I know it’s been a few years since the last post, but the rusty Fallout Shelter sign on my building prompted another trip to the library like in the olden days when I kept this blog up. Apparently the entire 7-county Kansas City Area Community Shelter Plan was published as an insert in Kansas City Star on May 17, 1970. The whole fallout preparedness thing was going on since the early 60’s when President Kennedy told the nation to get ready, but it never left people’s minds since the end of the World War II. However, in the 1983 movie The Day After you don’t see too many people using the extensive shelter network mapped out in the pages below. Maybe because people eating dehydrated food in the shelters are not good for a dramatic plot. Or maybe because none of them saved this plan like it begged them to do.
Each image should be linked to a pdf file I scanned from the microfilm; you should be able to zoom in and read the maps and locations. I tried to make the best scans, but if you don’t like the quality, you are welcome to visit the library on your own; Johnson County Library has microfilm and Kansas City Library may have the original.
Thousands play bingo at church-sponsored game at Jersey City Armory. By poll, more Americans risk money in church lotteries than any other form of gambling.Continue reading →
Last year I wrote about the day I was drafted in the military. I tried to convey the atmosphere of that day, the feeling of getting into something scary and unknown, leaving one’s home and family, and realizing that there is no way back after one crosses the gate. Yesterday, when the photos of a modern day military draft in Ukraine went around the Internet, I realized that besides the new uniform not much has changed since the day when I showed up at the draft processing location.
The military didn’t allow to keep the civilian clothes, so whatever possessions we had were either thrown away or taken by older soldiers who were allowed to bend the rules a little. I thought I was being clever when I showed up with a short but not bald haircut, like some of the recruits on this photo. Clever wasn’t one of the desired qualities in the military, so I was told to cut my hair again.
Here we see a group of “fresh meat” and a group of soldiers already processed. Typical barracks on the left.
I never looked this good, nor was I ever a fan of walking around naked around people I don’t know. When I was taking my pre-draft medical test, I was lined up together with 5 or 6 more recruits in front of the table with several doctors; we were told to drop our pants down all at once. I guess they were trying to see that all of us had correct equipment down there, they were sitting a few yards away and couldn’t have possibly determined anything else. The arrow-sign on the wall says “doctor”.
In this shot the recruits are united with their new long underwear. In summer it was usually blue boxers and who-knows-what-color tank top. Winter season came with long underpants and long-sleeve undershirt. Every week at the showers the dirty underwear was taken away and the clean underwear was brought in a big stack. If you were slow you’d end up with a wrong size underwear for the whole week or even worse – see the streaks from the previous owner.
Somewhere along the way they were issued a piece of soap.
Now on to the uniform.
Boots are a definite improvement from what I had to wear.
Hats stayed the same but there is mo emblem on the front.
Last look at the old life.
And now all ready to go. I have no idea what’s in these boxes.
What stands out in all these images is a scared look in these kids’ eyes. Some things never change.
While staring at women doing research for my previous (and future) post at the Johnson County Central Resource Library – home of the new amazing microfilm readers, I couldn’t help but save a few unrelated pages. Going through the old newspapers with the benefit of a hindsight is a bit strange; we know which companies, technologies and trends survived and which ones failed; we realize that investing in Apple was a good idea but buying Atari stock probably wasn’t; we know who won the VHS – Betamax rivalry and even when the winner itself became obsolete; we know which policies would be successful and which are still affecting society in a negative way.
These clips are taken from the Kansas City Star and Kansas City Times published in January 1981 and in January 1986.They are in no particular order.
