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Old enough for
a new gas mask By Reuven Koret July 5, 2001 We received a note to change our gas mask, so I went with my seven-year-old daughter down to the elementary school gym. Kids were playing nearby. There were just a few soldiers and other parents exchanging their defense kits. "What do we need a gas mask for?" my daughter asked. I didn't want to traumatize her, so I explained that it was just like when there's a fire, you need cover your nose to prevent a bad smell from the smoke. She asked where we would be if there was a gas attack, and I said either in a shelter, or in our house, in a sealed room. I explained what masking tape was, and how we would use it to seal the room. The gym floor was covered with boxes and boxes of masks. Piles of them. There was a display with different mask samples, and I tried to make it humorous for her. I pointed at them. This one, I said, looked like an alien, that one like a pig. My daughter joined in. That one, she said, looked just like a black elephant with a long trunk. A sample of the hooded mask for babies even showed how a bottle of milk could be snapped in place. My daughter liked that one very much. In the end, we reached the front of the line and the female soldier said that our atropine hypodermics against nerve gas had to be changed. Then she asked my daughter's age. When I said she was seven and a half, the soldier said she was old enough to get a youth-sized mask. My daughter was thrilled about being a big girl now. She came out of the gym with a big smile on her face.
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