Any Older Guys Remember This from their Youth?

[jpmcwjr]

Yeah, you'd have to be just the right distance away to see/hear a nuclear explosion and still be alive to duck and cover. And then die a slow and painful death via radiation poisoning.

Upwind of such could be a whole 'other thing.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I always thought that it'd just be better to go right away. I mean, after a nuclear attack, the earth is uninhabitable for like a thousand years or something just as crazy.

 

[Chasing Embers]

We had them till at least the early 70'

We had them into the early '80s. How in the hell would hiding under a school desk protect you from fallout?

 

[Chasing Embers]

Duck and cover!

 

[anotherbob]

debris and the depression caused by the futility of human technology surpassing human ability to be humane. So somewhat effective in the scheme of things.

 

[Streeper541]

I'm not that old, but I did have a couple of the CD radiation detectors to play with in cub scouts.

 

[STP]

View attachment 105114

Ha… Bert the Turtle. I remember those signs posted.

 

[lraisch]

Yeah, I remember the CONELRAD settings on the AM radios. How many people realize that the "wall of sound" concept in music was because it sounded better on those old tube radios afflicted with vibrator hash.

My Dad bought a 57 Dodge with a push button trans and had to get the salesman to help when he couldn't get it to start after signing the paperwork. Turns out you had to hold the neutral button in while you turned the key. Who knew?

 

[warren]

Hiding under my desk didn't even protect me from the teacher asking me a question I was totally unprepared to answer.

 

[anotherbob]

Yeah, I remember the CONELRAD settings on the AM radios. How many people realize that the "wall of sound" concept in music was because it sounded better on those old tube radios afflicted with vibrator hash.

I thought the wall of sound concept came from Phil Spector being totally insane. Well I like that explanation better anyways.

 

[lawdawg]

I'm barely old enough to remember the Cold War, but I do remember my first car. It was a Buick with a plush bench seat, and it was kind of like sitting on a couch while driving.

 

[Grangerous]

Were things really all bad???

 

[instymp]

Yep, how about this?
View attachment 105076
Push button shifters.

Chrysler had them

 

[instymp]

I remember doing the under the desk nuclear drills for the first few years of elementary school. I just assumed that those desks would protect us from anything, as long as you held you head down with your hands over the top of your head.

That was just to get your butt closer so you could kiss it goodbye.

 

[renfield]

Given the yields of the nuclear weapons deployed up until about 1958 duck and cover would’ve actually been fairly effective at reducing immediate casualties.

After that point the Soviet tactic of compensating for poor delivery accuracy with large yield devices and targeting cities (counter value) as as opposed to military targets would’ve made immediate protection of city dwellers somewhat moot.

Now almost all of the nuclear nations have extremely accurate delivery systems allowing for counter force targeting with much smaller warheads. Civil defense measures could be useful again.

Nuclear weapons design and effects have been a topic of interest to me for decades. An incredible amount of what drove decisions on both sides throughout the Cold War was driven by the rapidly changing technologies in nuclear weapons and their delivery systems.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I remember being an eight ear old kid listening to the instructions we were to follow if there was a nuke attack. WTF I thought. Who is kidding who here. We'd be incinerated toast and we're supposed to follow these goofball instructions. The fifties were great times in America.

I remember having to get under the desk in grade school to practice for an Atomic bomb blast. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

 

[mikethompson]

I remember having to get under the desk in grade school to practice for an Atomic bomb blast. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

I can imagine you calling out the teacher during those drills too! LOL

 

[isaac]

Today I learned I am now in the "older guy" designation

 

[smokeymo]

I always thought that it'd just be better to go right away. I mean, after a nuclear attack, the earth is uninhabitable for like a thousand years or something just as crazy.

Yea there's totally no one living in Hiroshima or Nagasaki right now.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Yea there's totally no one living in Hiroshima or Nagasaki right now.

Why Can People Live in Hiroshima and Nagasaki Now, But Not Chernobyl?

On August 6 and 9, 1945, U.S. airmen dropped the nuclear bombs Little Boy and Fat Man on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On April 26, 1986, the number four reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine exploded.

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