How Watching A Movie Turned Into A History Lesson For My Kids

Since it is winter, and we live in a tiny apartment, we've been watching a lot of TV lately.  Mostly kid's shows.

Since I was home, and could not take watching another kid's show, we decided to watch an 80s classic: WarGames

The movie stars Matthew Broderick as a teenager obsessed with computers and computer games.  Trying to hack into a silicon valley computer game company, he accidentally accesses a super-commuter at NORAD.  The computer, thinking it is playing a game, starts a countdown to all-out nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

I ended up stopping the movie every couple minutes to explain stuff to them.

Some of the things I had to explain to them:

The Cold War - Born over two decades following the end of the Cold War, they had no idea that, at one time, we were this close to a war that would have wiped out humanity.  I gave them the PG version of the Cold War.  I don't need to get woke up in the middle of the night because they're having nightmares about spies and nuclear bombs.

Nuclear Missile Silos - The movie opens with a couple of USAF missileers (yes, it's what they're called) in their bunker.

NORAD - Once the biggest, most high-tech, bomb shelter in the world.  It's mission was to keep an eye out for Russian sneak attacks and command the counter-attack, if that were to happen.  Now, the facility's primary mission is tracking Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.

Loring Air Force Base - I explained to them that one of the biggest bomber bases in the United States used to be in Northern Maine.

Dialing The Internet - To my daughters, the internet has always been everywhere: laptops, TVs, tablets, and phones.  Even though I had "dial-up" internet when I was a teen, ever since I left my parent's house, I've had some sort of "high speed" internet.

Floppy Disks - I told them they were thumb drives (memory sticks) that stored way less information.

Payphones - Now that everyone has cellphones, we have no need for payphones.  The last payphone that I ever saw was outside a bar I used to frequent.  That phone was removed about 12 years ago.

Honestly, I never realized just how dated the movie was until we watched it.  That being said, it's a classic and if you have not seen it, you should.