How did you stay sane during the Cold War?
February 18, 2016 9:28 AM Subscribe
Nowadays we walk around with little devices that alert us anytime something even remotely frightening happens anywhere on earth. The threats posed by ISIS and other terrorist groups make it seem as though the world has never been more dangerous. But during the Cold War, the threat of nuclear annihilation loomed heavily and constantly. If you were a neurotic person alive during this time, how did you cope with the awareness of that constant threat?
I don't think I was more neurotic than any other teenager in the 80s, but I and my friends coped by ignoring it; making bad jokes; having nightmares; creating (terrible!) one-act plays about life after the inevitable nuclear holocaust; going to protests.
Also, it wasn't as constant a threat - well, awareness of it wasn't as constant - precisely because we did not have devices to alert us to All the Things at All Times. Newspapers came out once a day. Not everyone had cable, so if you wanted to watch the news on TV, you had to wait until CBS/ABC/NBC was showing you the evening news. "Ignoring it" was a lot easier in many respects because of this.
posted by rtha at 9:33 AM on February 18, 2016 [12 favorites]
Also, it wasn't as constant a threat - well, awareness of it wasn't as constant - precisely because we did not have devices to alert us to All the Things at All Times. Newspapers came out once a day. Not everyone had cable, so if you wanted to watch the news on TV, you had to wait until CBS/ABC/NBC was showing you the evening news. "Ignoring it" was a lot easier in many respects because of this.
posted by rtha at 9:33 AM on February 18, 2016 [12 favorites]
well, awareness of it wasn't as constant - precisely because we did not have devices to alert us to All the Things at All Times
I've asked my grandmother about this before. She's a hardcore worrier, always has been, and cries often about all of the bad things going on in the world and how it just wasn't like this, etc, etc. She was born in 1924. When I counter with things like "YOU HAD FAMILY OVERSEAS IN WW2" and "YOU LIVED NEARLY HALF YOUR LIFE UNDER THREAT OF NUCLEAR WAR" she counters brightly with "oh, don't I know it, honey! we used to have our kids [she was a schoolteacher and principal] do drills hiding under the desks! but we just didn't have the problems we have today!"
If she had had 24 hour news channels yelling at her about humanity's imminent demise and reminding her constantly that not-white people are a thing back then like she does today, I suspect her memories wouldn't be quite so rosy.
Access to information. I think it really is that simple.
posted by phunniemee at 9:42 AM on February 18, 2016 [4 favorites]
I've asked my grandmother about this before. She's a hardcore worrier, always has been, and cries often about all of the bad things going on in the world and how it just wasn't like this, etc, etc. She was born in 1924. When I counter with things like "YOU HAD FAMILY OVERSEAS IN WW2" and "YOU LIVED NEARLY HALF YOUR LIFE UNDER THREAT OF NUCLEAR WAR" she counters brightly with "oh, don't I know it, honey! we used to have our kids [she was a schoolteacher and principal] do drills hiding under the desks! but we just didn't have the problems we have today!"
If she had had 24 hour news channels yelling at her about humanity's imminent demise and reminding her constantly that not-white people are a thing back then like she does today, I suspect her memories wouldn't be quite so rosy.
Access to information. I think it really is that simple.
posted by phunniemee at 9:42 AM on February 18, 2016 [4 favorites]
Not only did I grow up in the Cold War, my dad was USAF in the Strategic Air Command, so I lived some places where there were bombers on the runway ready to go 24 X 7, and fighter jets buzzing the base housing area was a daily occurrence.
I've thought much more about that stuff as an adult than I ever did growing up. It was just reality. The bombers, the jets, the threat of war was just background noise in my life. I worried about the same stuff kids do today; not making the final out in the Little League game, does Sally like me, or like-like me, etc.
Today, I actually find the sound of military jet planes at low altitude soothing and comforting. It reminds me of the carefree days growing up under the threat of nuclear annihilation.
posted by COD at 9:42 AM on February 18, 2016 [19 favorites]
I've thought much more about that stuff as an adult than I ever did growing up. It was just reality. The bombers, the jets, the threat of war was just background noise in my life. I worried about the same stuff kids do today; not making the final out in the Little League game, does Sally like me, or like-like me, etc.
Today, I actually find the sound of military jet planes at low altitude soothing and comforting. It reminds me of the carefree days growing up under the threat of nuclear annihilation.
posted by COD at 9:42 AM on February 18, 2016 [19 favorites]
It's like anxiety over damn near any/everything. Either it eats you up and controls your life, or you remain ignorant (blissful or otherwise), or you accept there are far too many things in life you can't control (stop worrying and love the bomb.. )
posted by k5.user at 9:42 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by k5.user at 9:42 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
I tried to ignore it when I could (which was easier then) and I lived in fear and dread when I was forced to pay attention to it. There were one or two teachers who strongly believed that ignoring the threat was dangerous, even reprehensible complacency. Yet, it wasn't clear what I as a teenager with no money, no resources and no means of transportation was supposed to do about it.
Whenever a mention in the newspapers came up of Nostradamus I fretted. It was speculated that 1986 would be the year it happened. 1986 came and went. It didn't happen. Gorbachev took office. Political cartoons took the view that there was no chance of nuclear war now. The fear never entirely left me, but it did taper off.
