Hello.

Others David Often filmmaker with a clip from 1958.

June 10 1958.

I'm running it right now at the time of the Corona virus pandemic.

It's scaring the hell out of us.

I'm at home sequestered with my family.

People all over the country in other countries sequestered.

You may be watching this at a time when there is no Corona virus, there is no pandemic.

And you may not even remember what this waas but think about it as a time when while I'm at home, I'm thinking of other times in my life that were scary.

I mean, the virus out there can get me and because I'm an old guy, it could kill me.

Apparently 20% of the people who get it mija, my age die.

I mean, this is scary stuff.

So it's 1958.

I'm in high school, I'm a junior, and we're going to have a national civil defense drill.

A 10 o'clock in the morning, sirens sounded Woo.

We jumped out of our chairs and ran into the hole.

Why didn't we go to the basement?

There was no basement in the Long Island schools at that time.

Everybody's covered over like this head fetal crowded up.

I look up out of the corner of my eye and I look at the girls who were all up and down the holes who were wearing Bobby socks, which worked very sexy at the time.

Not supposed to look up.

Teacher says, Look down.

Look, Dad like this Tens of millions of Americans went down below ground in this drill to prove to the Soviet Union the Russians that we could survive a nuclear attack and react and fight back.

Nuts is how we grew up.

Scary is how it was kind of like Now, with the virus out there, that's going to get me.

So I'm about to run this memory and you're gonna look at it.

You're going to say, Wow, that was a pretty scary time.

This is a pretty scary virus if you believe it could kill you, which I believe it can.

That was a pretty scary time where a nuclear weapon could be dropped on my city and kill everybody who didn't run in the basement and hide.

Some people had sand cans.

They supposed to use them on little for what some people had full.

Now chill.

This is a person down the street from me wide one, and he built a whole huge thing in the ground for his family.

That was a time 1958 June 10.

If nuclear war was coming, Americans had to be prepared for it.

On June 10th wth E Office of Civil Defense conducted a national drill to test our preparedness.

Tens of millions of Americans participated.

The most rigorous test of America's civil defense is a simulated hydrogen bomb attack that strikes and 75 key targets from coast to coast.

The drill had two purposes.

To show us how to protect ourselves in the event of nuclear war and to show the Soviets that we were strong enough to survive a nuclear attack and fight back.

Nike missiles around New York are raised in the firing position.

United States prepared for war.

10 35.

The banshee wail of the siren Nichols.

The warning in the city prepares for survival.

Radio tuned to this.

There is a traffic plan for the evacuation of the city.

All cars in the downtown area follow the green lights.

New Yorkers have been conditioned by practice alerts.

They know what to do.

Turn off your water.

Meanwhile, from the Pentagon, another key points top defense.

The years are airlifted to secret control centers, where they would direct America's defense and counterattack.

The Soviets also produced civil defense films to convince their citizens that they could survive a nuclear war.

Films told Russians how to put on their gas masks on how to tamp down radiation by hand, Say, like in the United States, they taught it what you have to do.

And we have the joke that if you will see this bright explosions around the sky, you have to fell on the ground, pulled some white material of top off you and slowly rolled over 70.

And the question, Why slowly?

Because you're must not create the panic.

Individuals have finally have been reluctant to build shelters.

You think the government's going to ultimately have to take care of this way, have submitted such a program, as I say with within the executive branch becoming, However, I would urge individuals who can afford it to bill shoulders and get him right now.

This is the home of Jim and Carol Sweet.

They're one of seven families in Washington, DC, which has a bomb shelter in the basement.

It's a concrete dome type of bomb shelter protected by this 3/4 inch steel door.

And Jim and Carol are inside now getting a bunk ready?

Yeah, Jim, is there room for one more in there?

Have you come in backwards?

Friendlies doesn't give you more secure.

Yes, it does.

Because I know that no matter what happens, at least I've got someplace to go to.

And I have someplace to take my Children.

And I don't feel like I'm just gonna be sitting there waiting for something to happen with no protection whatsoever.

I don't think that whatever comes to them just saying either you surrender, but no, I wouldn't rather surrender because they're atheists.

They have a godless way of life.