I remember as a young child in the 50's hiding under my school desk...

[PittBlue]

We lived 45 miles from Pittsburgh and we would have these drills to practice for a nuclear attack. We were told Pittsburgh would be attacked because of the Steel mills. We would not understand what would happen to us or how our desks could possibly protect us, but it was darn scary. I would have a reoccurring nightmare that the Russians invaded and made my home their headquarters. Never did I imagine our White House would be the headquarters for the Russians, but here we are.

[SheltieLover]

1. I recall those air raid drills & vehemently despise russia to this day

They have never been anything but a pariah state, hence, the formation of NATO.

[Walleye]

4. Me too Russia hasn't changed.No ethics, no morals.Can't even field an international athletic team because they cheat so

As Kissinger said, Russia will always try to take territory. That’s who they are. That’s what they do.

[SheltieLover]

6. Kissinger was correct

Bunch of toxic masculinity. I call it football mentality: you have something I want, I break your neck to get it.

[dhol82]

2. I hid under my desk in Philadelphia.

I always worried about the glass in the windows shattering and cutting everyone.

[Squaredeal]

10. We hid in the hallway so that the shards of window glass from the blast didn't rip us apart.

The nuns had our faces pressed against the walls, repeating the Hail Mary over and over during the drill. It scared the heck out of us.
It didn’t help that our third grade Polish teacher hated the Soviet Union for what they did in Poland and constantly told us bizarre stories about how they were building a doomsday bomb that would destroy the world.

[SheltieLover]

14. Pls see #9

[Walleye]

3. Seems like we spent decades fighting the Cold War for nothing

Only to be sold out by a con man and millions of Americans falling for it. We lived about 5 miles from Dover Air Force Base, a huge military installation that would probably have been bombed and was in range of the missiles. I remember being scared to death during the Cuban missile crisis. All for nothing.

[SheltieLover]

9. I remember being in front of next door neighbor's house one afternoon

When air raid sirens sounded, about 30 mi. out of Chicago. I was so terrified I distinctly remember looking around frantically, not being able to discern where I was or how to get home. I was about 6 yrs old.

I think of this & relive this horrible experience with every report of a school shooting, war, or terrorist attack & my heart just breaks all over again, esp for the kids caught up in the hate of patriarchy.

Wtf can't people just behave?

I know the answer: toxic masculinity.

✌️

[Walleye]

11. Sometimes my silent plea to the world is

People please just stop killing each other. It’s not that hard.

[SheltieLover]

16. It wouldn't seem to be difficult to stop hurting & killing, would it?

But greed rules the day in patriarchy.

[Walleye]

17. I think boys have to draw blood to prove that they are men. Girls, we just bleed. Without violence

[SheltieLover]

23. If that's the case, it would serve the world well if boys would only draw their own blood

[Wingus Dingus]

5. We just demonstrated that we will not do a retaliatory strike on Russia should they launch at us,

let alone a first strike if we believe an attack is imminent. I think people forget that that's still a thing. We also signaled that dictators around the world can do whatever they fucking want--Taiwan? Good luck. Shipping lanes around the world? Have at it. Poland and Finland? When Krasnov is done, Russia will be re-armed, rested and ready to go, coffers refilled thanks to our traitors. The world has gotten super fucking dangerous overnight.

[CrispyQ]

32. "I'd rather be a Russian than a Democrat."

Remember those two smug faces, showing off their tee-shirts while living comfortably in the USA. A few years ago I pointed out to my right wing relatives that they all live & went to college in blue states, & that all of their children except for one, have moved to...blue states!!

[Wingus Dingus]

33. It's always something to watch people in safe, pleasant, and comfortable

situations vote for the destruction of it all. They're bored and don't understand deprivation and hardship, I guess.

[Deuxcents]

7. I remember those drills. We even had them during the Bay of Pigs in Miami schools

[SheltieLover]

12. Pls see #9 above

[no_hypocrisy]

8. In the Fall of 1962, our Kindergarten class was marched out of our classroom

and told to squat in a line in the hallway against the walls for an inordinate amount of time, not being told what was going on. We understood fire drills and we had to go outside. But what was the point of being in the hallway. Sure, our school was built in 1912 and was brick and concrete. How in the Hell did any government entity believe that being in the basement hallway was going to spare us in any way from a nuclear explosion and/or nuclear fall-out?

Later in about sixth grade, our social studies teacher did a lesson on Russia, The Bomb, etc. Russia was the "bad guy".

And like in Orwell's Animal Farm, here is TSF sitting down at the table, both pigs and farmers, and you can't tell one from the other.

