duck and cover

[mechers]

There was a program on public radio today (link when available) about memories of the Cold War. Callers were talking about their memories of school, of watching films like Duck and Cover and having bomb drills. I was born in 1982. The Cold War was nearly over when I was in school. I never watched a propaganda film. We had bomb drills, sure,

Comments

[product_junkie]

[mechers]

Was this in a regular episode? I can remember watching the chipmunks but very few specifics.

[product_junkie]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Alvin_and_the_Chipmunks_episodes#
Season 6 (1988)
72A. "The Wall"
The Chipmunks go to Berlin to play in the "Wall of Iron" concert by the Berlin Wall. There they meet and befriend a young girl named Caterina whom has a brother named Eric that lives on the other side.

This is how I first learned about about the Berlin Wall. I was 8 years old. That clip still gives me goosebumps!

Did you see the movie Good Bye Lenin? It's a funny commentary on all this stuff.

[mechers]

Thank goodness it's not just me, then. Every time it comes up I feel all goose-pimply like I have ghost feelings from another era.

I really liked Good Bye Lenin. Heartwarming in a dark sort of way, like real life family drama.

70's 80's

[jjblue]

I'm a little older than you (born 1974), and I remember "drills" when I was a kid in LA, fire drills, earthquake drills, nuclear attack drills. We were told that if the Russians attack, we were s'posed to duck and cover. But I was young enough that I don't really think I understood what this "attack" was, so I was never really scared of "the Russians". Plus my family is Russian, so "the Russians" were never these nebulous, scary others to me.

By the time the wall came down, I watched it on TV, and was aware that this was a huge moment in history. I remember broken pieces of wall and people clambering over and through the wall. Noise and fire. Now they cynicin me wonders how much of it was staged for the media.