Spinoff thread: Remember air raid drills?

[Imzadi]

Anyone here old enough to remember those?

The thread about hearing sirens, other than for volunteer fire department, made me have to remember all the way back to old air raid drills back in the '60s. Wow, that was an old memory I had to dust off major cobwebs.

In school, when we heard the air raid alarm, we had to file out, single file, line up against the walls of the hallways with our heads against our forearms, like that was supposed to protect us against an incoming atomic bomb attack?

Who comes up with these ideas? That was about as helpful as telling us to duct tape sheets of clear plastic all our windows, a few years ago, against gases or some other fear-mongering warning, for something now I don't even remember what for.

 

[aprilgail2]

I remember that piercing loud air raid siren in the school and going out to the hall and kneeling down with arms over your head. If you couldn't get out then you went under your desk .... I am not sure if that is any worse than the intruder drill now where they pull all the shades, lock the classroom door and everyone piles into the closet until the all clear is given. THose started after columbine.
They actually used that one when they had a naked man with a knife trying to get into the school about 2 years ago. Everyone was in the closet-the kids with cells were calling home to get a parent to calm them down. We had a lock OUT last week where no one was allowed in or out of the school due to police activity in the area.

 

[snoopybabe]

I remember the air raid drills as well. We too would line up and go out into the hall, knell down with our hands over our heads. I remember that we had these thick glass blocks built into the tops of the wall. I remember thinking that if one of those blocks fell out & hit us in the head it would really hurt.

 

[Arenita]

I remember, too! We would sit cross-legged, backs against the hall wall...then put our heads down and cover the back of our heads with our hands. I remember thinking -at the age of 7 - "if we get hit, they are going to find a bunch of dead kids lined up along the wall"...???...never understood how that was going to help us.

Duct taping windows sound like hurricane prep...

 

[Imzadi]

I remember that piercing loud air raid siren in the school and going out to the hall and kneeling down with arms over your head. If you couldn't get out then you went under your desk .... I am not sure if that is any worse than the intruder drill now where they pull all the shades, lock the classroom door and everyone piles into the closet until the all clear is given. THose started after columbine.

To me, this plan also doesn't work and should be re-thought out. Police sharpshooters need to have "eyes" into a room, to be able to quickly and cleanly take out the suspect(s) wielding the weapon, about to use it on someone.

Also, I'd have the kids pushing every desk, bookcase, & table in front of the locked door, so that the intruder, even if he was able to get through the locked door, would have too much of a barricade to push through. Unless he was after one particular person he knew was in that classroom, I would think, most likely, he'd move on and try another room - and they would have barricaded themselves in also.

I understand that causes a potential hazard of not being able to get out in a fire, but when you weigh the real, at the moment danger of a madman, homicidal/suicidal student with an assault rifle against a possible fire starting at the same time, I'll take my chances and deal with a fire if that also happens.

 

[Imzadi]

Duct taping windows sound like hurricane prep...

Actually it was duct taping sheets of clear plastic over the windows to keep out toxic gases or something. (I corrected my OP.) It wasn't about flying glass. Maybe it was during the Y2K scare?

 

[Nancyg56]

I remember. We used to go down by the cafeteria and line up along the walls. There was a bomb shelter under teh school but we never needed to go down there. I was in second grade but I can still remember how scared we all were as we responded to that drill.

 

[eliza61]

Yep. even then I couldn't figure out how the heck a wooden desk was going to save me. LOL.

 

[stm61]

yup, the older schools had a cellar we went into, the newer ones we were in the hallways with our hands over our heads. I remember way back in 5k, they forgot to tell us to come up and left the entire kindergarten down there. They didn't remember until the parents showed up to claim their kids when it was time to leave. Thankfully it was only a half day program. I remember being jealous of the boys, they had pants on while the girls were sitting on a cold cement floor in dresses!

 

[snarlingcoyote]

I did this in school for tornado/hurricane drills.

And when I was in Kindergarten and 3rd grade we actually used the drills for real! The Kindergarten was in portable buildings and the 1st and 2nd graders were in open breezeway buildings, so we all had to hoof it down to the 3rd grade or 4th and 5th grade halls.

I remember in Kindergarten the teachers got the tornado alert as we were being marched to the buses (we got sent home ASAP in heavy rains as some kids lived down roads that flooded very easily), so we went to the 5th grade halls and huddled in the inside corridor with the Big kids for a while! It was very exciting. In the 3rd grade, we just went into the inside corridors for a while and then marched down to the 5th grade hall and sat bunch and crowded up in that corridor until the tornado was safely away. (for some reason, the 4th and 5th grade buildings were considered safest. I do not know why!)

That was 30 years ago or more! My goodness.

 

[caytlyn]

Duck and cover.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW4s7TETtJA


I'm to young to have been a part of this, but from what I read, telling kids to duck and cover was just way to give them something to do so they wouldn't feel so helpless and panic. It was in no way going to help them if they were really close, it might help them from falling debris, but mostly it was so they wouldn't run around and panic and get hurt. Gave them a sense of control over a hugely scary thing.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

If you watch TCM they will sometimes run old government stuff. I recently taped "Duck and Cover" and showed it to my kids.

It is pretty priceless. Oh I see someone has the "picnic part" of it. It is just hilarious.

 

[KathyTX]

I'll always remember the "duck and cover" drills! March into the hallway kneel on the floor facing the walls, one arm under your forehead, the other over the back of your neck.

We would have been so safe in the event of attack.

 

[perdidobay]

I remember the duck and cover drills, the old fallout shelter signs on public buildings, and somewhere I still have my stainless steel ID bracelet that some school systems bought to help identify my poor dead body in case a bombing did happen.