True Stories (Chico)

In the late 1950’s when I was working in the traffic department of CalTrans in Marysville, I was taking a traffic in a little triangular park at the south end of the Chico business district where the one way streets came together.
I was sitting in a canvas chair with a counter board and was recording the movements of traffic through the intersection, when I became aware of someone looking over my shoulder. When I turned to the right, I noticed this “little old lady” looking at what I was doing.
“Are you getting much radiation from those cars” she asked with a serious inquisitive look on her face.
“What was that?” I answered.
She said that she had read that, due to the above ground nuclear testing in southern Nevada, fallout was causing a buildup of Strontium 90 on the roofs of cars.
I told her that I was just taking a traffic count for a traffic light study and showed her how as each car approached the intersection, going straight through or making a turn, I would push the tally counter button corresponding to that particular movement for later use in determining the types of traffic signals and signing.
She smiled as she turned to walk away and said, “I know, you can’t talk about it!”>