If I knew this before now, I had forgotten it. Guess we were a lot closer to major disaster than any of us thought! I have tried in vain to find a copy of that speech, even knowing it's out there somewhere! Maybe some of you will have better luck than I!
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.
Who knows what effect a statement like that coming from the White House in today's world would have? Might just be something we don't ever want to hear!
Let's have our coffee out on the patio this morning. Be careful, the hummingbirds are getting very aggressive!
Actually that kind of rhetoric has never really ceased. The public at large has just gotten immune and deaf to the constant shatter.
ReplyDeleteSmart people prep as a habit of life. Saving for a rainy day is not a new idea amongst the wise my friend.
I remember those days! You can probably find that speech among others if you go to the JFK Library
ReplyDeletesite. People better prepare now - it's going to get very interesting soon.
Coffee on the patio sounds like a great idea - I'll bring some fresh peach cobblers.
Very interest find. JFK was a great man in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteCoffee on the patio it is. Pass the pot please.
Out here in country folk land, we been "prepping" all our life and my parents and their parents and so forth. Except we call it every day living, stuff like canning and drying vegetables and raising critters for food. Only thing different in the last few years is that now we also stockikg up on fire arms and shells. Now we are ready to defend outselves and eat prety good all at the same time.
ReplyDeleteHey Spud...
ReplyDeleteI have to agree that it is a way of life for the people that want to be ready, or as ready as they can be!
Guess that was about the time of the awakening for some folks!
Thanks for coming over today!
Hey Phyllis...
So many things to distract us now days. Wonder if that's on purpose?
Thanks for thinking of the cobbler and for coming by to share it!
Hey Jo...
He certainly was a much better leader than most of those since!
He had his faults, but who doesn't?
Thanks, sweetie, for coming over.
Hey Bob...
Country folk have always had more common sense when it came to staying prepared for hard times, I think!
Just good thinking, if you ask me!
Thanks for dropping by today!
I remember there were a few people who built bomb shelters in my town, but those were abandoned by the late 60's.
ReplyDeleteThe public shelters really were a joke. Even as a kid I could see no one took this prep stuff seriously. I'd read the info and realized we really had little protection in the shelters and would have been safer in our home basement after a few modifications.