When you where in school?

Question

I am just curious about this. When you where in school did they have those practice bomb raid sirens go off and you had to hide under the desk. The older gent next to me was telling me about something about that. Something about the "cold war". Can anybody tell me anything about that? thanks!

ladies..i understand that. this was more for the older people

Angela, i was up from 2 am till 5 with real bad pain i had to take a advil pm and i just woke up. still out of it. but geee thanks for the spelling lesson

Answer 1

Yes. They started during the Eisenhower administration and they were drills in connection with preparing for any nuclear attack against America. The "hiding under the desk" part of the drill was called "Duck and cover". There was an infantile belief by some in authority that doing that would save you from being killed by an atomic bomb.
Air raid sirens were tested about once a week in most locales. Usually on a Saturday so you didn't panic workers. And some larger cities also held full-scaled drills where the streets were cleared and people were sent to designated shelters which were clearly marked by a distinctive sign. The folks running these drills wore white helmets with a triangular logo on them reading "Civil Defense".
If you ever see an old movie entitled "On The Beach" with Gregory Peck and others there is a scene of San Francisco's Market Street with no people to be seen and newspapers blowing up the empty street. It was shot during one of those drills.

Answer 2

I'm in my early 50s and we had duck and cover practices when I was in elementary school. We had to hide under our desks, like that would have protected us LOL.

Do you remember when the Berlin Wall came down in 89? Well that was unofficially the end of the " cold war" between the Russians and the west. Russia was and still is a nuclear threat to the US and the west , there was an invisible wall between the soviet block countries and the west which they called the Iron Curtain.

During the early sixties, just after Castro had taken over Cuba, the Russians had bases there where they'd be able to shoot nuclear missiles if they wanted to. President Kennedy and President Krushchev had quite the little show down over the Bay of Pigs in Cuba , with the US threatening to bomb Cuba off the map if the Russians tried anything.

It was a very scary 13 days in October and I was only 8 at the time , but I knew there might be a chance the world could end in a minute if either country had decided to push the button.

McCarthyism was in the early 50s and involved Repbulican Senator Joe McCarthy who believed the US State department was rife with Communists, the entertainment industry, unions. Alot of people 's reputations were ruined because of Tailgunner Joe's paranoia. Tricky Richard Nixon was a part of the McCarthy paranoia too. Finally CBS Edward R. Murrow exposed McCarthy for the paranoid little idiot he was and the GOP have been po'd at the 'liberal ' media ever since.

Didn't they teach you this stuff in school in your history classes?

As my old history prof used to say if you don't study history you're doomed to repeat it and the US has .

You might start watching the History Channel or reading up on modern day american history to better educate yourself.

Answer 3

Air Raid drills Hiding under the desks. Checking out the air-raid shelters in the town. The cold war. Who was going to do the first atomic bomb. The cuban missile crisis. I remember sitting in the classroom until about 10:30? Then our teacher said it was over. We didn't have instant communications then. I remember my teacher was almost crying. My parents said the night before not to worry. We lived too close ot DC to survive anyway. What A time. Now we take off our shoes at airports. Some progress.

Answer 4

I remember those drills in school. But some here might also remember the other drill conducted in big cities, like NYC where I grew up. If you were in the street and the air raid sirens went off, all people were to get off the street and hide in a building or store. No one was allowed. Moving cars had to stop and stay put until the all clear signal was given.
All part of the cold war with The Soviet Union and China.

Answer 5

Yes, this was mostly in the 50s and early 60s. It was called "Duck and Cover." We saw movies in class showing up what we were supposed to do in case of nuclear attack. They showed what a bomb could do. Scared the daylights out of us!!! And yes we had practice air raids. We were supposed do duck under our desks and cover our heads. Like that would do any good. HA! Thousands of families built bomb shelters in their back yards. Many companies sprung up all over the US selling prefab bomb shelters. The cold war was extremely frightening.

Answer 6

There was an extended cold war between the United States and Russia. It was during that time that both countries engaged in an arms race. We were afraid that Russia would drop the A bomb on us and they were afraid that we would drop the bomb on them. We stockpiled atomic weapons and tested them in the atmosphere.

People had bomb drills in schools and built bomb shelters in their yards. This went on for 3 generations. I think the Movie staring Matthew Broderick called WAR GAMES and another movie A BLAST FROM THE PAST, finally got people to see how futile it was. Both the United States and Russia still have enough weapons to blow up the world but then we have to contend with the other countries who have the bomb, including G. Britian, Pakistan, India, China just to name a few.

Answer 7

I am now 41 yrs old, but even then, when I was in 1st grade in 1972, I remember having to practice that. We had to all push our desks to the farthest corner and then we all had to crawl underneath to the wall. I thought it was scary then, after all I was only 6 yrs old and the teachers were telling us about bombs going off and killings and such. It was all a waste of time, who would have survived if a bomb went off then, I mean, come on, how is a small school desk going to protect you against the devistation of a bomb!

Answer 8

That was just a bit before my time, but my husband does remember doing the duck and cover drills at school. Strangely though, when they were doing the above ground testing in Nevada many people here in Utah would sit on their roofs and watch the explosions. The government didn't seem worried about how the fallout from those tests would affect people. Many people now have, or have already passed away from cancer caused from that radioactive fallout.

Answer 9

We used to have air raid drills, as well as fire drills. During air raid drills we had to go out in the hallway and sit on the floor, and cover our heads. During fire drills, we obviously had to leave the building. The "cold war" described the relationship between USSR and USA. Air raid drills were in case the US was attacked by air. This way we were not near a window which could shatter, and we protected our heads from anythig that could fall. This was in the 1950s.

Answer 10

Yes we had to do the hide under the desk thing. We also had watch areas where we looked at aircraft that went over us and reported the N number on the plane and we had all sorts of pics. to tell what kind of plane it could have been. I seem to remember it was conalrad stations. So many years ago and foggy memories!!