It was several years before I was born, but they taught it to us in school and I read about it in the history books. We really did come this close to nuclear war. Thank God the Russians backed down.

Hi MicheleKay!
I was only 6 years old, but, I remember my parents glued to the TV, radio. And, I remember the Sisters at my school telling us to pray for a resolution to the conflict. We had a few emergency drills because our school had a Fallout Shelter.

To me,the title of last nights show was perfect!
The "emergency" was the missle crisis, the "meditations" were the responses and confessions by the MM characters.

I was 6 years old also. I remember jumping up and down on the bed in our basement in Billings, Montana when my 10-year-old sister told me that a bomb was probably going to drop on us. This is the first time that my perfect little world was shaken and I remember it clearly. I was worried for about 3 hours, and then went back to living my nice little life. I have vivid memories of JFK speaking at the fairgrounds in our town the following October and of his assassination the next month. Hope Mad Men doesn't skip years again. Want to see this covered.

I was 13 when the Cuban Missle Crisis happened. so I rmember it really well. Believe me, we were within inches of nuclear war. I remember in school going through civil defense drills and being taken to the basement of the school as a shelter. It was scary. People really thought the bomb was going to fall any minute.There were prayer vigils at church, and people were told to gather their families around them. Compare it to the attacks of 9/11 with all the rampant rumors, no one knowing what was really going on, and believing that we would be attacked at any moment. It's a very real memory to those of us who lived through it.

CarrieB - my understanding is that each season will take place two years ahead: Season One: 1960; Season Two:1962; Season Three:1964, etc.
I think the writers have said that the plan is for 5 seasons and then that's all.

I was 13 when it happened. I remember going to bed wandering if we would still be alive in the morning.

Kennedy found out later that if he had pushed the button to launch the missles toward the Soviet Union, it would have also automatically launched missles toward China and other parts of the world.

Kennedy was furious when he found out about this and immediately had the system re-designed.

I was about 7 years old when it happened. My dad was following it and since I did everything my dad did so did I. On the actual day of the crisis I was outside with my dad doing something and suddenly two huge jets came over our CT house at literally tree top level. Scared the crap out of me. I ran over to my dad and asked them what they were. He looked down to me and said, Those are B-52 bombers son. I asked why were they so low and where were they going. He thought for a second and said They're heading south, toward Cuba I'll bet. We actually thought they were going to start the war...

I was 15 years old at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and I remember it very well. Yes, we did think that there was a real possibility that WWIII would happen, and that we would all die. The Cuban Missle Crisis was a pivotal event in my life, because it caused me to decide never to have any children (and I have followed through on that decision.) It happened at the time that my high school class was taking its trip to Washington D.C., and the whole time we were freaked out. When our train left Indiana, we thought that we might never see our parents again, and there were soldiers pacing all night in the halls outside our hotel rooms in DC. I was so terrified that I didn't enjoy the trip at all.

Therefore, the reactions of the characters in MM made a lot of sense to me. They all took risks, because they thought that there was a possibility that they were all going to die anyway. For instance, the priest advised his congregation collectively and Peggy individually to confess and "get right with God" before it was too late because it might be their last chance to avoid eternal damnation. I know a lot of people on this blog have criticized Fr. Gill for that, but he was just doing his job. From that advice, Peggy decided to unburden herself to Pete, and it shows her later in prayer in bed, presumably confessing her sins to God directly. Don decides to come clean and admit to Betty that, yes, he did have an affair and then asks her forgiveness. He also takes a risk in throwing caution to the wind at the meeting and threatening to quit. Pete takes a risk in revealing his true feelings to Peggy. Betty takes a risk in having a sexual encounter with a stranger. Their behavoir is completely understandable giving their belief that they are all possibly about to die.

I was 11 when the Cuban Missle Crisis happend andn if those of you who had no military connections were terrified; think about what those children and young people with fathers in the military at that time must have been going thru. My dad was deployed on October 31st to Florida to shore up the defenses against a possible Cuban land invasion. But I remember the very intense anxiety that was in play leading up to that as my dad was on whatever the color alert is prior to war for several weeks prior to being deployed...he made sure that the family knew there was an air raid shelter in the basement of my jr. high and that we had water and canned goods..but I heard him talking to someone about the fact that our city was one considered at ground zero because of the 5 highly important military installations that ring it. It was a horrible fact for a young person to know...i also made a decision not only not to have children but also not to get married and it also affected my ability to have a sense that it was necessary to plan for the future.

