SURVIVING A NUCLEAR ATTACK WITH SPAM (IMAGES COLD WAR FALLOUT SHELTERS)

Atlas Obscura ^ | October 23, 2015 | ANIKA BURGESS

[dfwgator]

How times change. Anyone with a bunker now days is considered a kook.

Until the SHTF, as The Twilight Zone clearly demonstrated....

[McGruff]

These may still be edible.

If you survived them before you must be immune.

[TADSLOS]

Ping.

[Da Bilge Troll]

Such memories! LOL!

Along about 1960 I bicycled to a friend’s house in my neighborhood and a backhoe was busy digging up their back yard. I asked my friend if they were getting a pool and he said no, they were getting a fallout shelter.

Later I asked my dad (a WWII vet) if he was going to put in a shelter too.

He said, “What house are you talking about exactly?” When I told him, he said, “We don’t need a shelter, because I have a gun and if we ever need a shelter, I know where to get one.”

[SkyDancer]

Had to laugh at those pictures of kids under their desks like that was going to protect them from a blast.

[IronJack]

I actually have a copy of “Nuclear War Survival Skills,” signed by the author, Cresson Kearney. I interviewed him while working for a newspaper in Colorado and he gave me the book as a keepsake.

[catnipman]

I was always of the opinion that Little Debbie’s snack foods were the perfect bomb shelter survival food because of the amount of preservatives and other chemicals they contain.

[Romans Nine]

i love those old pictures.

We are going to find out a lot of “old timers” were right about many many things.

[catnipman]

“Duck And Cover (1951) Bert The Turtle Civil Defense Film”

Yeah, but Bert always left out that critical part about kissing your ass goodbye after you ducked and covered.

[mkjessup]

Had to laugh at those pictures of kids under their desks like that was going to protect them from a blast.

Permit me the privilege of enlightening you a bit.

The whole 'duck and cover' drill was NEVER intended to protect school kids from the effects of a direct nuclear blast, nobody in their right mind was suggesting that.

The object of 'duck and cover' was to shield the kids from the shards of flying glass and debris that would surely be arriving after the blast wave from a nuclear detonation miles away hit their school, breaking and imploding the windows INTO their classrooms.

Those sturdy metal & wood desks would have provided at least some minimal protection from such injuries, plus it kept the kids down below the window line as well.

We were doing 'duck and cover' drills in my elementary school during the Cuban missile crisis, and I'm here to tell you that it was far better to be mentally and physically prepared for such an event, even as grade school kids. We understood the potential risks, and so did our teachers and families. Parents in my school district sent in extra provisions (cookies, crackers, Hawaiian Punch, etc.) should it become necessary for the kids to live at the schools post-strike due to radiation fallout.

We need that same level of preparation returned to our public schools today.

[NonValueAdded]

I remember in the 60’s the gubermint sent out a questionnaire, which you sent back and in return, they sent you a recommended fallout shelter plan for your home. I wonder if anyone still ha theirs.

[Trumpinator]

dehydrated? Drink more beer! :P

[Trumpinator]

We stood in the school hallway and faced the wall as kids in the 80s. My teacher told us this was supposed to protect us from blast debris but actually it was to make sure our bodies were in a neat line for identification and burial - the teacher had to stand outside with her attendance book that would help identify the number of dead students in the clean up.

Never forgot that bit of honesty.

[Kartographer]

Preppers' Ping!! (Historical)
Hat tip to TADSLOS for the heads-up!


"I'm not worried about surviving I just want to take those DAMN preppers with me!"

[Dubh_Ghlase]

Yeah, I got the same around the late 1960's...

Grew up on a farm, but not far from a SAC base and one of the old ICBM missle silos. My father tasked me to use my summer vacation to dig a shelter hole next to our house, exposing the basement wall which we eventually put an entrance into it. About 6 weeks into the dig, I found a set of buried stone steps going to the foundation basement (and a few other artifacts). My father then brought in a family member with a backhoe and did 6 weeks of work in a day (Yes, I was PO'd). I then hauled stones from old stone fences and mixed cement while my father built the walls of the shelter. It became our root cellar (primarily), but would have worked fine as a fallout shelter.

visited the farm a couple years back. The farm house was torn down and a new house built, but the top entrance was still there and the shelter still existed. Pretty cool to see...

[Kartographer]

I remember we were living in Gary Indiana, must have been 1959 and a local radio DJ was doing a stunt were he was living in a Fallout Shelter they built out on a street somewhere and I remember we drove by it.

[EQAndyBuzz]

My apartment building had a fallout shelter in it, with the CD sign and fallout sign proudly presented. I remember asking the super of the building if this should be underground as well as a bunch of other questions.

My parents told me later that day to stop bothering the super.

[SkyDancer]

In reading history pictures were shown of NYC being hit with a nuclear device. I don’t doubt that those desks would have saved the kids from flying glass (my thoughts exactly) but a bomb going off in NYC would have obliterated the school. Of course there’s the psychological effect of at least we’re doing something. Thanks for that insight. Janey

[laplata]

No guns or ammo in those pictures.

---

There was no need to show guns. Most people had common sense in those days and it wasn’t necessary. They were tucked in somewhere.

[Jack Hydrazine]

PUTIN CONSTRUCTING MASSIVE ARCTIC MILITARY BASES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM0yxf3vInM

GLOBAL WAR “LIKELY” PUTIN WARNS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En9BRjdUde8

PUTIN: READY FOR “ANY THREAT”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TzJFvmzOfw

ESCALATION: RUSSIAN DRONE SHOT DOWN BY NATO?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-QA6_XFFrk

ESCALATION: RUSSIA CONFRONTS ISRAELI JETS OVER LEBANON
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0obH9kc_Yk

RUSSIA FORCES PENTAGON TO REWRITE PLAYBOOK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lcv16x-0Hc8