Despite the world’s continued persistent existence, there seems to be a constant feeling of pervasive doom throughout humanity’s history. Whether it comes from Haley’s Comet or Mutually Assured Destruction or drug induced zombies, we all have to strong desire to plan for surviving the calamity at hand and for ways to get by in the land beyond the world’s end. Maybe this yearning to plan for terrors that may never come is some sort of existential statement on the fleeting nature of life, but one thing is for sure, it has resulted in some technological fads that seem to have come and gone. One such creation was that of the backyard fallout shelter, which would keep you safe from ‘The Bomb’ and its effects.
These days the focus is more on getting away from whatever is causing the end of the world. Have your bug-out bag ready and packed, a plan for avoiding the hordes, and a remote location all set to go for survival. But where have the backyard bunkers gone, outfitted for months of mole-like existence waiting for the inevitable fall out to pass? The nuclear nature of the world has not exactly moved on to complete peace and harmony, and yet the fears of an attack that would require this type of shelter seems mostly forgotten.
Does having such a stockpile in your yard make you too much of a target in these troubled times? Has our distrust in the goodness of human nature now extended to even our neighbors? Hunker down and ask yourself–what ever happened to the backyard atomic fallout shelter?
Images are from babyboomerdaily.com (first 2), juliettesgad.blogspot.com, and atomic-living.blogspot.com.
"Whatever happened to the backyard atomic fallout shelter?"
"I hear they went underground."
After three months of canned food it wasn't the fallout but the gas that got you.
gas from your own unventilated interior air and or unfiltered outside air supply. Notice how the ground offers protection and yet they use a thin wooden door to get to the outside. yah its sooo going to help save you.
A properly constructed fallout shelter does not need a thick door, there will be a 90 degree turn after the door into the "sheltered" portion. Radiation travels in straight lines, will not go around the corner. Now, if you're building a bomb shelter rather than a fallout shelter, that's a different type of door, a blast door.
While true, how many average people will remember that? If it were me I would double the amount of dirt covering on that shelter.
Any gas and carbon monoxide produced by the inhabitants should be put to good use by venting it to a grow room illuminated with uv lights. Plants thrive on our waste gases, growing rapidly and producing pure oxygen. A small 9v aquarium aeration pump drawing air from the grow room to your water supply will keep it clean.
I'm an old man. As a kid in the '50's (yes, I'm old), my father actually had a fallout shelter built in our house. Probably around 1956 or so. Lowered the ceiling in one part of the basement by putting 8" industrial steel I-beams across an area that was probably 20' x 12. Above the lowered ceiling, they placed about 6" of concrete blocks on top of plywood. Probably between existing floor joists.
(Like a brick pizza oven!) If you were over 5'5", you had to duck to get under the beams. There were a couple of couch/beds, chairs, and he had s storage closet full of food and medicine. Dad was a doctor and it was full of penicillin, syringes, and God only knows what else. He also kept a loaded gun there in case the zombies wanted in. Ventilation was through the door, which had a cement block L built in so that you had to turn and turn again to get in the room There was also a vent pipe that went through a former casement window to a point about 2' off the ground.
More curiously, we made this our family room. The family TV was there, and I remember as a young teenager taking my friends there to watch TV and hang out. We called it "The Shelter." Rolled off our tongues like it was normal.
My family moved in 1964 and the crisis with the Soviets was kinda over, so our new house didn't have a shelter and my father didn;t see the need to build one.
Many many years later I drove by the old house with my brother and we decided to introduce ourselves to the current owners. We met with the briefly, saw most of the house, but when we asked about the "shelter", she said it was just packed with junk storage.
There's a bomb shelter in my backyard, actually, complete with a hand-crank air filter and a 1/4" thick steel door. They're still out there! Look for houses built in the 50s near military bases.
They went to Switzerland. Shelters were (still are?) part of the building code. If you built a new building, no matter how big, you had to build a shelter. They were a popular place for various musical artists to rehearse, as they were sound proof… I stayed in a handful of really large ones while I served in the military. Those were under public building such as schools and town halls.
Ive heard about that… But then they are land locked in the middle of Europe.
That handbook looks curiously familiar….
http://atomictoasters.com/2011/11/playing-with-at…
Good sound advice never goes out of style.
I think they fell victim to products with easier marketing. Sure if you spend a lot on a campaign to sell a few people a $20,000 bomb shelter you might be able to get enough takers to make it worthwhile. Sell $200 survival kits on QVC and you're making money faster than your home printer could counterfeit it.
Want one? You might be interested in the grand prize of an upcoming reality show.
http://www.odditycentral.com/news/last-family-on-…
My folks didn't have a fallout shelter…..Newport Beach ranch-style homes rarely had basements. We didn't even have a POOL! Such a hard struggle. Did have a blacklight room
I vividly remember Duck & Cover drills.1st ,2nd & 3rd grade SoCal elementary school about 20 miles from El Toro Marine Base. The fire alarm would go into this staccato honk mode and us kids were expected to be under our desks, heads between our knees. Basically kissing our asses goodbye if that woodgrain Formica & flesh-tone painted metal desk didn't ward off the intense radiation. HELTER SHELTER!!!! Its comin' down fast!!!