Derek Clontz

Archive for April 8th, 2008

Carolina man has been holed up in a bomb shelter since 1962 – and he won’t come out

In 1000 years of peace, 5 minutes of fame, 9/11, Can this be true?, Satan's corner, amazing feats, anxiety treatments, apocalypse, armageddon, bin laden, chinese missile threat, end of the world, end times, freaks, gee whiz, hey, human behavior, iranian missile threat, judgment day, mabel, military weapons, odd, offbeat, office talk, outrageous, paradise on earth, psychology, stir fry, straight poop, survivalists, terror threat, terrorism, trivia, war, wild world, world peace, world war 3 on April 8, 2008 at 7:20 pm

Copyright (c) 2008 Derek Clontz/4-Page Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Thomas Barsley has lived in a steel-reinforced, food-stocked bomb shelter since 1962 – and he sees no reason to come out now.

The 72-year-old man from Whiteville, North Carolina, says fears of a nuclear war between the United States and the former Soviet Union convinced him that moving into the basement shelter 46 long years ago “was a smart thing to do.”

“The Soviet Union isn’t a threat anymore but now we’ve got terrorists,” Barsley told me exclusively via the ham radio he uses to stay in touch with “people on the surface.”

“I think I’ll stay put,” he added. “I think I’m better off right where I am.”

Barsley says he’s left the 1,200-square-foot shelter with running water and toilet facilities just once since locking himself inside on May 28, 1962.

“I walked outside in 1989 to see how much the world had changed, and it hasn’t changed much – it’s still a dangerous place,” he says.

“I enjoyed seeing my sister, though. She still lives upstairs in the house.”

Advertisement

Stock your house – or bomb shelter – with healing herbs from The Best Little Herb Company in America*: Susan’s Herbs. You’ll be glad you did.

* Awarded by The Independent Herbalist .