Until then, basically I lived in fear when confronted with information I couldn't avoid, ignored it when I could, and in general lived with the full expectation of a total breakdown of society before the end of my own lifetime. This expectation hasn't really ever left me. As for living in fear, it was pretty clear that was what society wanted me to do.
My dad tended to scoff at the threat, having lived through World War II and seen combat himself. I didn't know what to make of his attitude, given that he had never been directly or indirectly affected by a nuclear strike.
posted by tel3path at 9:45 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
Whenever a mention in the newspapers came up of Nostradamus I fretted. It was speculated that 1986 would be the year it happened. 1986 came and went. It didn't happen. Gorbachev took office. Political cartoons took the view that there was no chance of nuclear war now. The fear never entirely left me, but it did taper off.
Until then, basically I lived in fear when confronted with information I couldn't avoid, ignored it when I could, and in general lived with the full expectation of a total breakdown of society before the end of my own lifetime. This expectation hasn't really ever left me. As for living in fear, it was pretty clear that was what society wanted me to do.
My dad tended to scoff at the threat, having lived through World War II and seen combat himself. I didn't know what to make of his attitude, given that he had never been directly or indirectly affected by a nuclear strike.
posted by tel3path at 9:45 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
Tried not to think about it, with the result being the occasional horrific nightmare.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 9:46 AM on February 18, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by 1970s Antihero at 9:46 AM on February 18, 2016 [4 favorites]
I mostly deal with it by not giving a shit about ISIS or whatever penny-ante nonsense threat we are supposed to be afraid of this week, because I remember the cold war and this is nothing.
Although I didn't really understand how insane it was at the time, being a kid and all - it was just the way things were. I did have a lot of anxiety to deal with when I reached adulthood, though.
posted by Mars Saxman at 9:51 AM on February 18, 2016 [3 favorites]
Although I didn't really understand how insane it was at the time, being a kid and all - it was just the way things were. I did have a lot of anxiety to deal with when I reached adulthood, though.
posted by Mars Saxman at 9:51 AM on February 18, 2016 [3 favorites]
I think that saying that the threat of nuclear annihilation loomed constantly during the Cold War is like saying the threat of terrorism and mass shootings loom constantly now. We know that both of those things can happen at any time, but most people don't really think about it that much on a day to day basis. When there's another shooting in the news or a major terrorist attack (in a place that we think of as "like us" - such as Paris), we tend to think about it a lot for maybe a few days, then we just get on with our lives until something pushes it into the news again.
I was a child during the 60s, when there were commercials running about what to do in the case of nuclear fallout and we had "bomb drills" at school. I used to mix up the bomb drills and the tornado drills (people in the midwest don't actually think about tornadoes that much either - I always find TV depictions of midwesterners and tornadoes laughable). When I saw an airplane in the 60s, I would wonder if it was going to drop a bomb, but I wasn't terrified about it. I don't really think it was a big part of my life. I think there's some sort of coping mechanism that kicks in that causes people to normalize what they're living through. I was in high school in the 70s, and by then, I hardly thought about nuclear war at all. I was much more concerned about whether my brother was going to have to go to Vietnam - and my parents fought about whether he should go to Canada (the war ended just before he was draft age).
Let me also add that I have suffered from severe anxiety my entire life, including my childhood - but the Cold War was never a big contributor to that - not when I was a child, not when I was a teen, not when I was a young adult.
posted by FencingGal at 9:56 AM on February 18, 2016 [4 favorites]
I was a child during the 60s, when there were commercials running about what to do in the case of nuclear fallout and we had "bomb drills" at school. I used to mix up the bomb drills and the tornado drills (people in the midwest don't actually think about tornadoes that much either - I always find TV depictions of midwesterners and tornadoes laughable). When I saw an airplane in the 60s, I would wonder if it was going to drop a bomb, but I wasn't terrified about it. I don't really think it was a big part of my life. I think there's some sort of coping mechanism that kicks in that causes people to normalize what they're living through. I was in high school in the 70s, and by then, I hardly thought about nuclear war at all. I was much more concerned about whether my brother was going to have to go to Vietnam - and my parents fought about whether he should go to Canada (the war ended just before he was draft age).
Let me also add that I have suffered from severe anxiety my entire life, including my childhood - but the Cold War was never a big contributor to that - not when I was a child, not when I was a teen, not when I was a young adult.
posted by FencingGal at 9:56 AM on February 18, 2016 [4 favorites]
In my neighborhood mostly we just played lots of Gamma World.
posted by notyou at 10:10 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by notyou at 10:10 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
I was born in -63, and my dad was in the army, so it was never not present.
As a young teen - 12-14 years, I was always honing my prepping skills, imagining how I could survive the nuclear waste etc. I didn't really worry, it was more like a game or being a scout (which I was for a year or so, but I was much better at bivouacking than them so I quit).
Later, I began to realize how broke the East Block was, and I challenged my dad and then my step-father who was in the arms industry. Meeting refugees from the East and hearing their stories, I didn't believe that the USSR could launch any type of war against the West. Obviously, their failure in Afghanistan was reported widely.
