Dystopic short story "A day at the Beach" whereby in the new future a proportion of motorists ( and their families ) are gassed to death to solve the population explosion . Author and details ?

star_gazer

I found what seems to be this short story on a "Lost Zombie" web site. The name of the author is not given. http://www.lostzombies.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2035037%3ABlogPost%3A766364&commentId=2035037%3AComment%3A766365&xg_source=activity Mar 31 12, 6:58 AM

Datsmeharse

I can't find a specific description of the plot beyond this discussion: http://www.strangehorizons.com/2011/20110530/emshwiller-a.shtml but Carol Emshwiller's "Day at the Beach", first published in 1959 in "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" sounds correct, as one source referred to it as "Shirley Jackson channeling Judith Meril", which matches your description of the plot. That issue's cover: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?60992 Mar 31 12, 10:20 PM

Baloo55th

I've got it in a collection somewhere. The cars coming back from the beach have to pass through a tunnel, and gates shut in front of the car that the story focusses on. The occupants seem to know the people in a car in front (which is in the tunnel, and shut in for the gassing), but seem emotionally rather unconcerned about the whole thing. Just looked for it - it's in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov_Presents_The_Great_SF_Stories_21_%281959%29 but my copy is currently inaccessible. It's a very chilling little story, made more so by the calm telling, and the passive waiting in the queue for the tunnel to be cleared so that everyone (outside) can go home again - until their next day out. Can also be found in "SF: The Best of the Best" edited by Judith Merrill. Baloo's library of 1500+ is a bit disorganised at present because of a shortage of shelving, and books are out of their correct placing by author, while the anthologies seem to be hiding. Apr 01 12, 7:17 AM

Baloo55th

Thinking on, it could be that the car in question has got out of the tunnel, but the neighbours were trapped. This would make the occupants thankful to have avoided the wait for the clearing of the tunnel, but still accepting it as one of those things. They'll go back to the beach another day. I'll keep a look out for the mag or the book. Apr 01 12, 8:30 AM