When I was in elementary school (early 60s) they called it a Retention Drill, and it was the opposite of a Fire Drill, where we had to get out of the building. I suspect that it came out of WWII and the Blitz, when the idea was to avoid getting hit by falling debris. Then after the A-bomb, even though people knew there wasn't going to be any getting away from it, they didn't have any better ideas so they kept on with the retention drill.

I still remember the manila cards with red lettering that said at the bottom, "IF YOU SEE A BRIGHT FLASH OF LIGHT, TAKE COVER IMMEDIATELY." That sentence gave me nightmares for years. Then, when I was just about over it, I opened the closet door in my freshman dormitory on the first day of college, and saw a similar little card that said, among other things: "Fallout will take approximately 30 minutes to drift to Princeton from New York or Philadelphia." It's a wonder I slept at all... And with the stuff going on in North Korea, and in Washington and Arlington and Langley, I'm starting to get nervous all over again. Remember Pearl Harbor? I'm sure the North Koreans do.

Now, to make this a musical thread, there's the late Jan Harmon's wonderful ditty, Number Fifteen Sunscreen.

Aloha,
Mark