However, some people I know seem to be permanently damaged by the fear. It's sad and scary, because they were lied to. Mostly they are somewhat older than me.
posted by mumimor at 10:11 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
As a young teen - 12-14 years, I was always honing my prepping skills, imagining how I could survive the nuclear waste etc. I didn't really worry, it was more like a game or being a scout (which I was for a year or so, but I was much better at bivouacking than them so I quit).
Later, I began to realize how broke the East Block was, and I challenged my dad and then my step-father who was in the arms industry. Meeting refugees from the East and hearing their stories, I didn't believe that the USSR could launch any type of war against the West. Obviously, their failure in Afghanistan was reported widely.
However, some people I know seem to be permanently damaged by the fear. It's sad and scary, because they were lied to. Mostly they are somewhat older than me.
posted by mumimor at 10:11 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
I think that saying that the threat of nuclear annihilation loomed constantly during the Cold War is like saying the threat of terrorism and mass shootings loom constantly now.
Pretty much this, except we knew that if The Bomb happened, everyone would die, pretty much instantly, and there was nothing you could do. If you google stuff like "80s nuclear war" you'll see how pervasive The Bomb was in our art and music and television.
I know I had the occasional kid-anxiety sleepless night over it, and as an older teenager it was The Bomb in one hand and AIDS in the other (and Reagan in both!), but there wasn't actually much to know on a day-to-day basis. I mean, if we'd had a true instant 24-hour News Cycle then the media would have found stuff to perseverate on, I'm sure. But it was sort of a miasmic threat and not really a thing that changed very quickly except on a few notable occasiona.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:12 AM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
Pretty much this, except we knew that if The Bomb happened, everyone would die, pretty much instantly, and there was nothing you could do. If you google stuff like "80s nuclear war" you'll see how pervasive The Bomb was in our art and music and television.
I know I had the occasional kid-anxiety sleepless night over it, and as an older teenager it was The Bomb in one hand and AIDS in the other (and Reagan in both!), but there wasn't actually much to know on a day-to-day basis. I mean, if we'd had a true instant 24-hour News Cycle then the media would have found stuff to perseverate on, I'm sure. But it was sort of a miasmic threat and not really a thing that changed very quickly except on a few notable occasiona.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:12 AM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
In fifth grade, we watched the usual films about what to do in case of nuclear warfare, and got pretty freaked out. Our teacher reassured us by getting out a Thomas Bros. guide and showing us all the places around us in Southern California that were targets: all the Air Force bases, the Navy bases, the Marine bases, etc. She told us that the chances of our living were pretty much nonexistent, so we wouldn't have to worry about fallout or radiation, or bunkers; we'd just see a flash of white light, and that would be it, then we'd be dead.
Bizarrely enough, I found that fairly comforting. Knowing there was absolutely nothing I could do, there was no point in worrying about it, so I got on with the usual worries of fifth grade.
posted by culfinglin at 10:12 AM on February 18, 2016 [8 favorites]
Bizarrely enough, I found that fairly comforting. Knowing there was absolutely nothing I could do, there was no point in worrying about it, so I got on with the usual worries of fifth grade.
posted by culfinglin at 10:12 AM on February 18, 2016 [8 favorites]
I agree with FencingGal. Mostly, you just went about your business thinking that international relations weren't any worse today than they were last week, and nothing bad happened last week. The exception was the Cuban Missile Crisis.
I still worry about all those nuclear missiles in silos and submarines, though. Especially when the new reports that the crews are all doing drugs.
posted by SemiSalt at 10:12 AM on February 18, 2016
I still worry about all those nuclear missiles in silos and submarines, though. Especially when the new reports that the crews are all doing drugs.
posted by SemiSalt at 10:12 AM on February 18, 2016
Baby-boomer here, born mid-50s. Did all the stop-drop-and-roll drills, for everything from forest fires to hurricanes to nuclear bombs.
You ever see the films where, when the kids on a sidewalk see the flash of light that indicates an atom bomb has just detonated, the proper response is to huddle against a building or dive under your desk, 'cause that'll supposedly protect you from fallout? Yeah, that was a standard. My father was a US Navy submariner, deeply involved in Polaris missiles --- i.e. nuclear warheads: yes indeedy, I knew damn well and good at an early age that those things were real with a capital R. And the Cold War did have a noticeable direct effect on my life: unlike most military families we never lived overseas, because there was a strongly-held belief higher up the command chain that if people like my dad were stationed in Europe or wherever, then it would give the big bad commies a good opportunity to kidnap us to force Dad to do their un-American bidding. (No kidding, I've seen the paperwork.)
It just was what it was, the background to life.
