Thursday, October 6, 2011

Yep... The Prez Said That !


Can you just imagine what would happen if the President of the United States said something like this today?

I'm thinking there would be at least a small panic in the streets! Maybe a LARGE panic! After all, the one person in this country that is supposed to say something that causes us to calm down, take a deep breath, and not panic would be the President, right?

I don't remember this happening, but I have no reason to doubt it! After all, those were some troubled times and probably more scary than I want to remember! Besides, given the fact that most of the politicians of today would probably be too concerned about taking care of themselves to pass on much of a warning to the general public.

I may be wrong about that, but I don't think so!


Oct 6, 1961:
Kennedy urges Americans to build bomb shelters

President John F. Kennedy, speaking on civil defense, advises American families to build bomb shelters to protect them from atomic fallout in the event of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. Kennedy also assured the public that the U.S. civil defense program would soon begin providing such protection for every American. Only one year later, true to Kennedy's fears, the world hovered on the brink of full-scale nuclear war when the Cuban Missile Crisis erupted over the USSR's placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba. During the tense 13-day crisis, some Americans prepared for nuclear war by buying up canned goods and completing last-minute work on their backyard bomb shelters.

This may just have been the start of the serious Prepping movement! You can bet that a lot more of the sheeple in the world would wake up if this kind of announcement came down from the government! But then, maybe not!

Some folks would never take anything like an official warning from the PTB as reason enough to start to prepare, not even if it came from the president!

Oh well...whadda ya gonna do?

Ready for fresh coffee on the patio? Very nice and crisp this morning!

10 comments:

Ben in Texas said...

Dang!! History I remember!! Yes I remember the drills in school to get under your desk and cover your head. Our family had an evacuation plan and where to meet in case of just such an event. A small town west of here with nothing of importance to attack by Russia.(Aunt and Uncle lived there) Course I'd have to walked cause I wasn't driving at the time.
People today have no idea how scary it was at the time with Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe and ranting "We will bury you!!"

Sixbears said...

I was too young to remember the speech, but I remember the duck and cover days. As a kid, I read all the civil defense pamphlets and concluded that no one was taking this seriously enough.

I could not talk my dad into building a bomb shelter. As a little kid I thought it would be a great club house.

Strange times.

Mechanic in Ilinois said...

If our dear Uncle Sugar was to make a statement like that I'm not sure anyone would believe him. Most would think the only way he would say someyhing like that was if he could make some money on it thru a bomb shelter tax. Thanks for the info and have a great Thursday.

TROUBLEnTX said...

Was a horrifying, scary time. A new school was built as a bomb shelter, and everybody here in town, got a letter telling them where to go, in case of nuclear war.
Some were directed to that, some to Longhorn Caverns.
There's a movie, 13 days. that covers that time.

JoJo said...

I remember the panic and the school drills. We went to the basement of the school and had to stay down and cover our heads.

Crisp morning you? Its cold Sweetie its cold and raining. Hot coffee is wonderful.

HermitJim said...

Hey Ben...
Boy, those old drills were pretty scary in their own right!

The image of that crazy Russian banging his shoe still is fresh in my memory!

Guess we were at least more aware of that threat than anything else!

Thanks, buddy, for coming by today!


Hey Sixbears...
I remember thinking just how my folks would protect us at the time.

I didn't know anyone that had a bomb shelter and felt somewhat left out and abandoned because of that fact!

We didn't have any idea just how worried our parents probably were.

Crazy times! Hey, thanks for coming over today!


Hey Mechanic...
I don't think that most people take the prez seriously enough to believe most of what he says!

You can bet they would find a way to tax shelters if they could!

Thanks for coming by this morning!


Hey Trouble...
At least back then we had some kind of plan!

Not sure it would have done much good, but at least it may have made us feel a little safer!

Thanks for dropping by today!


Hey JoJo...
Waking up and having the temps hovering around 68 or 70 is crisp here!

If I heard right, we are supposed to MAYBE get some rain this weekend! I sure hope so!

If we could just get to the point where sweat shirts could be worn...I'd be happy!

Thanks, sweetie, for coming over today!

Bob Mc said...

I remember. Showing my age huh? I wonder what became of all those bomb shelters people built.

Phyllis (N/W Jersey) said...

My Dad was the Civil Defense block captain way back then. We had the drills at school and at home, too. All the windows had to be covered at night. We even had a little shelter in the basement coal bin! (remember them?) I bet I still have his CD helmet hiding around somewhere...
By the way, it's STILL a good idea to be prepared. More so than ever.
Thanks for the coffee!

HermitJim said...

Hey Bob...
Well, you'll have plenty of company, that's for sure!

As far as the shelters, probably lots of folks still use them for storage! Either that or a Mother-In-Law house!

Thanks for the visit today!


Hey Phyllis...
You should find that helmet and start wearing it from time to time! Make the neighbors wonder what you're up to!

Not a bad idea to make a small shelter in the coal bin, if you are not using it! Can't ever tell!

Thanks for coming over today!

Unknown said...

The federal government responded to heightened public anxiety by creating the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA), later called the Office of Civil Defense, to instruct the public about how to prepare for a nuclear assault. The Eisenhower administration distributed information to educate Americans about how they could protect themselves. Survival literature was written primarily for a suburban audience, since it was assumed that cities would be targets and most urban dwellers would not survive. Officials at the FCDA stated that if people were educated and prepared for a nuclear attack, they could survive an atomic bomb and avoid the wholesale death and destruction that had occurred at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.