I remember duck and cover drills. Kind of ho hum.
Then Nixon mined Haiphong Harbor while I was in high school, portending nuclear annihilation. I just calculated how many miles I lived from downtown Detroit and the survival odds if Detroit was an epicenter of an explosion. I figured I had a chance.
What is a safe radius from Detroit now? Chicago? LA?
I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. On the brink of nuclear war with the Russians. We were sweating that one out.
Then it all blew over.
But the stress came back on Dec 24 that year when the NORAD broke into programing to say an unidentified object was reported over the DEW Line.
Was it Russian missiles? Was this the End? We were all glued to the TV for more news!
Then they showed a real chintzy photo of Santa and his sleigh with cotton ball clouds floating by.
We never trusted the news media again after that.