We lived through the Cold War the same way everybody in every era has lived through stuff: everything from Roman conquests and wars, the bubonic plague, the Great Fire of London, the Inquisition, all the modern terrorists, every war or natural disaster ever anywhere..... you just keep going. It's pretty much background noise, just as ISIS is today: yeah, we know they're out there; yeah, there's a not-zero chance they'll affect me personally; but also yeah, it's unlikely they'll affect me personally.
posted by easily confused at 10:36 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
You ever see the films where, when the kids on a sidewalk see the flash of light that indicates an atom bomb has just detonated, the proper response is to huddle against a building or dive under your desk, 'cause that'll supposedly protect you from fallout? Yeah, that was a standard. My father was a US Navy submariner, deeply involved in Polaris missiles --- i.e. nuclear warheads: yes indeedy, I knew damn well and good at an early age that those things were real with a capital R. And the Cold War did have a noticeable direct effect on my life: unlike most military families we never lived overseas, because there was a strongly-held belief higher up the command chain that if people like my dad were stationed in Europe or wherever, then it would give the big bad commies a good opportunity to kidnap us to force Dad to do their un-American bidding. (No kidding, I've seen the paperwork.)
It just was what it was, the background to life.
We lived through the Cold War the same way everybody in every era has lived through stuff: everything from Roman conquests and wars, the bubonic plague, the Great Fire of London, the Inquisition, all the modern terrorists, every war or natural disaster ever anywhere..... you just keep going. It's pretty much background noise, just as ISIS is today: yeah, we know they're out there; yeah, there's a not-zero chance they'll affect me personally; but also yeah, it's unlikely they'll affect me personally.
posted by easily confused at 10:36 AM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
Retreat into a fantasy world; never come out.
posted by The otter lady at 10:43 AM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by The otter lady at 10:43 AM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
I meant to also say that as a part of the general zeitgeist the younger siblings of my cohort (graduated high school in 1990, many of us had fathers that were either Vietnam veterans or lucked out of the draft), the "Russians" were the de facto bad guy of playground games. Probably in part because We Didn't Talk About Vietnam, but there was very much this sense of spies and intelligence and infiltration; a lot of imaginary guns but not a lot of imaginary bombs.
the films where, when the kids on a sidewalk see the flash of light that indicates an atom bomb has just detonated, the proper response is to huddle against a building or dive under your desk, 'cause that'll supposedly protect you from fallout?
By the time the last wave of Gen X kids started school in the mid-late 70s, they didn't bother with these anymore. We didn't even learn to hide under our desks for tornadoes and we did drill for those. Public buildings did still have the yellow and black radiation symbol Fallout Shelter signs pointing to the basement or whatever, but by the time I was out of college in the mid-90s they were already being switched over to a more generic sign as the actuall fallout features were decommissioned or removed.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:04 AM on February 18, 2016 [4 favorites]
the films where, when the kids on a sidewalk see the flash of light that indicates an atom bomb has just detonated, the proper response is to huddle against a building or dive under your desk, 'cause that'll supposedly protect you from fallout?
By the time the last wave of Gen X kids started school in the mid-late 70s, they didn't bother with these anymore. We didn't even learn to hide under our desks for tornadoes and we did drill for those. Public buildings did still have the yellow and black radiation symbol Fallout Shelter signs pointing to the basement or whatever, but by the time I was out of college in the mid-90s they were already being switched over to a more generic sign as the actuall fallout features were decommissioned or removed.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:04 AM on February 18, 2016 [4 favorites]
Gen Xer here, and I grew up on Vancouver Island, in Canada. We just pretended nuclear annihilation would happen someplace else. Nobody really considered the fact that there is a navy base here, or five hours north there is an air force base with runways long enough for B-52's. Or that at least ten American missile subs are based just an hour south of here. Or that there is a major refinery just on the other side of the strait. Or that Vancouver is Canada's largest port.
We just thought: it's Canada, it can't happen here.
I still had dreams about nuclear war though.
posted by My Dad at 11:21 AM on February 18, 2016
We just thought: it's Canada, it can't happen here.
I still had dreams about nuclear war though.
posted by My Dad at 11:21 AM on February 18, 2016
I grew up in the agrarian rural south, in a county that's geographically about 80% Air Force Base and Army National Guard training camp. The latter is a place where people learn to use heavy artillery in shelling campaigns, so there is (or was) an almost daily routine of distant, earth-shaking explosions and automatic gunfire.
I responded to this context as did most of my peers, by being very "America, fuck yeah!" Looking back, it seems like a very apparent kind of propaganda, but at the time it felt comforting and awesome. My entire second grade class got to ride in a damn C-130, and during the flight they dropped the back hatch so we could look out over where we lived from our strapped-in seats. Fuck yeah!
The shiny edge of that wore off quickly as I got older, but I still enjoyed being exposed to things like the pirate radio from Base and dudes in flight suits. I was 10 when the Berlin Wall came down, so it wasn't long after that that I learned our area was a target for nuclear bombardment becauseof said military presence. That shit takes the sheen off real fast, but is usually discovered in hindsight.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 11:47 AM on February 18, 2016
I responded to this context as did most of my peers, by being very "America, fuck yeah!" Looking back, it seems like a very apparent kind of propaganda, but at the time it felt comforting and awesome. My entire second grade class got to ride in a damn C-130, and during the flight they dropped the back hatch so we could look out over where we lived from our strapped-in seats. Fuck yeah!
