An enduring memory from Paul Hockenos’s student days in Berlin was a rugby game in 1986, shortly after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, when a cloud of radiation was passing over Europe.
Everybody had been told not to eat fruit or vegetables that might have been contaminated during the meltdown, and to stay inside, which the students initially ignored.
“In the middle of a game it started to rain, and they [opposing team] just ran off the field. We were just standing there like, ‘what’s going on here? Should we be running too?’”