Like many Americans, I have been watching the video footage from Lebanon showing civilians trying to escape the Israeli bombings. The reportage reminds me of something I heard when I was kid.
When I was young both my parents worked and they would hire a full time maid to watch me during the day and help out with dinner and the dishes at night. Among the different maids who worked for my family when I was between the ages of three and six, one was an old Chinese woman who used to tell me stories about different things she experience when she was younger. One of her stories was about civilians fleeing from the path of the invading Japanese army during World War II. She said some parents would buy their children a popsicle and use it as a distraction to abandon them on the side of the road.
Her story was one of those very disturbing things you heard when you were a kid that stays with you forever. I would love to find out whether it actually happened or not, although the likelihood of me finding a reliable answer either way is remote.
It goes without saying that I became extremely suspicious every time my parents offered to buy me a popsicle.
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