Did you spend any time in a fallout shelter during the Cold War?

My family never had a fallout shelter. And I'll be forthcoming, growing up in the 70's and 80's and being the neurotic person that I am/was then I had often and irrationally so had nightmares about oncoming nuclear war. Often worrying before falling asleep that I wake up in the middle of the night by the bombing of Boston or even worrying about not waking up at all due to a near or direct hit on my hometown.

So with that context, I'd probably would have had a more secure feeling childhood if my family had a fallout shelter.

And now, though I don't expect any nuclear war anytime soon, all of my home buying fantasies include some kind of secret room or fallout shelter, if only for bragging rights. Hey! Look at my cool video gaming room! It's hidden in this panic room/fallout shelter behind a bookcase....

My family didn't have a fallout shelter.

But I remember on December 8th, 1941 my older brother sitting on our front porch with his 22 Rifle aimed at the sky to shoot down any Japanese planes flying overhead, shouting "Let them come?"

BBB

before my time, although the apartment building i grew up in had a "FALLOUT SHELTER STARTS HERE" sign
near the elevator on our floor.

when they were ready to paint the hall back in the early 80's, someone took the sign down...

R(it hangs on the inside of the door to my old room to this day)P

No, but while selling real estate in the 1970s we would now and then come across those in used houses.

Those who remember "MAD Magazine" might also remember a cartoon strip where the guy with the pointy hair (a bit like Krusty the clown) raced to build a fallout shelter as the news headlines got more and more serious. He was just putting the finishing touches to the outside when he turned and was snapped by a flash photographer....and he collapsed with a heart attack!

Growing up between the two nuclear powers was at times frightening. The Ruskies didn't scare me as much as the USA, only because I new more about the states and that your presidents had the famous red button. Just a few years ago, the gov took deactivated all the warning alarms/sirens in the city. They'd test them every so often and it was weird hearing the wailing.

I never was inside a fallout shelter as a child. But, about 20 years ago, a friend and I did some remodel work in a house that had one. The shelter part had been converted into a bedroom. Not a lot one can do to improve it and most of our job was centered in the living room. This recalls my first weeks on a destroyer. It had an air of incompetence that made me uncomfortable. Then I realized that the Russian navy was quite probably equally inept and then I relaxed. I realize, all these years later that what I mistook for incompetence was likely just the casual face of a nation not at war. I had yet to hear any mention of Vietnam at this time.

I've been wondering when, due to al-Qaeda attacks, the public will be advised to build some sort of safe building. I can't think of a way to accomplish such a safe space. Can you, Edgar?

BBB

There is no way I can conceive to build a terrorist proof infrastructure. Restricting how near to buildings and crowds you can get with a vehicle might help. It wouldn't stop back packs, but could limit the amount of explosives used. A vigilant, proactive approach by both govt. and people is the best defense I can imagine, that people can actually make work.

I, along with my 6th grade classmates, were instructed to crawl under our school desks. But we were never required to go down to the basement of the school, where there was a sign next to what looked like the coal bin door, that said fallout shelter. From under my desk, I looked out the windows over the Pittsburgh Mon Valley and imagined an atomic bomb going off. I thought it might kill my nemesis, Micky Connolly, which was a pleasing thought.