The shiny edge of that wore off quickly as I got older, but I still enjoyed being exposed to things like the pirate radio from Base and dudes in flight suits. I was 10 when the Berlin Wall came down, so it wasn't long after that that I learned our area was a target for nuclear bombardment becauseof said military presence. That shit takes the sheen off real fast, but is usually discovered in hindsight.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 11:47 AM on February 18, 2016
I grew up in the 80s and lived not far from Oak Ridge National Labs. It was pretty much a given that if the Big One ever happened, we wouldn't live to see the fall out.
We all thought the well-known bomb making factory would be the most logical target. Not where the president was, or the financial center, or large cities with mass amounts of population. A little town in Tennessee would be the primary target...yeah.
So it was kind of comforting to not think about what would happen after the bomb dropped. Other than that, it was just the same sort of nebulous fear about being a grown up that was always there.
Although, I remember being a teenager and CONVINCED that Operation Desert Storm was going to turn into the next Vietnam and the draft was coming back and all my friends were going to die.
Little did I know that a decade or so later we'd start a war in earnest and sustain it for almost two decades with an all volunteer army.
posted by teleri025 at 11:54 AM on February 18, 2016
We all thought the well-known bomb making factory would be the most logical target. Not where the president was, or the financial center, or large cities with mass amounts of population. A little town in Tennessee would be the primary target...yeah.
So it was kind of comforting to not think about what would happen after the bomb dropped. Other than that, it was just the same sort of nebulous fear about being a grown up that was always there.
Although, I remember being a teenager and CONVINCED that Operation Desert Storm was going to turn into the next Vietnam and the draft was coming back and all my friends were going to die.
Little did I know that a decade or so later we'd start a war in earnest and sustain it for almost two decades with an all volunteer army.
posted by teleri025 at 11:54 AM on February 18, 2016
I was born in 61, fairly neurotic, and don't recall worrying much about it, or hearing anybody my age actually ever sounding worried about it. But I didn't watch TV news that much either.
I was far more worried about becoming possessed by the devil, due to The Exorcist coming out when I was 12 or so.
posted by serena15221 at 12:59 PM on February 18, 2016
I was far more worried about becoming possessed by the devil, due to The Exorcist coming out when I was 12 or so.
posted by serena15221 at 12:59 PM on February 18, 2016
But I didn't watch TV news that much either.
You just made me realize: even really horrible news was really only available to consume a few times a day at best, for less than an hour each time (not counting morning shows, but even then those were actual news-news for maybe 4-7 minutes of each hour). It's sort of hard to describe now how little detail we knew about most things and how few opportunities we had to know it, but news just wasn't intrusive then like it is now.
Even for adults, if you had a job and kids of the age that required a lot of dinner-bedtime involvement, it's likely the only news you consumed was a morning show (like Good Morning America) on TV in the background while you got ready in the morning, maybe the nightly news before catching a little Johnny Carson (maybe another mention of one major news story there) and going to bed. Maybe you did more than flip through the newspaper, or got Newsweek or US News magazine. For kids, you might have had the dinnertime news on during dinner and the occasional Very Special Episode of one of your favorite TV shows.
There was very much a sense of these things happening somewhere a long way away. It did prey on people's anxieties, but it was kind of a thing that got talked about the way we talk about zombies now. You might joke that you had extra cans of soup in case the bomb went off, and that lingering concern might be why you kept guns in the house or never let your car get below a quarter tank or triple-checked that all the doors and windows were locked before you could get to sleep. But we had the weird comfort of Mutually Assured Destruction and a feeling of "they won't do it because there'll be nothing to win, and neither will we. Probably..."
Certainly, as children, we had much, much bigger things to worry about: Jaws coming up your bathtub drain, that fucking clown doll from Poltergeist, and the devil making you puke pea soup.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:38 PM on February 18, 2016 [5 favorites]
You just made me realize: even really horrible news was really only available to consume a few times a day at best, for less than an hour each time (not counting morning shows, but even then those were actual news-news for maybe 4-7 minutes of each hour). It's sort of hard to describe now how little detail we knew about most things and how few opportunities we had to know it, but news just wasn't intrusive then like it is now.
Even for adults, if you had a job and kids of the age that required a lot of dinner-bedtime involvement, it's likely the only news you consumed was a morning show (like Good Morning America) on TV in the background while you got ready in the morning, maybe the nightly news before catching a little Johnny Carson (maybe another mention of one major news story there) and going to bed. Maybe you did more than flip through the newspaper, or got Newsweek or US News magazine. For kids, you might have had the dinnertime news on during dinner and the occasional Very Special Episode of one of your favorite TV shows.
There was very much a sense of these things happening somewhere a long way away. It did prey on people's anxieties, but it was kind of a thing that got talked about the way we talk about zombies now. You might joke that you had extra cans of soup in case the bomb went off, and that lingering concern might be why you kept guns in the house or never let your car get below a quarter tank or triple-checked that all the doors and windows were locked before you could get to sleep. But we had the weird comfort of Mutually Assured Destruction and a feeling of "they won't do it because there'll be nothing to win, and neither will we. Probably..."
