer the phones, Al, just answer the phones. And here's
the general manager sitting there answering the phones.
That evening before sundown, I went out back of the capitol and was talking to
some of the capitol police, some of my friends who used to let me park for
free, in the capitol parking lot. And we're standing up in the back of the
capitol and of course we're all talking about this. And I'm looking in the
sky, and I know this is kind of dumb, but I just remember the sky was the
strangest colors, of purples and oranges and deep blues and it was a really
weird sky, and we remarked upon it, how strange the sky looked. It almost
reflected the emotional turmoil that we were feeling over what was going on at
Three Mile Island. So that's what comes to mind when I think of Friday, or
Black Friday as I call it.
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