Cold War Bomb Shelter

The re-discovery of this civil defense shelter made me nostalgic:

Workers inspecting the structural foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge uncovered a Cold War-era trove of basic provisions that were stockpiled amid fears of a nuclear attack.

The stash, discovered in a vault under an entrance ramp, includes water drums, canisters of calorie-packed crackers, paper blankets, medical supplies and drugs that were used to treat shock.

The estimated 350,000 Civil Defense All-Purpose Survival Crackers are apparently still intact, said Joseph Vaccaro, a supervisor at the city Transportation Department. The metal water drums, each labeled "reuse as a commode," did not fare as well -- they're now empty.

... "It's kind of unusual to find (a shelter) fully intact -- one that is rediscovered, almost in an archaeological sense."

I remember dinner table conversation in the early sixties, when I was a first-grader, and when my father was making grandiose plans to build a state-of-the-art atomic bomb shelter. Lo and behold, one day after returning home from school I went behind my house, and Voila!: my father was busy as a beaver digging a big hole in the back yard! Apparently it was the Cuban Missile Crisis, and he was going to make a insta-shelter for the entire family unit. I felt happier when he relented to my demand that our dog Pepper be allowed into the shelter as well.

To my surprise, the hurried project was abandoned just a few days later, when the Missile Crisis passed. Over the next decade, the big hole became a children's fort, as well as handy source of mud clods for our incessant clod wars with the kids up the hill. The clunky water tanks lasted longer, and took up lots of garage space for years. The brand-new portable radio later became a prized possession, in the late 60's, when I discovered how readily it would pick up AM radio signals from distant cities like LA, Des Moines, St. Paul, and Dallas. Indeed, when DMTC needed a period, or near-period, radio prop in 2003, for "Grease" (for Amber Jean Moore's rendition of "It's Raining On Prom Night"), that portable radio came in very handy. And it's all because of the Cold War!