Man, I love how paranoid people were...

[WildThing121675]

While goofing on Youtube tonight, I found this one... LOL. I have heard of this, and somewhere on my vast audio collection I have a copy of this duck and cover song. WOW. People REALLY thought the bomb was going to happen. It's funny really.

YouTube - Atomic Bomb - Duck and Cover

I am not too worried about nuclear war, or terrorism now because but even as a child of the 80s, there was a chance of this with the Russians. Hence all the big moves of that decade. It amazes me to this day that people actually thought a nuclear war was going to happen.

Things like this explains why my old man was so paranoid about the Russians and the bomb when I was growing up.

Just thought I'd start something on this given the whole 9/11 era and everything else.

WildThing121675

 

[Trevor]

While goofing on Youtube tonight, I found this one... LOL. I have heard of this, and somewhere on my vast audio collection I have a copy of this duck and cover song. WOW. People REALLY thought the bomb was going to happen. It's funny really.

YouTube - Atomic Bomb - Duck and Cover

I am not too worried about nuclear war, or terrorism now because but even as a child of the 80s, there was a chance of this with the Russians. Hence all the big moves of that decade. It amazes me to this day that people actually thought a nuclear war was going to happen.

Things like this explains why my old man was so paranoid about the Russians and the bomb when I was growing up.

Just thought I'd start something on this given the whole 9/11 era and everything else.

WildThing121675

At the time those films were made and those procedures practiced, war seemed quite possible and nuclear weapons were just the next big thing, not weapons that threaten to unbalance our whole ecosystem if used in an all-out engagement. My brother and sister were old enough to go through those drills. In a lot of ways, I think they had it easier. Although the fear was there (the risk seemed as great or greater than ever, according to the nuclear doomsday clock from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, showing us as 3 minutes to midnight in 1984, closer than we had been since 1949), the expectation was that hiding under your desk would actually do something, and you could crawl out later and life would go on. When I was a kid, they had fewer illusions about the survivability of a nuclear war for those who were anywhere near a major population center (which I was, and military bases besides) and we knew that duck and cover was only a good opportunity to kiss your butt goodbye or perhaps to survive the initial attack only to die from radiation, starvation, or climate change in a world with minimal infrastructure.

Things may be a bit unstable these days, but I definitely feel less sense of short-term impending doom.

 

[EmeraldsAndLime]

Tony was certainly safe in the gutter!

 

[Pramrider]

In my elementary school years - 1955 to 1962 - we had air raid drills along with the normal fire drills. We would have to line up and sit along the walls outside the classrooms, crouched down with our heads between our knees and hands placed over the back of our heads. Not very comfortable sitting in that position, even for the few minutes of the drill.

~Pramrider

 

[soren456]

My parents remember those things, they say. They were taken very seriously.

The house where I grew up had an elaborate bomb shelter in the rear yard. It was empty by the time I was born, and they dug it up to install a swimming pool, but my dad says that it was still stocked when they bought the place.

And it was once listed as an asset to the property in an earlier real estate ad.

 

[Takashi]

I remeber actually watching the Duck and Cover thing in American History, My teacher tried pulling off being a 5th grade teacher in the 50s, he looked like such an idiot.

 

[Bryce]

And people are still paranoid these days to. If it happens it happens, nothing you can do to stop it, no matter if you think you can. If our government and other countries want to go to nuclear war, then there's really not much power we have to stop them. So, get over it, we'll all die sooner or later anyways.

 

[Calico]

This reminds me of practicing fire drills and in case of an earthquake. I wonder why we don't practice this atomic bomb stuff anymore?


But wait, what was the point in practicing all this, it kills you when it goes off and it happens so fast, you won't have the time to do that stuff and you feel nothing. Mmm is that a wonder why we don't practise it anymore?

 

[Spiro910]

The Cold War was very much real.... Anxiety was true and the US/USSR were on the verge of war many times, the drills were probably pointless since atomic bombs would kill everything in a 2-3mile radius in a matter of seconds. I wouldn't deem this extreme paranoia, though.

 

[YoungNastyman]

This reminds me of practicing fire drills and in case of an earthquake. I wonder why we don't practice this atomic bomb stuff anymore?


But wait, what was the point in practicing all this, it kills you when it goes off and it happens so fast, you won't have the time to do that stuff and you feel nothing. Mmm is that a wonder why we don't practise it anymore?

Everyone knows ducking under a cheaply made school desk is the only way to survive nuclear winter