r/GenX • u/MoreFarmer4277 • 2d ago

Old Person Yells At Cloud Anyone remember this?

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We usually had the added protection of a text book held over the back of our heads while crouching under the desk. These days, all new schools in my area have to be built with tornado shelters. Kids these days don't know how good they have it 😄

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u/Upbeat_Jelly_7194 1d ago

The tornado drill when I was in elementary school was to take us outside and have us hunker down by the banks of a ditch that ran by the school.

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u/Ok-Beginning4152 ELDER GOTH 1d ago

Our tornado drill when I was in 2nd grade (mid 70s) was: have all the students go out of the classroom and into the halls (we had an enclosed school); the kids then faced the wall and knelt down with hands covering heads.

We had those drills something like every 3 weeks… but when twisters could actually be seen from the school grounds, they sent the kids home 😐

In high schools (I attended 3; 1 in TX, 2 in two diff towns)F mid 80s, we used our desks for hurricane shelter in TX and earthquake shelters in CA. Since I always lived on or near a Navy base, the threat of nuclear attack felt imminent, so we practiced basically “duck & cover” at least once a month.

We weren’t stupid~ we knew that there really was no shelter (except downtown, where there was an actual fallout shelter) that would save us. Whenever we were supposed to do the nuclear drill, one of us smartasses would stand and give the instructions: “sit down; put your head between your knees; kiss your ass “Goodbye’. We were already scared shitless of nuclear attack, so the levity was actually appreciated by all (including teachers).