The film was never shown in my schools, but we didn't need a film to make us aware of the danger. We were, after all, only a few miles distant from Moffet Field Naval Air Station (now Moffett Federal Airfield), a prime member of the San Francisco Bay Area target bullseye, there were air raid sirens on every block, and we were taught all the wrong stuff about how to deal with nukes... in school, we got on our knees, under our desks, something I always found pointless. At home, we filled the bathtub with water and hunkered down in the hallway of a wood-framed California rancher (1085 Blossom Drive, Santa Clara, California) which would have turned to dust at the first blast.
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Wow! That must have been frightening. I hope that I didn't belittle people's real fears during this time. That was not my intention.
My best recollection (it was, after all, nearly 70 years ago) is that it wasn't at all frightening. It was simply "what was." In retrospect, it was silly, since we were the very definition of Ground Zero, and nothing we did would have saved us. I can tell you that I still recall the chilling sound of that siren - that did frighten me.
Wow. I bet that was frightening. Thank you for sharing that perspective. I hadn't anticipated being able to hear from a primary source on this topic. I am so happy I did! Never underestimate the power of steemit.
When you live within a few miles of a prime military target, nothing is going to help.
When you're sitting on Ground Zero, that's exactly right.
I do not know exactly how far away Moffett Field was, but we could see the LTA hangers from my street, so yes, we were pretty damned close. In addition, the tract homes in our neighborhood were all wood-framed (they're still there) and would have quickly turned into toothpicks. The entire Bay Area is, of course, a prime target area...Mare Island, the Presidio, etc. , but none of that mattered to me - I was ten at the time.