Those 1950s air raid sirens. Do you remember them?

[fuzzybuddy]

One thing that brought back being a kid was hearing an air raid siren. I was messing around on Youtube, and I heard it. I suppose if you're in tornado country, you hear it all too often. But here in Pennsylvania, I haven't heard it in many decades. I remember those monthly drills, and seeing all those signs for air raid shelters.

 

[hollydolly]

No because I wasn't born until the mid 50's so fortunately for me I only ever heard an air-raid siren in the movies or documentaries from the time

 

[Aunt Bea]

 

[jujube]

Air raid sirens, tornado sirens and the volunteer fire station siren (that was how they alerted the volunteers)......seems like some siren was always going off.

There was also the Friday 11:00 a.m. siren in our city. I don't remember what that signified.

 

[Pappy]

Yes, we had them in our town. Used for fire calls. Was placed on top of a high building and we could hear it way out where we live. It was also used a couple times when WW2 was going on. Looked something like this;

 

[Em in Ohio]

We still hear the sirens. They are tested monthly here. Unfortunately, I can only hear them if I'm outdoors.

 

[Em in Ohio]

Historically hysterical... As if that would shield us from nuclear bombs!

 

[Lewkat]

We never had those sirens in the 50s, but they were almost constant during the 40s. WWII was in full progress and while there wasn't a chance that the Germans could possibly reach our shores with their bombers, we still had to go through the motions.

 

[fuzzybuddy]

I forgot about the weekly 11:00 AM test sirens. I was at least 4, when the 1950s started, so I never heard WWII sirens. My sirens were for an attack from the "Ruskies". Some of the duck & cover stuff is laughable. Most of us never got a real sense of nuclear war, until the 1960s, when obliteration began to be realized.

 

[In The Sticks]

They tested the sirens at the local firehouse every Thursday at 11AM, as I recall, but that was early 60s.

I was in school during Duck & Cover, but would 1963 sirens have been anything other than testing the firehouse "Call the Volunteers" siren?

 

[In The Sticks]

We never had those sirens in the 50s, but they were almost constant during the 40s. WWII was in full progress and while there wasn't a chance that the Germans could possibly reach our shores with their bombers, we still had to go through the motions.

You're right about the bombers, but I believe that U Boats attacked our merchant ships along the east coast in the early 40s.

As I said elsewhere, I was a Duck & Cover kid.

 

[oldman]

Never heard them, but we have a monthly alarm for Three Mike Island (TMI) the nuclear power plant that almost made the movie “The China Syndrome” a reality. I live less than 10 miles from there as the crow flies.

 

[win231]

I vaguely remember hearing an air raid siren when I was around 4 or 5.
I clearly remember the "Duck & Cover" drills in school. Yeah....I later learned how much protection my hands would provide on my head from an atom bomb. We wouldn't want to be vaporized unless we're in the proper position.

 

[In The Sticks]

I vaguely remember hearing an air raid siren when I was around 4 or 5.
I clearly remember the "Duck & Cover" drills in school. Yeah....I later learned how much protection my hands would provide on my head from an atom bomb. We wouldn't want to be vaporized unless we're in the proper position.

We were told to hide under our own desks so that future generations could have an easier time identifying the piles of ashes.

 

[treeguy64]

I grew up hearing those sirens on Chicago's South Side. I believe they stopped sounding them when I hit my early teens.

In Austin, right around the block from my house, there was a tall siren pole with a siren still on it. As best I recall, it disappeared a few decades ago.

 

[Em in Ohio]

Today, our sirens here are for all alert situations. You are then to turn on your radio for the details. Sorry, but I did have to laugh at a couple of prior comments... not that nuclear weapons are funny, but our "safety" drills were a total joke.

 

[JaniceM]

I heard the sirens, duck & cover, etc., extended into the early 1960s, but never heard of either where I was at the time.

Around here, they do sirens for tornado warnings, which is creepy enough.