I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis vividly. I stood near a line of teletype machines from various newswire services, monitoring the progress of the Soviet ships as they neared our Naval blockade. I wondered if I had time to get home to be with my wife and children before Soviet ICBMs delivered Hell (I lived near a Strategic Air Command base, a very likely target.)
There was an audible sigh of relief from everyone nearby when the teletypes clacked out the news that the Russian ships had turned away from the blockade. That's as close to an all-out nuclear war as I ever want to come.
You had an up close experience.
One of my Dad’s World War II buddies was a B-52 pilot. He visited us a few months after it was over and said it was damned scary.
In those days we were all “Americans”. My Dad used the term “Red blooded American” all the time.
I was in 3rd grade, and my father was preparing some sort of shelter for us, just in case.
He actually had sand bags covered over the celler window.Actaully more like a root celler. Mom and dad had all sorts of food stuff, (powdered eggs and milk), freshly canned fruit, and tomatoes.
I still remember my mom and dad discussing if they should send us to school that day. They did but daddy promised if anything happened he would come and get us.