I'm Italy Mone and this is the slowdown.

When I was a child, we were always obsessed with the photos of missing kids on the milk

cartons.

We'd be pouring milk over our great nuts or Cheerios and we'd lock eyes with a kid

who was gone and feared to be missing forever.

The missing children milk carton program started in the 80s and moved into the 90s before

it was discontinued.

What I remember most is how the small act of witnessing the missing child would change

our mourning.

Would make me think of someone out there alone.

Just as small as me.

It was hard to start the day that way.

The recognition of danger of fear.

During the 80s, we were surrounded by the idea of stranger danger and abduction.

We were told to hug trees if we were lost.

We were told never to talk to strangers.

And still, the new faces on the milk cartons would come.

And the worst is, sometimes the same boy on the carton was seemingly on the carton

forever, a strange purgatory you were met with each morning.

Safety was always on our minds.

We walked together, we never spoke to strangers, we kept our wits about us, and still we were

reminded every day that danger was all around us.

...