[SheltieLover]

13. Pls see #9 above

[no_hypocrisy]

18. Something like that is integrated into your DNA.

You have flashback, PTSD, etc. whenever you hear a siren.

I have the same experience, but with smoke detectors going off. Because the set point for me was our father setting fire to our childhood home while blithely eating dinner and we initially believed the smoke detector was faulty and being greeting with plumes of black smoke in the hallway.

[SheltieLover]

21. Absolutely!

Good grief! I'm sorry you had that experience!

[Walleye]

15. I remember when we were taken to the hall, and cowering against the wall

[SheltieLover]

19. I recall vividly

And think of the kids who have had to live through real wars. 💔

[Walleye]

20. Yes, I've always thought we were very lucky here in the United States. Now I'm not so sure.

[SheltieLover]

22. We were lucky back then, compared to now

Speaking for myself, I'm glad my life is drawing to a close. I'll be 70 this summer.

[Walleye]

24. I'm with you, I'm 76 and grateful I had no children at this point

[SheltieLover]

25. I've got 1 daughter & 2 grands

My heart just aches for them. I imagine them living in scenes from Blade Runner.

[Walleye]

28. Actually, you are quite fortunate. And I don't blame you for worrying.

[Wonder Why]

36. In the 1950s, there were atomic bombs. The Soviets exploded their first hydrogen "device" (not yet a bomb)

in 1955 so it was sometime later that they had hydrogen bombs. But having nuclear weapons and delivering them accurately are two different things and that's why the Soviets had to build them much bigger than ours.

Not everyone died nor got cancer in Nagasaki or Hiroshima. Bombs in the '50s were well survivable because of the size and the limitations on delivery (planes could be shot down, no nuclear submarines, no ICBMs). So, depending upon the type of burst, the distance from you, your protection, the prevailing winds at the time, and more), it was not as silly as some people today think it was. Nuclear Shelters went out of fashion when technology improved in accuracy, method of delivery and the use of MIRVs.

[valleyrogue]

26. I remember them when I was in first grade in the early 1060s.

These days, fire drills, earthquake drills, and school lockdown/shooter drills are the norm.

[spanone]

27. We had those drills in school....

We called them 'the bend over and kiss your ass goodbye drills'

[samnsara]

29. and seeing Bomb Shelter models at

..the local Fair!

[livetohike]

30. Same here PittBlue. We were living with my Grandma in

East Pittsburgh and less than a mile from Edgar Thomson works in Braddock where my Dad worked. I was young, just in Kindergarden, but I remember it so clearly.

I had this recurring dream for years about running home from school, hearing sirens and seeing a mushroom cloud over the hill where the mill still stands.

[Diamond_Dog]

31. Does anyone remember the old b&w films they would show us in school

about what to do in case of a nuclear attack? Proceed calmly to the nearest Civil Defense shelter, which in our case was the local fire station. They used to put those signs on buildings that were designated as Civil Defense shelters.

Yeah, like we would calmly walk single file down the street and file into a fire station instead of running full bore and screaming in panic.

Those films used to scare me. Always narrated by a severe sounding male voice. I didn’t really understand fully at the age of 5 what it was all about but it seemed scary.

[MuseRider]

34. We all did those drills.

I do not remember them in Kindergarten but first grade on up through 6th we did them. We had an AF base here then and quite a bunch of silos not only where I lived but a lot around.

Take that up to when my now adult children who when they were in grade school we went on a good will exchange trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg and to all places in between. I feel really bad for the good people there, and they were very kind and gracious and went out of their way to help further feelings of ease and friendship.

[mommymarine2003]

35. I lived in Morocco during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. My father was stationed at a US/French Naval base.

His duty station was called Fleet Intelligence Center Europe (FICEUR) located at Port Lyautey. I remember the base preparing to go to war, as they expected the East Coast to be nuked. This meant Americans stationed around the world, specifically Europe and Africa like where we lived, had to be ready to fly back to the US and defend our country. My Marine father had been a fighter pilot in the South Pacific in WWII, so he was preparing to pilot a plane. It was a very scary time, and I was afraid my father was going to be killed. Since I didn't live in the US, I never had to experience hiding under a desk. My husband's father back in the day was career Air Force stationed at the Pentagon, so my husband remembers hiding under his desk.

[MIButterfly]

37. I remember those air raid drills well.

I was in Detroit. We had to sit under our desks with our arms over our bowed heads. Every time an airplane flew overhead, I thought it was going to drop a bomb on me. I was terrified. What a horrible thing to do to children. Now they have active shooter drills; security guards; metal detectors; and bullet-proof backpacks - just to go to school. Don't get me started......