Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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How You Can Survive Fallout by PITT DICKEY When was the last time you pondered a nuclear attack? I thought so. Get a copy of the September 15, 1961 edition of Life magazine. This ���ne magazine has a scary cover picture of Dad wearing his $21.95 plastic civilian fallout suit. The cover blurb promised that 97 out of 100 Americans can be saved by building fallout shelters before the Commies drop the big one. September 1961 was a spooky time. Khrushchev was testing nukes in the atmosphere resulting in radioactive cooties drifting into American skies. Tensions were at the boiling point over Berlin. It was a really bad day at Black Rock. Life printed a letter from President Kennedy warning us to build fallout shelters. Life warned that if the nuke attack is aimed primarily at Nuclear fallout was a real conmilitary objectives that about 25 percent of cern in the 1950s. Americans would die. Some would die in the blasts but most would croak in the ���deadly cloud of radioactive dust and debris that would blow across the land.��� What to do? In big cities, subway tunnels offer ���excellent shelter.��� City dwellers should keep a portable supply of water ready because ���you can live several weeks without food but not without water.��� Imagine the fun of living in a subway tunnel in the Bronx in August for two weeks. The magazine didn���t explain how to carry around a two week supply of water. Life suggested several ways to protect the family from the ickyness of radiation sickness. Rudimentary suggestion ��� dig a cave in a hillside. If you didn���t have a hillside and a shovel handy, build double wooden walls in your basement and pack dirt in between the walls. I remember the great fallout shelter craze. At age 11, I was concerned we didn���t have a basement or a hillside to burrow into. All we had was a crawl space under our house. My mother bought two weeks of mandatory canned food. I really wasn���t looking forward to lying in the dirt for two weeks. There was a model fallout shelter at a bank next to Christ Methodist Church on Raeford Road. We used to play in its stairway after church. Lacking the key, we would have been in deep kim chi if the bomb dropped during Sunday School. Life had several cool options for do-it-yourself fallout shelters. Consider the ���Simple Room in the Basement with Concrete Blocks.��� It had a picture of Sis combing her hair with a big smile on her face. Dad is lighting up a Camel. Mom is tucking Little Billy into his bunk. Everyone was happy as a clam waiting for the all clear. Next was ���Big Pipe in Backyard under 3 Feet of Earth.��� Mom is making a bunk bed. Dad is getting ready to close and lock the bunker door. He is looking up nervously at the sky for the mushroom cloud. This shelter had a blower to suck in air which was to be ���ltered through a screen to remove fall out. ���The entire family can take turns working the blower.��� ���Double Walled Bunker for Safety Above Ground.��� Dad hands a rattle to baby held by Mom. Sis is happily sitting on a bunk. Brother Bill is skulking around the trash cans where the fresh water and human waste is stored. Looks like he might be getting ready to switch the cans around. FHA loans can ���nance your fallout shelter. Keep a pick and shovel in your shelter to dig out through radioactive debris after the nuking. Paint the inside walls bright colors to ���add more cheerfulness and increase illumination.��� The Wonder Corporation offers Prefab Fallout Shelters suitable for ���burial in the owner���s back yard.��� Teen-queen Amelia Wilson was photographed in the shelter chatting on the phone, lounging on a bunk, while drinking a Coke and waiting for the apocalypse. Those crazy teenagers, nothing fazes them. In case the attack comes, here is the sequence. Civil Defense siren wails for three to ���ve minutes. Flash from nuke comes next. Close your eyes and cover your face with your arm. Shock wave follows. Take cover so as not to be knocked down. If in a car, roll the windows down to avoid breaking glass. Count the seconds between the ���ash and the blast wave to ���gure how far you are from ground zero. Every ���ve seconds equals one mile. If you are contaminated by fallout, remove your clothing being careful not to peel off your burned skin, and wash carefully. The best ���rst aid for radiation sickness is hot tea and aspirin for PITT DICKEY, Contributing Writer, COMMENTS? Editor@ fever. Then kiss your fanny good bye. upandcomingweekly.com. 6 UCW SEPTEMBER 12-18, 2012 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM