Fallout Shelters - A Story from 1962

[MineralMan]

In October of 1962, I was a junior in high school. I lived in a small town in Southern California, about 30 miles from LA, as the crow flies, assuming that any smart crow would fly into the smog in LA.

It was also the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, something of deep concern for my father. Like many others, he started thinking about how to protect his family from the Russkies and their nukes. I was 16 years old, and was more deeply concerned about other things, really, particularly a cute 15 year old who lived a block away, but I digress...

Anyhow, my Dad, who was just 37 years old at the time, decided that he would build a FALLOUT SHELTER! We had a family meeting, during which he announced his intentions and warned us in no uncertain terms that we were not to discuss this with anyone, since if they knew about it, they'd want in when the Russkies dropped the big one.

Since I was a skinny, but wiry young fellow, my Dad enlisted my aid in this project, which involved digging a small basement room under the slab our house was built on. The project was sort of like a prison escape project, involving cutting through the slab, excavating a 10' square hole, seven feet deep, under the house, through a 3' square hole in the slab.

I was in charge of distributing the excavated dirt around the yard without being detected, and in helping my father mix concrete for the floor and walls of that subterranean room. In it, bunk beds and shelving were installed, along with a hand operated air pump to bring filtered air (no radioactive dust) into the room. The final step was a steel ladder and a heavy steel door to cover the hole in the slab, which was located in a closet in the mud room of the house and carefully concealed with wood and linoleum to match the existing flooring.

The entire project took about three months to complete. Once finished, the shelves were stocked with food and water, and various other essential supplies were carried down into the abyss. None of us said anything about this project to anyone, on pain of severe disapproval of my Father.

I worked on the project, despite my misgivings about its usefulness. After all, if the Russkies blew up Los Angeles, things wouldn't be livable around there for far longer than our supplies would last. So, I didn't bother thinking about it all that much. Besides, that 15 year old neighbor and I had formed a serious bond with each other and were too busy exploring that, among other thing, to bother with end of the world nonsense anyhow.

Well...no bombs fell, and nobody went down into that hole again after about a month. As far as I know, that food and other essentials are still down there, almost 60 years later. I have no idea. The house has been sold at least twice since then, and the steel trap door was well-concealed by the flooring in that closet, so it's likely that the current owners don't even know there's a room under the house.

And now, I read that people are selling bomb shelters again. I'm sure there are preppers and other concerned fathers thinking about all that. I have a bit of advice for them: Don't bother. It won't work if there is a nuclear holocaust and nobody will ever use those things. Instead, take your kids on trips to the national parks and museums. Have fun and help them learn. That's a better investment of your time.

Oh, yeah, advice for 16 year old boys: That 15 year old girl who lives a block away? She marries someone else about three years from now, and you won't see her again until your 50th high school reunion. It's all good, though, so carry on.

[TexasProgresive]

1. You're a great story teller, MineralMan.

I can see the whole thing- About that 15 year old cutie. I bet she was more interesting than a bomb shelter in S. California. I can dig it!

[MineralMan]

2. Far more interesting, to be sure.

We had a good laugh together at that 50th reunion. Both of us had great memories of that time, but we also moved on in our lives and created many more good memories. Still, stuff's awfully serious when you're 16 years old.

My family is still telling stories about the FALLOUT SHELTER. It was a really interesting thing, even if completely useless.

[Gabi Hayes]

35. Ring any bells?

[Warren DeMontague]

38. You beat me to it!

[Gabi Hayes]

43. He should've worked that theme into my fave

Song of his:

The guitar fills, among other fine touches, are as intricately adept as any you'll find on DF WB, no matter where you look

[VermontKevin]

3. When I got to the 4th paragraph, I was hoping there would be a girl in the bomb

shelter story.

Have one of my own. Good times. We tried to repopulate the world.

[MineralMan]

5. Nah. I never even told her about the shelter.

We were too busy trying NOT to repopulate the world, as I remember.

[VermontKevin]

9. I was lucky not to repopulate the world at that point.

My father and grandfather built an extensive shelter under our garage. Had the neighbors over for a barbeque and a brag. I think of what I got up to in that place, can't even imagine what the "adults" did.

