protect and survive

[lurker]

I have just been tidying up "the cupboard under the stairs".

Under our downstairs floor is a gap of maybe 24": when we first moved (1978) in, I needed to get under the floor to run/redo various services.
I did this via a hole in the "C. U. T. S."

Unknown to my young wife, I built a sturdy trap door into the hole and reinforced the joists. Also put a pile of bricks next to each air-brick (so I could quickly block these up).
My thinking was if the bomb dropped, under the stairs and under the floor might help our survival chances. I now know quite a bit about radiological contamination and know it would have been futile.

Anyone else take "steps"?

 

[MikeG.]

I hope you've since moved those piles of bricks.....

 

[doctor Bob]

I have a roll of tin foil, I wrap it around my head whenever I read the rant thread. I find it stops the drivel oozing out of my bonce and forming a post. Been working very well for a few weeks.
Hopefully a few posters from there may read this tip :lol: :lol:

 

[Phil Pascoe]

There are, of course those who would tell you it didn't work.

 

[MikeG.]

My preparations for the apocalypse amount to ensuring we have adequate* supplies of Bird's custard powder at all times.

* 1/2 a tin

 

[Racers]

I have just been tidying up "the cupboard under the stairs".

Under our downstairs floor is a gap of maybe 24": when we first moved (1978) in, I needed to get under the floor to run/redo various services.
I did this via a hole in the "C. U. T. S."

Unknown to my young wife, I built a sturdy trap door into the hole and reinforced the joists. Also put a pile of bricks next to each air-brick (so I could quickly block these up).
My thinking was if the bomb dropped, under the stairs and under the floor might help our survival chances. I now know quite a bit about radiological contamination and know it would have been futile.

Anyone else take "steps"?

24”... can you still get underneath?

:wink:

Pete

 

[novocaine]

I had two children. so when I destroy a kidney, liver, lung, etc. I now have a few spares.

does that count as prep?

 

[Benchwayze]

I made no preparations. As a PC, I would have been considered expendable anyhow; and even if I had been allowed to join my family, we lived so close to the epicentre, a shelter was futile. In the event, we would just have been part of the fall-out!

John #-o

 

[Rich C]

I live in a large city so we'd be gone in the initial blast thus saving a slow death from fallout. That's a kind of prep right?

 

[flying haggis]

I am afraid that I havent taken appropriate steps, at my age I cant bend down far enough to kiss my *rse goodbye

 

[Phil Pascoe]

"The cupboard under the stairs" - there's a perfectly good word in Old Cornish dialect for it - a "spence". It translates as a store or larder, and "spencer" loosely as butler. I'm a little surprised that the English language, which has persistently purloined words from other languages when it own vocabulary was lacking, has not purloined this one.

 

[selectortone]

I lived on an RAF station during the Cuban Missile crisis. The station, RAF Waddington, where my father was stationed, was home to a squadron of Vulcans which, for several weeks, sat on the tarmac bombed up with an atomic bomb each and at 5 minutes readiness to launch an attack on Russia if it all kicked off.

I was about ten at the time. Watching the news one night I asked my Dad what what would happen in the event of a Russian attack. He told me not to worry, I wouldn't know a thing about it - Waddington would be one of the priority targets for a nuclear bomb and we'd all be vapourised before we knew anything about it. I never forgot that.

 

[Bm101]

I too once built a kind of secret cellar for my young wife. Well, strictly speaking she wasn't my young wife, not as such. But it's perfectly possible to surmise that she was someone's young wife I suppose.
Personally I didn't use air bricks but thermalites and 3:1 to cover the vents. You'd be surprised how far certain smells can travel when left to ... linger... Watch that pointing everyone!
Anyway, that's all in the past and I'm quite better now.
We all are. We have a certificate.

 

[lurker]

Until quite recently I thought the Cuban missile crisis was a bit over hyped.

Apparently the only reason all hell wasn't unleashed was a Russian submarine officer refused to obey orders.
same programme mentioned waddington bombers minutes away from take off.

 

[lurker]

I too once built a kind of secret cellar for my young wife. Well, strictly speaking she wasn't my young wife, not as such. But it's perfectly possible to surmise that she was someone's young wife I suppose.
Personally I didn't use air bricks but thermalites and 3:1 to cover the vents. You'd be surprised how far certain smells can travel when left to ... linger... Watch that pointing everyone!
Anyway, that's all in the past and I'm quite better now.
We all are. We have a certificate.

There is always one who has to be difficult.
Why could you not lay a new patio like everyone else??

 

[Benchwayze]

Until quite recently I thought the Cuban missile crisis was a bit over hyped.

Apparently the only reason all hell wasn't unleashed was a Russian submarine officer refused to obey orders.
same programme mentioned waddington bombers minutes away from take off.

At the time I had recently married (just weeks before) and was stationed in Faslane in a submarine support ship, HMS Maidstone. It frightened the stuff out of me, as we readied the ship. Not at all over hyped. :shock:

John

 

[Bm101]

Jokey posts aside, (for a minute) It's fascinating to read what start out as somewhat off the cuff threads on here. I'm old enough to remember When the wind blows and government leaflets that read along the lines of Hide under the stairs with a bottle of water a tin of heinz and take a biiiig breath when you hear the bangey noise type advice. Same as on the aeroplane and the crash sheet. Look at the faces in the pictures and they are all blank expressions.
'Calmly fit your air mask before reaching over and helping minors.'
STFU. One strike, possibly we could recover. Multiple strikes, I'd hope to go early.

Here's one that might have slipped under your radar. The Russian that stopped WW3. Sounds like a Julia Donaldson Kids Story Title like The Snail And the Whale till you hear what happened. :-s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

And here's a cheery website:
https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

You can look at where you you live and how quickly you would die. Marvelous. 8) Enjoy.
I just blew up Croydon. I don't live there but it seemed a good test subject. Next step: Harlow.

 

[lurker]

Clearly we came to the brink more than once.

This is the chap I was on about https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_ ... ce_admiral)

 

[Trevanion]

I stole all the lead off the local church roof and used it to line out my basement to protect me from both radioactive fallout and demonic possessions.

Anybody watched "Chernobyl"? I think if we knew really how many times we've actually come so close to destroying the entire planet it would be a serious eye-opener, we only know what the governments want us to know.

 

[whatknot]

Some cheery reading for householders of the day ;-)