Certainly, as children, we had much, much bigger things to worry about: Jaws coming up your bathtub drain, that fucking clown doll from Poltergeist, and the devil making you puke pea soup.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:38 PM on February 18, 2016 [5 favorites]
Like COD, I grew up on SAC bases, and have lived most of my life on Class 1 military targets (including now: the DC area, but at least I'm upwind). In elementary school I did the drills and figured the adults would know how to handle things. As a teenager I became much more aware of how truly dire the situation was and developed an extremely dark sense of humor. I was pretty emotionless right up until the Berlin Wall fell, and was astonished by thirty years of tears pouring out. The sense of relief I felt was unbelievable.
Others have pointed out that news wasn't as in-your-face. Had it been, I think many more people would have had feelings that bordered on panic. Terrorism is localized, but back then we were betting the entire fucking planet on the hope that the leaders on each side were (mostly) rational.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:23 PM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
Others have pointed out that news wasn't as in-your-face. Had it been, I think many more people would have had feelings that bordered on panic. Terrorism is localized, but back then we were betting the entire fucking planet on the hope that the leaders on each side were (mostly) rational.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:23 PM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
There wasn't as much TV news, but written news was a much bigger part of life. My parents generally subscribed to four daily papers (two from the town we actually lived in and two from Chicago, the closest major city) in addition to Time and Life, which came weekly. And they sat down and read them. The four newspapers were probably a bit much, but many people got at least two (one local, one big city). I was reading the stories I found interesting in elementary school, and I don't think that was unusual. In the morning, you'd pick the paper up off the porch, and that was how you found out the big thing that happened the day before. I especially remember all of the pictures in Life (the Charles Whitman shooting - now that scared the bejeezus out of me - the Texas tower looked like a bell tower in our town, so I was always scared when we drove past it - and the Manson killings were terrifying). TV news was an extra - it wasn't the main source of news except for something like the Kennedy assassination, when a lot was happening in real time. Written news just wasn't as sensationalistic as TV news, and it wasn't blaring at you at all times. But the stuff that was scary to me was stuff like the Whitman shooting, the Speck murders, the Manson murders - that registered way more for me than the threat of nuclear war.
But even with news in our face all the time now, I still think that we learn to quickly disregard what doesn't directly affect us. If you didn't know somebody who was hurt in the most recent mass shooting, you probably aren't thinking about that much right now, even though you know it's just a matter of time until there's another one.
The people who are answering this question are, of course, coming from a broad range of time periods. By the 1980s, TV news was more important. I was born in 1958, and the newspaper was the more significant source of news during my childhood, though I do vividly recall watching JFK's funeral on TV.
posted by FencingGal at 2:44 PM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
But even with news in our face all the time now, I still think that we learn to quickly disregard what doesn't directly affect us. If you didn't know somebody who was hurt in the most recent mass shooting, you probably aren't thinking about that much right now, even though you know it's just a matter of time until there's another one.
The people who are answering this question are, of course, coming from a broad range of time periods. By the 1980s, TV news was more important. I was born in 1958, and the newspaper was the more significant source of news during my childhood, though I do vividly recall watching JFK's funeral on TV.
posted by FencingGal at 2:44 PM on February 18, 2016 [1 favorite]
When I was a kid, my father worked for a defense contractor and in the early 60s, he was stationed for a while in Hawaii while we stayed behind in New England. So I guess it would've been in Autumn of 1962, he called my mother long distance! in the middle of the night! to tell her to go to the grocery store when it opened in the morning and stock up on canned goods and to fill up jugs with water. My poor mother, stuck by herself with three little kids, went out the next morning and filled the station wagon with food. I remember a door propped up on sawhorses down cellar, stacked with tins and bottles that we gradually used up over the next couple years. She never told us until decades later about the call.
When the Berlin Wall came down, it was like a miracle.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 3:55 PM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
When the Berlin Wall came down, it was like a miracle.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 3:55 PM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
Born in mid-50s. Had some nightmares. I was definitely scared in a kind of low-level, intermittent way. One time my mom gifted me with a bag of beef jerky, a rare treat. It's the only time I remember her buying any (and have no idea why she did). Anyway, I realised that stuff would last for a long time so I decided not to open it. I was saving it for the coming crisis, and my mom would be proud of my forethought. Think I ate it all on day 3.
posted by Bella Donna at 5:26 PM on February 18, 2016
posted by Bella Donna at 5:26 PM on February 18, 2016
To me it's like asking how do you deal with the sky being blue. I don't "deal with it," it just is.
I was born in 1970, nth generation chronic worrier. While I never did nuke drills as a kid (because by that time the naïveté of Duck & Cover had given way to Mutually Assured Destruction, so what's the point?) I knew that my house was in the target zone for a second wave nuclear strike. (They showed the maps in school. I found it comforting that I was in the "immediate death" zone rather than the "lingering death by radiation" zone.) I watched The Day After and had nightmares. I doodled mushroom clouds and ICBMs and disfigured caricatures of the Soviet Premiere in my notebooks. We'd make dark jokes about it. But I didn't particularly worry about it because you can't—you'd almost immediately die of exhaustion. There's nothing you can do about it and (particularly in the latter half of the Cold War) there was no surviving it, salt mine gap or no salt mine gap. We read the propaganda from the 60's about how to survive a strike and laughed about how naive it was. But while we were waiting for unavoidable extinction, we had laundry to do and school to attend and the world still kept on turning. I probably went to confession more often because I didn't want to get caught with my spiritual pants down. All the leaded gasoline fumes I was breathing was probably worse for me, but I didn't even know about those. Or the DDT. Or a zillion other things.
