Calling all geezer and geezerette DU'ers! Do your part.

[raccoon]

Are you old enough to remember the "duck and cover" drills? If you are, practice them
with your kids and grandkids. And younger neighbors and friends. Just in case, falling space
junk falls in your area.

You may save a life.


(PS--I'm old enough to remember those drills, but I don't remember them.)

[NewJeffCT]

1. I remember hearing about those drills

but, we never had them when I was growing up - I graduated high school in 1985, so my schooling was in the 70s through then.

I think duck & cover was 50s/60s, right?

[raccoon]

2. Yes. nt

[zanana1]

10. You are right, young one.

Now get off my lawn.

[Arkansas Granny]

3. Yes, I remember the drills and the dramatizations they used to show on tv.

It would just scare me to death to see that family headed down to the basement. We didn't have a basement and I knew we didn't have all the supplies that they said you should have put away in case of nuclear attack.

Do you remember the Civil Defense plane spotting exercises? My older brother had a book that showed a lot of airplane silouettes and he volunteered to sit in a little gazebo looking shed that was built out in a field not far from our house to look for enemy aircraft. I don't remember if he was on a schedule or if he would be notified when he needed to report. This would have been in the early to mid 50's.

[raccoon]

4. I don't remember that. I remember when I was in fifth grade, hearing talk of getting us

students dog tags.

I didn't realize at the time what they were for. (We never got them.)

I worried sometimes that we didn't have a fallout shelter, and in the area where I grew up, nobody had a basement. There was talk of building a community shelter; that never went anywhere.

[Arkansas Granny]

5. Some of the government buildings where I lived (and maybe some of

the banks and larger stores downtown) had the Civil Defense signs on them like this

that designated them as a fallout shelter.

It was pretty scary for young kids. The threat was there and it certainly wasn't hidden or sugar-coated. Everybody knew about "the bomb".

[raccoon]

8. I thought we'd have a nucular (sic) event before 1970. nt

[PassingFair]

6. I remember "air raid drills". We each had to take a square of cardboard....

kept in a cabinet, and go into the basement of
the school.

I VAGUELY remember ducts and a cramped crawl space.

I remember the teachers joking around.

All very hazy, and I don't believe I participated
in more than two of them.

[raccoon]

7. What was the square of cardboard for? nt

[PassingFair]

9. So our little dresses didn't get dirty from the floor of the basement.

Neatness counts, even in case of a nuclear attack.

:)

[zanana1]

11. We had them in my Catholic school...

Accompanied by the nuns telling us horrible stories of what the Communists would do to us if they came. I had nightmares for years, because I believed the old hags.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

12. I remember two kinds of drill

One was "duck and cover", getting under the desks and covering our heads with our hands. The other drill involved filing out of the classroom, and sitting next to the wall in the hallway.

It was all very serious stuff, for grade-schoolers. Not like fire drills in high school.

:hi:

[csziggy]

16. They didn't bother with those for us

Thirty miles from Tampa and McDill AFB. Schools with one wall all windows from 30" to the ceiling, other side clerestory windows for cross ventilation since there was no A/C. No hallways, open covered walkways, so they would be no shelter, either.

Dad had a plan for us to gather a specific place and he'd drive us to Grandmother's house which had a half basement. But the open side had lots of windows and faced toward Tampa, so that was no good.

Then I read Alas Babylon by Pat Frank and decided if it came, I didn't want to survive a nuclear attack.

[raccoon]

26. I was going to ask if you'd read that book, considering the location where

you were living at the time.

One of my favorite books. Most of the main characters went through some personal growth in the
course of the novel.

[csziggy]

27. Yeah, we lived a little southwest of where it was set

So it really hit me.

You know, I haven't read it in about 30 years. Maybe I should dig it out and re-read it.

[suninvited]

20. I remember the hallway drills well

but, had no idea what we were practicing for.

I don't remember duck and cover drills.

[sarge43]

13. Remember them well.

Even in the fourth grade I thought they were stupid. I had seen the newsreels of the Nevada tests.

Anyway, why should we aging Boomers be the only paranoid generation?

[struggle4progress]

14. educational video jampacked with useful info

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0K_LZDXp0I

all sorts of handy tips, like what do if an atomic bomb goes off while you are riding your bike and such

[MiddleFingerMom]

15. MiddleFingerMomSis and her family bought a house in the 80's in Connecticut...

.
.
.
... that had a crude bombshelter in the basement.
.
.
.
It was UBER-creepy...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
...except for the hilarious fact that the previous
homeowner's son had used it to grow pot in.
.
.
.

[RebelOne]

17. Yep. Remember them well.

We had to duck under our desks. That was a long, long time ago. At that time we did fear falling space junk, just atom bombs.

[texanwitch]

18. No wonder the kids grew up to use drugs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ0GB1ltAQ&feature=related

I remember a fallout shelter sign at Woolsworths in downtown Houston, by the front door.

I wondered what the basement looked like.



















At school we had to go out in the hallway which had windows and get by the lockers.

I never understood this.

Every Friday about noon there would be civil defense siren from downtown that seem to last forever.

I am glad I don't remember any of the 1950's civil defense stuff.

The adults in this film seem much older then the adults today.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

19. We did a few duck and cover exercises,

as well as the air raid drills where we crouched in the hallways or went down the stairs marked "Air Raid Shelter" with that yellow and purple symbol. But even as kids we knew that if The Bomb ever went off we were screwed. It was very frightening.

[Pithlet]

21. Not old enough for duck and cover

We just did the hallway drill for tornadoes. That might be close enough :)

[dimbear]

22. I have the book "How to Survive and Atomic Bomb."

Combat Forces Press 1950.

I ain't worried about some lame bus sized satellite. Bring it on.

[pacalo]

23. Geezerette, here...

I'll have to get back to you later...kiiiinda busy right now...




(In a silly mood right now after only 2 beers.)

I got into grade school a little after that, but, yes, I do remember.

[txwhitedove]

24. Yes, I remember. We had hallway drills, sat in hall on the floor and ordered

to keep our eyes closed and then they rolled something down the hallway. I peeked. It was just a teacher rolling a cart. Supposed to be training to not look if the bomb hits or something. At home we were fascinated by the neighbors behind us building the only fallout shelter in the neighborhood.

[trof]

25. I'm wearin' a hardhat for the next 2 days.

;-)