Starting kindergarten in 1956, I found myself in the middle of the Cold War. I don't remember talking much about current events in school, and we certainly had no understanding of the Cold War. We received the Weekly Reader, which covered some current events on a high level, and we were vaguely aware of "the Russians." But we were taught to fear them.
There was always the chance that "the Russians" would bomb us. So we practiced 'duck and cover' exercises. At a pre-arranged time, we were signaled to 'duck and cover.' There were two ways we did this. In some classes, we would get under our desks and cover our heads. In other classes, we would go out into the hallway, back to the wall, crouch down, and cover our heads. We were told to especially cover our eyes to avoid seeing the "flash." I'm not sure we ever knew what the flash was. All this was especially difficult for the girls - there was no such thing as wearing slacks in those days -- we were always in dresses.
Of course, as we learned later, 'duck and cover' wouldn't have protected us from a real nuclear bomb if it had fallen on us. I'm not sure if people initially thought this was some kind of protection or if they just wanted to scare us.
These drills were scary at first, but they eventually just became routine and a way to avoid classes. I don't remember when the drills stopped, but it was likely sometime in the early 1960s. But a whole generation of kids remembers these drills and our fear of "the Russians."
This week's #52Ancestors prompt is Off to School.