Humanity has always had existential threats. War, plague, asteroids, predators, ice ages, whatever. The only difference now is that we are hyper aware of them because unfiltered fear is constantly pouring into our head holes. In the 80's we had a half our of national news in the evening (I was a weird kid because I actually watched it) and maybe a few minute recap on the local news. And you could read the newspaper, if you had one delivered. My family did, but I never read it. Other than that, there were no constant reminders short of the occasional Emergency Broadcast System tests, a few Fallout Shelter signs and the knowledge that the shelter under my school was problematic because it was full of asbestos.
But yeah, the fall of the Berlin Wall... It was like surfacing after decades at the bottom of the ocean.
posted by Ookseer at 5:57 PM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
I was born in 1970, nth generation chronic worrier. While I never did nuke drills as a kid (because by that time the naïveté of Duck & Cover had given way to Mutually Assured Destruction, so what's the point?) I knew that my house was in the target zone for a second wave nuclear strike. (They showed the maps in school. I found it comforting that I was in the "immediate death" zone rather than the "lingering death by radiation" zone.) I watched The Day After and had nightmares. I doodled mushroom clouds and ICBMs and disfigured caricatures of the Soviet Premiere in my notebooks. We'd make dark jokes about it. But I didn't particularly worry about it because you can't—you'd almost immediately die of exhaustion. There's nothing you can do about it and (particularly in the latter half of the Cold War) there was no surviving it, salt mine gap or no salt mine gap. We read the propaganda from the 60's about how to survive a strike and laughed about how naive it was. But while we were waiting for unavoidable extinction, we had laundry to do and school to attend and the world still kept on turning. I probably went to confession more often because I didn't want to get caught with my spiritual pants down. All the leaded gasoline fumes I was breathing was probably worse for me, but I didn't even know about those. Or the DDT. Or a zillion other things.
Humanity has always had existential threats. War, plague, asteroids, predators, ice ages, whatever. The only difference now is that we are hyper aware of them because unfiltered fear is constantly pouring into our head holes. In the 80's we had a half our of national news in the evening (I was a weird kid because I actually watched it) and maybe a few minute recap on the local news. And you could read the newspaper, if you had one delivered. My family did, but I never read it. Other than that, there were no constant reminders short of the occasional Emergency Broadcast System tests, a few Fallout Shelter signs and the knowledge that the shelter under my school was problematic because it was full of asbestos.
But yeah, the fall of the Berlin Wall... It was like surfacing after decades at the bottom of the ocean.
posted by Ookseer at 5:57 PM on February 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
As one data point, I vividly recall my best friend and I when we were roughly 10 years old in the mid-60s drawing complicated diagrams of fall-out shelters that would protect us. We are talking generators, ventilation, multi-story underground, water and supplies. I know we burned a lot of time doing that stuff. And yes I do remember the drills at school with going under the desks.
Both of us were really big into Star Trek. I think the escapism to a hopefully better future was related (IMO).
But as has been pointed out above, problems like school bullies, family problems, really bad weather, etc. always took up most of our actual efforts.
Also, when many years later I saw the movie "Blast from the Past" it was a real hoot.
posted by forthright at 6:45 PM on February 18, 2016
Both of us were really big into Star Trek. I think the escapism to a hopefully better future was related (IMO).
But as has been pointed out above, problems like school bullies, family problems, really bad weather, etc. always took up most of our actual efforts.
Also, when many years later I saw the movie "Blast from the Past" it was a real hoot.
posted by forthright at 6:45 PM on February 18, 2016
Born in '54. Waiting to see my birth date's number in the draft lottery loomed heavily. The Cold War didn't. I was aware of it, inhaling big chunks of the Los Angeles Times daily beginning in '68. When the subject did come up, the vast majority thought MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) would prevent the Cold War going BOOM. Almost all of the others thought most of the population was some combination of too ignorant and not smart enough to understand the Cold War, otherwise they too would be consumed with worry.
posted by Homer42 at 3:49 AM on February 19, 2016
posted by Homer42 at 3:49 AM on February 19, 2016
It's all about the immediacy of the threat. My childhood was in the UK in the 80s, and being bombed by the IRA was much more on people's minds than the nuclear threat, even at times when there was major tension. I think that's twofold - first, IRA bombings had already happened on multiple occasions, and second, it's easier to wrap your head around a bomb that destroys a shop or hotel than one that destroys a whole city.
I also think there was significant fatalism, represented by my mother - she told us what to do about fires, suspicious packages in stations, evacuations for (terrorist) bomb warnings, but nothing about nuclear attack. She has said later that if that happened there was bugger all anyone could do about it, so worry/preparation was for things that you could do something about.