[cwydro]

4. I was much younger, but my dad built one too.

My sister and I used to love to play in it as we got older.

My mother announced from the beginning that she had no intention of being in any kind of fall-out shelter.

[MineralMan]

6. I thought my dad was the only one!

Guess not, eh?

[cwydro]

8. Lol! That particular house is way back in history.

As is my father now, sigh, but I'm typing right now from the land he bought years ago.

There's an underground bunker here too. He built it into a hill. I haven't had the heart to move the shelves, canned food out of there.

Maybe I can make it into a wine cellar one day.

[Brother Buzz]

7. At some point, fallout shelters became wine cellars

Savvy real estate agents, capitalizing on the wine craze of the seventies, were able to showcase those holes in the ground to advantage. All your hard work did not go in vain, you were building equity in your home!

[MineralMan]

10. Ours was too damned hard to get in and out of.

Pretty useless in general, I'm afraid. I think the last time anyone went in there was in about 1965. The last I heard, they had installed new linoleum in that closet before they sold the house, so nobody would ever imagine there was anything under the floor. I'd be willing to bet a sizable amount that its existence is still unknown by whoever lives there now.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. The family of a kid I went to school with had one.

I remember it vaguely as a sort of annex to their basement. I doubt it would have done any good, and most of us figured that if the Russians nuked us we'd be doomed anyhow, with or without a fallout shelter. Our school also had an area in the basement where we could go when the bombs dropped, and there was a sign on the door that was something like this:



And even as kids, we knew it was bullshit. Too many episodes of The Twilight Zone made that clear.

[csziggy]

29. How quickly the public fallout shelters were abandoned!

My parents made sure we knew where the public ones were in my home town - there were none near the schools or our house so the chances of getting to one were pretty much non-existent. We were supposed to meet at a specific spot between the schools and our house and Dad would drive us to either a public shelter or to my grandmother's house. That house was on a west facing slope above a lake - faced towards Tampa and MacDill Air Force Base - with a half basement open to the lake. I knew that it would be no serious shelter if there were bombs dropped on Tampa.

In 1972 the summer after I transferred to Florida State University a hurricane came through Tallahassee. I was renting a room in a fraternity - they had a wing rented to women that summer - and I knew that old house was not very solid. One of my classmates lived in a house trailer south of town so she arranged for her children to stay with their grandparents who had a good solid real house. We planned to spend the night in the university library which was prominently labeled as a civil defense shelter and which was normally open all night.

Late afternoon as the first bands were hitting Tallahassee, they CLOSED the library. There were a LOT of students who had planned as we had - to stay in a building that was supposed to be for public refuge during emergencies. Instead dozens and dozens of students were left with no where to go just as the weather was getting really nasty. I had walk about a mile back to my rental room, in the rain and wind, no umbrella or raincoat, carrying my books and the supplies I had with me to last the night. Two of my textbooks were ruined and I had to replace them to study for the summer session finals. My friend ended up sheltering in her car parked in a campus lot for the night.

It was insane and one result was that I have never planned on relying on any public shelter for anything ever again.

[hunter]

12. Air raid shelter 'found under driveway' in Luton

A man discovered what is thought to be an air raid shelter under his driveway after his car wheel got stuck in a hole.

Simon Marks, who lives in Malzeard Road, Luton, was reversing out of his driveway when his wheel got trapped.

"I thought it might be a sinkhole or a badly constructed garden," he said.

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-37755771/air-raid-shelter-found-under-driveway-in-luton

Your dad's shelter may surprise someone yet...

[MineralMan]

15. I suppose it might. Maybe the newspaper will

do a story on it or something. I'm not sure there's anything down there anymore. All of the supplied might have been removed at some point. I moved away from that town in 1963, so I don't really know. I could ask my dad, who is now 92 years old, but I probably won't.

I'd rather think of it with the shelves full of old food staples and blankets, etc.

