So anyhoo: getting back to our subject of a couple of posties ago, Santa brought me a lovely little first edition 1950 US Government handbook that could have come straight from the Fallout 4 game on my PS4. Gotta love the embossed mushroom cloud on the cover.
"Oooh, looky!" Hey, folks, why don't we stand here and stare at the nuclear apocalypse for a while?
"The sleep of reason breeds monsters" as they say. But if you survive the bomb you can breed some yourself. Just don't get jiggy for a couple of months after the radiation hits.
Don't worry … the highlighter is in Photoshop, NOT on the book! Yikes.
"Hot damn! Nearly blew my hat off! Better dust myself off and walk away."
Grease up your hair, guys, and get round that drawing board and design us an ingenious instrument. The text goes on to reveal that these ingenious instruments are not yet developed although military scientists - doubtless in short sleeves and slicked-back hair - are working hard to invent them. Reassuring …
Whooee! Cheesecake! If those folk in Hiroshima and Nagasaki had only known … Get nekkid and bury your clothes. Actually, why not do it BEFORE a nuclear war? And ladies: remember to adopt the coy pose shown in the illustration and wear your best satin undies at all times.
Best of all, as water supplies are endless and will not be disrupted or contaminated by all-out nuclear devastation, get your nekkid selves in the bathroom and scrub-a-dub dub. Your house, of course, will still be in perfect working order, just like those in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
So to recap: let's get nekkid as the bombs go off around us is about the best advice the US Government had to give in 1950.
I cannot fault that advice and intend to follow it in the next Cold War (coming soon to a planet near you).
4 comments:
"There Will Come Soft Rains" - Ray Bradbury. Highly recommended.
It's a goodie, Petrea. In return, I offer Raymond Briggs' "When The Wind Blows" graphic novelette.
I was about ten when we got those damn drills at school. They terrified me. I remember the bombing drills all too well. We practiced those after a (propaganda) film demonstrating the steps kids were to take if they happened to see an atomic "flash." "Duck and cover" came as a musical jingle, as kids leapt off their bicycles to dive into a street curb and covered their heads with their hands. Another scene showed a classroom of kids taking shelter beneath their desks to avoid falling plaster. Yeah, sure.
The worst part, though, were the scenes showing parades of goose-stepping Nazis marching in the streets along with tanks and cannons. I was afraid to go to bed at night for fear the Nazis would come. I mean, I really had trouble going up the stairs to my room. I don't know how long it lasted, but I don't remember having to see that film ever again, either. I wondered how many other kids were similarly affected and if their parents protested to the school? Or was the "fad" over?
Here's the film https://youtu.be/IKqXu-5jw60
with Bert the Turtle.
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