Another issue is that a lot of people just didn't understand the threat. My grandma (an enthusiastic peace campaigner) at some point in the early 80s went on some sort of Women's Institute apocalypse training course (don't ask me why, and I don't know the official name of the course) which she recounted to the rest of the family later - she had to bite her tongue through the whole thing, as the organisers had no idea what nuclear war actually meant. They were treating it as a replay of the Blitz with some rashes and diarrhoea. She said she had a mental image of the four minute warning going off, and across the country respectable ladies of a certain age would leap into action, pack their cars with bandages and thermoses of tea, and drive towards the mushroom clouds...
posted by Vortisaur at 5:05 AM on February 19, 2016
I also think there was significant fatalism, represented by my mother - she told us what to do about fires, suspicious packages in stations, evacuations for (terrorist) bomb warnings, but nothing about nuclear attack. She has said later that if that happened there was bugger all anyone could do about it, so worry/preparation was for things that you could do something about.
Another issue is that a lot of people just didn't understand the threat. My grandma (an enthusiastic peace campaigner) at some point in the early 80s went on some sort of Women's Institute apocalypse training course (don't ask me why, and I don't know the official name of the course) which she recounted to the rest of the family later - she had to bite her tongue through the whole thing, as the organisers had no idea what nuclear war actually meant. They were treating it as a replay of the Blitz with some rashes and diarrhoea. She said she had a mental image of the four minute warning going off, and across the country respectable ladies of a certain age would leap into action, pack their cars with bandages and thermoses of tea, and drive towards the mushroom clouds...
posted by Vortisaur at 5:05 AM on February 19, 2016
Not only did I grow up in the Cold War, my dad was USAF in the Strategic Air Command.
Same with me - I think a lot of us show up in similar threads. On some level, we may even know each other. I was just outside of Wichita when "The Day After" came out. I was maybe 15 and terrified, but I knew it might happen and if it did that we'd be the first ones there.
posted by bendy at 1:04 AM on February 21, 2016
Same with me - I think a lot of us show up in similar threads. On some level, we may even know each other. I was just outside of Wichita when "The Day After" came out. I was maybe 15 and terrified, but I knew it might happen and if it did that we'd be the first ones there.
posted by bendy at 1:04 AM on February 21, 2016
Johnny Wallflower: Others have pointed out that news wasn't as in-your-face.
Respectfully, I disagree: my parents had giant ag radio station WCCO (offering farm commodity spot pricing throughout the day!) playing on the kitchen radio from morning until night, except when we ate a meal or were watching television in the other room. Hell, we even left it playing to entertain the dog when we were out. That station basically did news all day long, albeit a mix of "hard" news, farm information, and weather, with occasional brief spots like "Point of Law, (sponsored by the law form of Gross & Von Holtem)."
When NPR went live in, what, 1982? we got that, too, on KNOW (we were a proud Johnnie alum household!). :7)
But either way, we consumed a steady stream of news. *shrug*
posted by wenestvedt at 5:40 AM on February 22, 2016
Respectfully, I disagree: my parents had giant ag radio station WCCO (offering farm commodity spot pricing throughout the day!) playing on the kitchen radio from morning until night, except when we ate a meal or were watching television in the other room. Hell, we even left it playing to entertain the dog when we were out. That station basically did news all day long, albeit a mix of "hard" news, farm information, and weather, with occasional brief spots like "Point of Law, (sponsored by the law form of Gross & Von Holtem)."
When NPR went live in, what, 1982? we got that, too, on KNOW (we were a proud Johnnie alum household!). :7)
But either way, we consumed a steady stream of news. *shrug*
posted by wenestvedt at 5:40 AM on February 22, 2016
…Oh, and FWIW: in Minnesota in the early 80s, we still did civil defense drills because there were tornadoes.
As far as worrying, I was born in in 1972 and I read a lot (mostly sci fi & fantasy), and I was well and truly scared at the possibility of surviving a nuclear war. When I got older, and had more responsibilities for other people (wife, kids), I worried about what I would do for them if we all survived, a la "The Road," because simply protecting them would obviously be out the window.
Occasionally I still think about it: a "dirty bomb" here in New England will still screw us. :7(
posted by wenestvedt at 5:44 AM on February 22, 2016
As far as worrying, I was born in in 1972 and I read a lot (mostly sci fi & fantasy), and I was well and truly scared at the possibility of surviving a nuclear war. When I got older, and had more responsibilities for other people (wife, kids), I worried about what I would do for them if we all survived, a la "The Road," because simply protecting them would obviously be out the window.
Occasionally I still think about it: a "dirty bomb" here in New England will still screw us. :7(
posted by wenestvedt at 5:44 AM on February 22, 2016
There have always been news nerds like your family, but I think it's true that there was no equivalent to today's widespread and omnipresent drumbeat of DANGER! TERRORISTS! CHILD MOLESTERS! IMMIGRANTS! CELEBRITIES! DANGER!!!!
With smartphones and Internet access and cable news, it's like everybody is listening to WCCO. Minus the farm news because that's like totes boring.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:42 AM on February 22, 2016
With smartphones and Internet access and cable news, it's like everybody is listening to WCCO. Minus the farm news because that's like totes boring.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:42 AM on February 22, 2016
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posted by jessamyn at 9:31 AM on February 18, 2016