I remember that we had to get under our desks and put our hands over our heads. The filing out was for a fire drill. I think that the fire drill made sense, the hands on head and being in a kneeling position would be better suited to a plane crash! ;o)
The under the desk drill was in a lot of schools, but I went to a very old school and we had a basement, so that's why the atom bomb drill was in there. Our fire drills were more often then the bomb drills and for that we had to walk single file out onto the play ground. I was also a member of the safety patrol. It was for 6th graders and we wore a white belt like sash with a silver badge on it. We patroled the school perimiter before and after school, and we patroled the white line on the playground during noon recess that separated the girl's playground from the boy's playground. WHAT POWER !!!
posted by Javanz
about 1 year ago
Yes I remember these drills, both in elementary school where we crouched under our desks, and later in Junior High where we filed out of the classroom. The Junior High didn't have a basement though - so we assembled in a corridor which strangely had big windows all along one wall. We turned our backs to the windows and crouched down with our hands covering our heads. This seemed completely nuts to me at the time, and the whole ritual was especially painful to me because my Quaker parents were antinuclear activists and pacifists and it was considered the correct and brave thing to refuse to participate in these drills. I never quite had the nerve to refuse, so I went along with the whole ridiculous ritual, feeling both foolish and cowardly.
yes i remember the drills and hearing the sirens.
YES REMEMBER THE DRILLS.
MY EXPERIENCE IS MUCH LIKE VIOLET'S WAS....
WE WERE UNDER OUR DESK FOR ONE, AND THAN THE FIRE DRILL IS WHERE WE WERE STANDING OUTSIDE FOR A WHILE.
WE ALL HAD A PARTICULAR PATH OUT OF THE SCHOOL TO A CERTAIN DOOR EXIT.
GOD BLESS, SMILETU
I remember those drills, we filed down to the basement and lined up single file along the walls and then had to kneel and lower our heads until the all clear sounded. That wouldn't have done a thing to help us from a atomic attack but it sure helped me to get out of doing my Arithmetic that I hated so bad.
My experience was like violet's. I remember one time during a drill it got really dark out & started thundering & lightning. I was so scared. I thought we were really being bombed & all I could think of was my mother was home alone & was probably so scared too. There were alot of other kids who were scared too that day. Not a good memory.
When things got at their worst we were having them twice a day. As if any of that would have helped! The scariest was when they sent letters home with us for our parents to sign. I heard my mother and grandmother talking. Basically they wanted to know if the parent wanted their child to stay at school or be released to go home and die with their family. Mercy,what a time--huh?
pat
My memory is like Violets and did they think the desks would actually save us ? lol more like kiss your behind and say goodbye ya think?
Our school had a bomb shelter with stacks of boxed and canned food and barrels of water. They would rotate it every few years or at least they told us that. The building was so old any bomb in the area probably would have leveled the building. It has been torn down years ago and is now a parking lot for a church.