[Arkansas Granny]

13. We didn't build a bomb shelter, but I remember all the PSA's about what to do in case of an attack.

My brother was a volunteer Civil Defense airplane spotter. There was a little hut built on the highway about a mile from our house where they could watch for planes. He had a book that showed the silouette of various planes, both foreign and domestic.

[MineralMan]

16. I went through all of those "kneel under your desks" drills

in grammar school, too. Later, we added "and kiss your ass goodbye" to that.

[smirkymonkey]

24. Yes. Duck and cover.

[Tracer]

14. My sister lived in a house that had a bomb shelter.

She was transferred to Sioux City, IA in 1990 and purchased quite a nice house.

Of course, Sioux City isn't that far from Omaha, NE, so I imagine that in the '50s people were concerned about being so close to nukes and wanted to be prepared.

Her bomb shelter had a basketball half court on top of it.

My brother-in-law and I went down into it once (by ladder) --- and it was dismal, dank and moldy after being neglected for so many years, but it looked like very strong concrete construction.

[ProudLib72]

17. Of much greater importance and effectiveness

were drop and cover drills in school. Who knew that school desks would save a person from an atomic blast?

You do realize that it was all about taking action. Most people are uncomfortable when faced with a scenario they have no control over. So they chose a major task as a coping mechanism and assign it great importance. At least they have done "something" instead of sitting around wringing their hands.

[MineralMan]

18. Yeah, we had those for years in school.

I remember thinking about how useless they were at the time. Our school was old enough, that it had basements under the older buildings. So did the church I went to. They all had Fallout Shelter signs on their doors. Us kids never gave any of it much of a thought, really. Like all kids, we knew we were immortal.

[dembotoz]

19. we stored some supplies in the basement but no actual fall out shelter

being terminal campers i anticipate he figured we would just throw the tent in the car and head out of town

either that or he took it somewhat seriously but not really seriously

[MineralMan]

21. Well, my father is a serious guy, so he was actually planning

for what might happen. I can't fault him for that, even though I doubted the usefulness of the thing at the time.

My question always was, "If you needed to go down there, what would things be like when you came out, really?" But, being just 16 years old, I just shrugged and assumed nothing would happen anyhow.

[jpak]

20. Your Dad probalby saw this

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734676/

[MineralMan]

22. Could be. I don't know.

[gratuitous]

23. Consider sending a letter to your old address

Introduce yourself, tell the current occupants that you used to live in the house back in the day, and are considering a little sentimental journey to your old stomping grounds. Would they mind terribly conducting a little tour of the present-day house, and hearing a few tall tales in return?

The worst they could do is say no.

[MineralMan]

26. Nah. It's been more than half a century.

I'm not all that interested. However, the floor plan of the house I currently own is almost identical to that house, but we have a full basement below it already, so no digging is needed.

[0rganism]

25. thumbs up for tales from a genuine pipboy!

[moonscape]

27. We had one too. My parents escaped from Eastern Europe

at the end of WWII, so the threat of war from Russia hit rather close to home.

It was the first time I saw a gun. We had beds, shelves lined with food which I would go down and study to imagine what life would be like down there, and ... a gun. I asked my father what it was for and never got a clear answer. He had been a hunter in Europe, but never used a gun in the States. After the Crisis, I never saw it again.

I asked where my friend, whose family did not have a shelter, would sleep if she came knocking to get in. He said we couldn't let anyone else in, and I asked how we could just listen to her die on the other side. That was the most traumatic part to me, something that kept me up at night.

I kept a scrapbook, clipping out articles during the Crisis, annotating, talking about how I felt. When my parents moved and cleared out the attic that scrapbook got lost in the shuffle.

[MineralMan]

28. They may have been more common than anyone thinks.

Most people never disclosed that they had one, so there may be many of them out there.

[moonscape]

31. I thought they were rather common, since Kennedy

urged Americans to build them. Perhaps there was a regional component to it as well, with people tending to be more likely to once they knew a neighbor/friend was.

But yes, it could be many were secret. Ours wasn't, at least far as I know, and I knew other families in town who had them.

[Warpy]

30. Chances are good that the shelter has been discovered by now

due to cracks in the slab under the house. It would be quite a museum piece, a time capsule from the paranoid early 60s.

