Yeah, as little kids we hadn’t a real clue. But by the time we were in our teens we knew.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis I remember JFK speaking to the nation. My Dad made us sit around and pay attention.
I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis vividly. I stood near a line of teletype machines from various newswire services, monitoring the progress of the Soviet ships as they neared our Naval blockade. I wondered if I had time to get home to be with my wife and children before Soviet ICBMs delivered Hell (I lived near a Strategic Air Command base, a very likely target.)
There was an audible sigh of relief from everyone nearby when the teletypes clacked out the news that the Russian ships had turned away from the blockade. That's as close to an all-out nuclear war as I ever want to come.