A lot of us FReepers were taught to get under our desk to protect us from an atomic bomb.
There’s no safety in running from an atomic bomb.
On the other hand we got to practice what to do when the godless tornadoes attacked. Number of nearby cities destroyed by the Ruskies: 0. Number destroyed by tornado: 1.
I was eight years old and in my 3rd grade classroom when the 1957 Daly City earthquake happened. The building had folding interior walls between classrooms. This was at Brookside Elementary School in San Anselmo, California.
We heard some rumbling from the direction of the street, looked up when it continued and a student said, "Must be a really big truck." It got louder and the teacher hit the bell on her desk, "Ding! Ding! DING!" That was the signal to take cover under our desks.
We all instantly obeyed. No hesitation. I heard a soft pop! from the ceiling and those of us who could looked up to see a light fixture swaying lower than it should, with some dust drifting down.
We stayed under our desks for several minutes, until the pre-arranged All Clear signal came from the school office and the teacher told us we could get up.
I don't remember whether school was then closed for the day. I do remember my father telling us that evening that he had been on the fourth floor of his San Francisco office building during the earthquake, that it had swayed a bit, that he immediately moved to a doorway to stand under it and was about to run for the stairs when the earthquake stopped.
It was interesting to discover how immediately and totally we eight year-olds had obeyed the earthquake signal drill.
I remember it well because I have that kind of memory, and because this was the first real emergency I ever encountered.
I don’t see that it harmed us much...
After one such drill, I asked my 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Bishop, why we practiced this.
She said: in case someone throws a hand grenade through the window.
I thought: damn hippies.
I was born in 1947 in Rochester, NY. I went to grammar school in the 50's. They did not use duck and cover in that school system. In fact, when air raid drills were conducted, each classroom was told to file out into the hallway, and sit on the floor on both walls of the hallway. There was a large window at the end of the hallway, and smaller windows higher up on the outside wall of the hallway. I don't recall air raid drills in high school (1960-1965). If they had amounted to anything, I would have remembered them.
Duck & cover...what a joke.
I remember Kennedy’s Cuban missile crisis speech like it was yesterday. I was sure that we were gonna get nuked. The next day I was in 8th grade homeroom looking around the room thinking I can’t die without getting laid. I wonder if any of the girls feel the same.
Yes - I think it was ‘61 or ‘62.
Every time the fire house siren went off I was scared.
My wife, as a small child in school once asked the teacher “Do you really think hiding under a desk is going to protect us from an A-bomb?”
The teacher immediately took a dislike to her as the teacher knew it was just a moral booster and nothing more.
A lot of us FReepers were taught to get under our desk to protect us from an atomic bomb.