#Shelter June 6

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Today for the 30-Day Sign Coach4aday Challenge I am talking about Fallout SHELTER Signs.

Living in the early part of the 1960’s as a small boy there was fears. That emotion was triggered by the escalation of the “Cold War” and the threat of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1961, President John F Kennedy urged Americans to build bomb SHELTERS. On top of that there was Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York who pressing for state and federal building to be used to protect the public. Small children heard all of this chatter at home and bomb drills at school. Living in 1961 and 1962 children worried that the whole world was going to be blown apart.

What eventually happened in the US were public building were marked by an iconic sign. That sign was to give people the hope that if they didn’t have a bomb shelter in their backyard, they could locate one in town. Most Americans believed that the idea was impractical.

To make that possible state and local governments began to survey all public buildings with fallout shelter potential. If that had the capacity, they had the Fallout SHELTER sign place outside of the building. As I travel, I still am amazed at the places I locate these.

In Lumberton NC you can still see the sign on the AT&T Building located on 410 East 5th Street. Look to left of front door.

What is amazing that these signs were for program that most Americans never trusted or believed in, yet they are still visible 60 years later.