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"Duck and Cover!"
Posted on 2011.10.11 at 23:28
Today while heading home from my job club meeting (yes, I'm STILL unemployed, sigh...) I noticed something interesting installed right next to the East Branch public library (built in 1969, renovated in 2007...)
This is actually an old civil defense siren, the same kind they used back in the 1950s and 1960s to warn us in case of a nuclear attack! During this time, the Cold War was going on, and we were all pretty much paranoid that World War Three could start very soon. I haven't seen any of these anywhere else in Brockton. I was told in areas where there were factories, they used the whistles as an air raid warning (of course, we NEVER got a nuclear attack thank goodness, but we've had plenty of practice drills throughout the 1950s.) It's pretty spooky just thinking about stuff like this...
Long story short, a single long siren blast means to keep on the alert, there MIGHT be a nuclear attack. (Or in a few areas, this would mean evacuate the city!) Continuous wavering siren blasts, or repeating intermittent whistle/horn blasts, would mean take cover immediately, the city will most likely be blown up! Go into the basement of where you live or are working, and pray.
Movies like "The Day After" have shown the horrors on what could happen if a nuclear war had started, yet some other stuff poked fun at it lightly, like "The Atomic Cafe" (all visual footage in it is just documentary films or stock footage!), "The Simpsons" (since Homer does work at a nuclear power plant), and "The Iron Giant" (taking place in 1957, when the threat was very real, complete with a parody of the old "Duck and Cover" movie!)
So as Bert the Turtle once said, "Remember what to do, friends! Now tell me right out loud. What are you supposed to do when you see the flash?" (as well as mushroom cloud, etc.)
"DUCK... AND COVER!"
Hmm... guess this kind of topic was appropriate for the Halloween season! XD
This is actually an old civil defense siren, the same kind they used back in the 1950s and 1960s to warn us in case of a nuclear attack! During this time, the Cold War was going on, and we were all pretty much paranoid that World War Three could start very soon. I haven't seen any of these anywhere else in Brockton. I was told in areas where there were factories, they used the whistles as an air raid warning (of course, we NEVER got a nuclear attack thank goodness, but we've had plenty of practice drills throughout the 1950s.) It's pretty spooky just thinking about stuff like this...
Long story short, a single long siren blast means to keep on the alert, there MIGHT be a nuclear attack. (Or in a few areas, this would mean evacuate the city!) Continuous wavering siren blasts, or repeating intermittent whistle/horn blasts, would mean take cover immediately, the city will most likely be blown up! Go into the basement of where you live or are working, and pray.
Movies like "The Day After" have shown the horrors on what could happen if a nuclear war had started, yet some other stuff poked fun at it lightly, like "The Atomic Cafe" (all visual footage in it is just documentary films or stock footage!), "The Simpsons" (since Homer does work at a nuclear power plant), and "The Iron Giant" (taking place in 1957, when the threat was very real, complete with a parody of the old "Duck and Cover" movie!)
So as Bert the Turtle once said, "Remember what to do, friends! Now tell me right out loud. What are you supposed to do when you see the flash?" (as well as mushroom cloud, etc.)
"DUCK... AND COVER!"
Hmm... guess this kind of topic was appropriate for the Halloween season! XD
