This is Not a Drill

October 22: The terrorists were threatening mayhem since before our trip. It worried Mom, but we didn't give it a second thought. For one thing, we were in London, and their hijinks were planned for France.

We descended into the rooms used by the British government during World War II.  Prime Minister Winston Churchill didn't like it there, preferring to be above-ground with his people.  One of his typical argument strategies was pretending to go deaf when someone said something he didn't agree with.  But that didn't work here, since the entire cabinet was forced underground for defense.

Life was cramped, with tedium broken only by the constant work of running the war. We saw map rooms, bunks and equipment necessary for winning the war. A special locked door tagged as a restroom could only be used by Churchill. This convinced everyone that he rated a private bathroom -- a luxury when several people needed to share limited facilities.

Actually, the room contained a phone -- the first hot line to the U.S. President. There, both Churchill and Roosevelt could discuss their plans in absolute secrecy.

About half of the museum was devoted to Churchill's personal life. For example, he was the son of a British lord and an American heiress, who mostly ignored him as he was shipped off to boarding schools.

Just as I was about to delve deeper into his post-war career, the lights suddenly went out. Then, dim emergency lights came on.

A member of the staff came out and asked us to sit tight. They would make a decision on whether to close the museum as soon as they found out what was wrong. In the back of my mind, I wondered if terrorists had carried out their threats. The uncertain atmosphere gave us a taste of what World War II must have been like down there.

I used my mini-LED flashlight to illuminate some of the display cases. But since most of the exhibits were interactive and computer-controlled, we could do very little but sit and wait.

Eventually, the staffer came out again and apologized for closing the museum. A substation went out and the entire neighborhood was dark. We would need to get tickets to return or refunds.  We chose the latter because we were leaving for France the next day.

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