Re: Batten down the hatches!
 

Growing up in Kansas City, I witnessed the destruction from an awful lot of twisters in my youth. It was amazing to see the capricious nature of the storm --- drop down and take one house (literally take it) from a group of homes and do no damage at all to the others, whip the entire back wall off a house and leave knick knacks on an opposite wall untouched, pick up a car and leave it undamaged a block away, except it's in a tree. And of course the storms that would obliterate major sections of cities and towns, destroying and killing all in its path. One reaction could have been fear or even terror, hiding at the mere mention of the word tornado. However, the reaction I had to these experiences was to develop a certain fatalism. I always thought hurricane or fires or earthquakes or floods or blizzards were potentially horrendous because they could cause massive injury and great damage. But I didn't have the same fear of tornadoes because I always felt if they hit you, you died. If they missed, nothing happened.

Sounds simplistic, even childish, in retrospect. But remember, we were the children of the 'duck and cover" generation. We grew up with Howdy Doody, but we also assumed there would be an atomic war fairly soon so we probably wouldn't live that long anyway.

Maybe that's what's wrong with me :dontknow:

Re: Batten down the hatches!
 

Mine went off at 6:45 in the evening ..........I had it set on pm instead of am.....silly me.....

up to the minute fumar

Re: Batten down the hatches!
 

Muncle, I forgot about the duck and cover. I recall having to hide under our school desks with our hands on the back of our necks to protect ourselves in case a bomb was dropped.

I am part of the Howdy Doody generation also.

HB

Re: Batten down the hatches!
 

I know what you mean. As if having to put up with my frizzy Tonette and my cateye glasses were not enough, there I was hiding under my desk from THE BOMB. I kept wanting to ask my teacher, "What in the :edit: are you thinking?" But in those days children were seen but not so much heard.

Re: Batten down the hatches!
 

Duck and cover for sure, but did your home city offer blood type tattoos? Civil Defense in northern Indiana in the 50's was a test spot for children in schools to be blood typed. Since my father was a city official and we should set an example, we were also tattooed with this info...left side of torso. Grew up with a funny smudged O+ sign on me that only got reactions from folks who said "hey, you have a dirty spot on your side".

I always hoped Garfield Goose would have one too so I wouldn't feel alone.

Re: Batten down the hatches!
 

Marianne, I'm from Illinois and we did not have the blood type tattooing. I never heard of that before! However we did hide under our desks every Tuesday morning at 10am and never questioned it. How stupid was that? lol And thanks so much for reminding me of my favorite -- Garfield Goose! I loved him! :-* Did you ever think about the creativity and imagination that went into that. I look at all the stuff kids have to choose from now and it's overwhelming. I wonder if they can even relate to something that isn't racing around like craze for having its' head blown off. But, for me, nothing can compare to Frasier Thomas sitting in front of that little staged puppet box and talking to Garfield Goose! I used to laugh soooo hard, and what's really fantastic is that goose never uttered a word. Just the expressions alone of that simple puppet! The way he'd open his mouth to laugh, fall back on his back when he was exasperated . . . oops :o am I getting carried away? Oh well,
I just loved him and Romberg Rabbit too! :-*

Re: Batten down the hatches!
 

Every time I fill those 3 oz bottles with shampoo etc before going on an airplane I think--30 years from now will I think of that and laugh like I do about getting under our desks?

Re: Batten down the hatches!
 

Blood type tattoos? I never knew about that one. I'll have to check out my Hoosier friends.

At the risk of being accused of hijacking a thread, (Oh who cares? Our generation always did think outside the box.) I have to throw a book rec in here for my fellow front-end boomers:

The book is Growing Up with Dick and Jane: Learning and Living the American Dream by Carole Kismaric and Marvin Heiferman. The book has pages reprinted from our famous school readers interspersed with events that were happening in our real world. I received the book as a 50th birthday present. I don't know if the book is still available easily, but it could make a great 60th birthday present for someone.

btw Though we were pretty busy hiding under our desks or learning to read from Dick and Jane, we always took time every Wednesday morning to line up and walk to one of the local Protestant churches for a service. There were 4 mainstream denominations within walking distance of our public school. Each one got a turn.

Hey, I think I can actually tie this back into the original thread. I guess all that ducking and covering and praying prepared us well for riding out bad weather.

Re: Batten down the hatches!
 

I know some of you have recently purchased homes in TV. If you had landscaping done in the last month, did your palms stay up? Those winds were wild. It sure cleared a lot of moss from the live oaks. They looked like tumbleweeds blowing all over the place. Today is yard cleanup day. It looks like a 6 ****** to me.

Re: Batten down the hatches!
 

Hi, does anyone recall lining up against the inside walls of the hallways in school. I recall doing that, but do not recall why.

I recall some people building bomb shelters in their backyards.

Dick and Jane brings back many memories. Look, look look. See Jane. See Dick. Look Dick. etc. I wonder if the word phonetics was discovered during that time frame.

Once took a course in college on the importance of teaching children how to read using phonetics. I could not afford the cards and spent numerous hours creating them. When they were completed I eagerly went to teach my son how to read phonetically. I imagined him being way ahead of the other students.

To make a long story short, he wanted nothing to do with phonetics and learned how to read using the Dick and Jane series I still had.

Memories ....

HB

Re: Batten down the hatches!
 

Loved Garfield Goose Chels, also Captain Kangaroo. What a great time of life that was.

It would be so easy to hijack this thread and get back on a memories and nostlgia kick wouldnt it? ;D