Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Bombs and Sirens

When I was in junior high, we had air raid drills every so often. This was during the cold war after nuclear bombs had been dropped during WWII. Because there was fear that the Communists would drop bombs on America, the schools had air raid drills, I guess to offer some protection for school children.

When the siren went off during school hours, we went out in the hall and knelt on the floor and faced the lockers. On television I've seen what the nuclear bombs do to buildings and land. I can't think kneeling on the floor in the hallway really offered any protection. I'm not really sure what the purpose was.

We all believed firmly that a bomb could come at any time. Some people built underground bomb shelters to go to in case of emergency. It now sounds as though the whole idea of being bombed should have been very terrifying, but I don't remember being very afraid. I would be now, though.

Sometime after that we didn't have drills anymore, and there weren't any drills when I was in high school.

Is it better to practice for something that you can't be saved from or is it better to acknowledge the impossibility of being protected? Maybe that's why the drills didn't go on after my junior high years. Maybe we just got complacent.

7 comments:

Jen said...

I think the idea of the drills was to protect you, not from a direct hit-because you'd be insinerated, but from the afterwave or whatever it's called. Or maybe flying debris or something.

Anyway, I'd rather be prepared for something that may never happen. You never know, that wall or desktop or hardback book might be that one crazy thing to save you.

Kay Day said...

I've heard from other people my age who were kids in the 70's and 80's about how scared they were of Nuclear attacks.
I don't remember being afraid of that. I was more afraid that God would make me be a missionary to Russia. That was the scariest place I could think of.

I did have a pretty realistic dream about a bomb one time, though. Maybe subconsciously I was more afraid than I knew.

Julie said...

My dad told me that he thinks that they had to do that just to be busy. Given a false feeling of security. Like kneeling under a desk would protect you, he knew it wouldn't protect him when he was having to do it as a child. Tornado? You bet! Give me anything and I will curl up into any shape needed to fit into a shelter to be safe! I was never afraid of a nuke either. I remember feeling that "whatever" like I could do anything about it if it did happen, so I didnt even worry about it.

Robin said...

We used to have fire drills frequently and me and most of my peers loved them because of the break from school work and a few others for the mischief they could get into while outside.

Momstheword said...

The drills may have given people false hope, but it also helped to keep people from panicking and being fearful every minute. False hope may be better than none at all.

Paula said...

You all are so philosophical. I appreciate your comments. You have thought about this more than I have. Very interesting to me.

Julie said...

Interesting that we have sat around and talked about things like this? Or interesting to talk about things like this? Because you should know what kind of conversations this family can get into...