Welp. It me.
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Duck and cover.
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All together now, children:
There was a turtle by the name of Bert
and Bert the turtle was very alert
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The Cuban missile crisis day by day:
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Only once did my father tell of his WWII work as a propeller technician on aircraft carriers (he survived three sinkings).
A fighter would be strapped-down on the flight deck. Dad would attach a new prop. He then sat atop the monstrous engine, Slim Pickins style, to be sure the prop was adjusted right while the engine revved. Sometimes planes (but not Dad’s, whew) would break loose of the straps and dive overboard, taking the prop-tech along.
I imagine that work was rather loud, too. Dad didn’t like quiet music after the war.
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For a short bit during this time, it was kind of a thing to honeymoom in a fall out shelter… the line from Elaine Tyler May book was “two weeks of unbroken togetherness.”
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Brooklyn of the 70’s in Kodachrome
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I remember duck and cover drills in kindergarten and early grades.
That desk was going to protect me from a nuke. Must have been made of neutronium. Scary as fuck to a kid.
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Right? Our generation had some renewed nuclear war fears (and anti-nukes protests), but I don’t think it was ever as bad or as real and tangible as it was for the boomers. We did have more made up fears, like satanic panic, punk panic, and stranger danger…
I will sometimes show the Duck and Cover video to students and it’s always a big hit. But yeah, if nukes hit, there wasn’t much to be done. And I don’t think people realize how aggressive US plans were or that there were at least a couple of times we came close. There is a new book on the subject and they interviewed the author on Fresh Air last week:
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I remember when I was doing my student teaching in US History. It was within a year or two of the ricin/biological attacks during the early 2000s. When I showed the 50s Duck & Cover film, my juniors were incredulous and began laughing. They asked me if people really believed this would help them?
I reminnded my class that our government recently advised us to use plastic sheeting and duck tape to protect ourselves from a biological attack. It was wonderful to witness a shared critical thinking moment.
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And so it goes…
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We had-em in my SoCal suburb with a missile plant in town and major military bases nearby, not to mention downtown L.A. My childhood (primary school) nightmares were of mushroom clouds visible from my bedroom window. Dad lacked funds for a fallout shelter. I just figured, “We’re fucked.”
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During the height of the cold war every little municipality claimed that if a nuclear war began their little patch of the world was a likely first-strike nuclear target. Our town has a missile factory, so we’re a prime target. Our town makes widgets for tanks, so we’re a prime target. Our town makes copper wire for radios, so we’re a prime target.
After the cold war the truth came out; almost everyone was right. The russians had targeted damn near the whole country.
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So did we. Both sides had plans for first strikes that used a ton of bombs on the other side. As a first strike plan.
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I grew up in the NY Metro Area. Even in fictional nuclear wars/nuclear terrorism incidents, my area would be the first to be wiped off the globe.
Hell even before nuclear power, people were envisioning ways to destroy New York (BTW the clip is awesome FXwise especially given its age)
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Destroying New York makes for great visuals.
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Nice. Looks like a great mix of techniques too. Is that a bit of Shuftan technique in there with all the model work?
Nobody would have bombed us at all. Wouldn’t matter. You fuckers would have all killed us all anyway. Nuclear war: it’s a motherfucker. As Sun Ra would say.
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