By 1962, I'd read enough about Hiroshima to know that I didn't particularly want to survive The Big One and I suppose my parents were of the same mind. No doomsday prepping for us!

[Lars39]

32. You might enjoy this movie...

Blast from the Past
http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0124298/

[Mr.Bill]

33. We had a large hole dug in our back yard, too.

But it was a swimming pool.

[Leith]

34. Have You Ever Looked the House Up on Zillow?

Sometimes, the pictures and descriptions are available for 3 ~ 4 years after it was last sold. I bought my house in 2009 and there are still pictures of it on that site. If the shelter had been found, it may be in the description.

Or just write a letter and let the current residents know, if they don't already. After 55 years, the flooring must have been upgraded at least once which would reveal the existence of the bomb shelter.

[Hortensis]

36. :) And they got creepier by the year. When I was appraising

real estate in Southern California, every so often (not often) I'd run into one. They were underground, and the big concern was safety. (These old things had no market value.) Could children/teens get trapped in one and die? Calls for help would never be heard. Many had been landscaped over long ago, but of course that wouldn't necessarily dissuade adventurous kids who knew they were there, and their presence had to be disclosed.

I haven't read about it, but perhaps part of any new surge might be from trying to sell additional purposes for underground tornado shelters. Our kids in Arkansas are putting one in under the floor of their garage because they have no basement.

[Warren DeMontague]

37. Donald Fagen put it to his romantic advantage

[3catwoman3]

39. My mother, now 95, was terrified of the Soviet Union and what they might do.

She absolutely would have built a bomb shelter if we could have afforded one, but we couldn't. As a next-best alternative, we had lots of canned food and bottles water in the basement, and a spare trash can that would have been lined with plastic bags to use as a toilet. There was no bathroom down there, so wouldn't that have been unbearable in quite short order?

My mom was one of the few working mothers back then, and was further worried that an attack would occur when she was not home to direct things. For years, there were 4 pieces of paper attached to the wall by the stairs, full of written instructions on what we should do if an attack were launched. She was further worried that, in our panic, we might hasten down the stairs too fast and fall and break our necks. At the bottom of each page, in capital letters, she wrote, "WALK, DO NOT RUN, DOWN THE STAIRS!"

I distinctly remember wondering how hiding under my desk, or crouching in front of my locker in the school hallway, was going to do diddly-squat to protect me from nuclear fallout.

In the 1950s and 60s, girls had to wear skirts of dresses to school, so I also remembering feeling less worried that we would really be attacked, and somewhat more concerned that the duck-and-cover contorted postures we had to assume would make it possible for the boys in the class to see my panties.

[orangecrush]

40. Mad Magazine - my fallout memory

I read this in one of my older brother's Mad Magazines - looked it up online and found it again, after all these years!



Parody Song (tune of London Bridge): “Atom Bombs are falling down, falling down, falling down. Atom bombs are falling down, there will be fallout. Build a shelter and keep them out keep them out, keep them out, keep them out. Build a shelter and keep them out, there will be fallout. Shoot the neighbors who want in, who want in, who want in. Notify their next of kin. There will be fallout”. – Mad Magazine, Atom Bombs are Falling Down [Drawing, Art, Photo, Photo, Photo. Button, Cover]



http://parademic.typepad.com/my-blog/2016/12/parademic-notes-week-ending-161204.html

[Hoyt]

41. Don' think my parents ever thought about it. Me, I'm gonna soak up the rays and die with first blast

Have no intention of sleeping with one eye open as militia groups, armed white wingers and others fight for control of the country or local areas. Not gonna shoot my neighbor over food and water.

Can you imagine Trump trying to get people to cooperate in a nuclear disaster.

[deurbano]

42. My parents had one built in our backyard in Bakersfield (CA) at the same time.

They shared the cost with another family that didn't even live in our neighborhood. All our neighbors knew about the shelter, but I guess they were just expected to politely ignore that information in the event of a nuclear holocaust. My friends and I played "dungeon" in the shelter, but a pool would have been a lot more fun!