- Joined
- Jun 8, 2004
- Messages
- 54,899
- Reaction score
- 1,518
That's WWII, not Cold War. As a Baby Boomer, I remember air raid sirens being tested, home bomb shelters for sale, and places that were designated as public bomb shelters. When I was teenager, I worked at a movie theater (the old kind that long ago did double duty as a vaudeville stage, with dressing rooms in the back). It was a designated bomb shelter. In the storage rooms behind the stage we kept bottled water and other supplies.
I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was a tense time. My dad, an electrical engineer for Lockheed and working for the government, had to go to Cuba for a couple weeks after the crisis. We weren't allowed to tell anyone where he went, and he never told us what he did there. I still have his Geneva Convention ID card from that time. He was a civilian but it said if he was captured he was to be treated as a commissioned officer.
During the mid to late 60's, I lived in southeastern Connecticut, between the Submarine Base and NYC. We assumed that when the missiles came, we would be one of the first targets, or at least get the fallout.
When the whole Eastern seaboard had a blackout in 1965, there was some paranoia. The power went out at our house, no big deal. Then, we noticed the whole street was out. On our transistor radio we heard that the whole city was out. Then, the whole state, then all New England. Then, New York. Finally, parts of Canada blacked out. Whoa! We didn't know if it was aliens from space, commie sabotage, or what! It was kind of scary. I was 14 years old.
It depends on what you mean by "it." The government should let people know if there's a threat or dangerous situation but it doesn't need to give out every technical detail.