I was also 11, and living on the west coast. I heard the defense alarms, and we were taught to duck under our desks. I posted earlier that that now seems so silly.
My parents were of the nature of that woman in the beauty parlor. I was not aware of the extent of this danger. My parents were not hysterical people. Besides, there are no basements in the San Fernando Valley, and our backyard was a cement pool.
I was trying to take this same approach when 9-11 occurred for my daughter, age 11. But unfortunately I live near LAX and had to pass the airport everyday to take daughter to school, AND the stupid school had TV's in every class, scaring the crap out of my kid.

Thanks MM on the public's take on this crisis.

I too was very young when all of this was going on but was not really scared. I think when you are very young the possibility of death is simply not a reality. I certainly did not sit around glued to the TV, but instead ran out and played in the yard. I do remember the drills in school where we all went out into the hallway, faced the wall, crouched down and put our hands over our heads. Looking back this seems laughable, because if a nuclear attack would have commenced anywhere in the vicinity (we lived not far from a major city), we would have been vaporized along with the school, the street, the town, and all the rest.

We were given tags to wear around our necks. They had our names and addresses on them. On the back, you could put your religion. We were in 2nd grade and to us, the "tag-chains" were pretty neat. I remember the teacher's face looked like she was crying when she handed them out.

Funny, I don't remember everyone flooding the churches, though. The following year, when JFK was assasinated the churches were packed. I thought about this as I got older and looked back in retrospect. Sadness, grief and pain draw people to church ... not fear.

MicheleKay: I agree about fear not drawing people into church, but instead the sadness and all that. I know people like to remember all these times in the 1960s, when they were growing up, but for me, it just seems so long ago now and doesn't really have a lot of relevance in my life. You know, the irretrievable past and all that. The older I get the more faded and irrelevant it seems to become. This could be one of the attractions to Mad Men (all of us Boomers get to recall The Days of WIne and Roses, so to speak).

I was 11 when it happened. I don't remember it all that well because our parents tried to shield it from us because they didn't want us to be scared. But I remember them talking about it a lot. And I remember friends talking about building bomb shelters (and some actually did). I also remember since kindergarten, we had air raid drills in school in which we had to immediately get under our desks when the alarm sounded.

I remember my mom voting for Kennedy and my dad for Nixon. There was a lot of talk about that because my dad wanted my mom to vote for Nixon. I vividly remember the day Kennedy was shot. Another teacher called my teacher out of class. When she came back, she was crying and told us what happened. They sent us home early. When I got home, my mom was crying too. It was very sad and a scary time for kids.

MicheleKay: Your comments about the tags remind me of another quaint Cold War practice, this one about 9 years earlier than the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the spring of 1953, during the Korean War, I was in first grade. We were given the tags you described (name address, religion and blood type) and were told to wear them all the time. In our case, they were metal dog tags like they have in the army. We were also tattood with our blood type on the left side of our torso. (I swear that I am not making this up.) Yes, we all had to stand in line, had needles stuck in our thumbs to get our blood types, and then tattood with our blood type. It was absolutely frightening. I realized later on that the dog tags were to identify our bodies after the attack.

I remember the crisis well. We really thought that we were going to die.

I was still a fairly young newlywed then, and remember saying to my Mother, "All I wanted was a normal life, and now it appears I'm not going to get it." My Mother responded, "Please don't make yourself sick about it, as we have no control over it. We can only hope for the best." I fixed up a shelter in our apartment's storage basement (and was happy to dismantle it when I moved out several years later.) After that, a lot more emphasis was placed on civil defense, and for years many buildings had signs on them that said "Underground Shelter".

Strangely enough, I was caught up in the TMI disaster in 1979 when, again, we thought we were going to die. Half the area decamped hither and yon, and the rest of us held our collective breaths until the situation was resolved. We were hours away from a meltdown and were paralyzed with fear at the thought of grabbing our most important personal effects, packing clothes for hot and cold seasons and leaving home, possibly NEVER to return. It was horrible.

I was in Ocean City, MD on 9/11, and when I returned home I set up a little shelter in the unfinished basement of my home. As I did so, I thought of the other little apartment shelter so many years ago. I dismantled it when the basement was made into a recreation room, thinking that if anything else happened, now I could at least go in style. Heaven forbid!

Sandy: What was the TMI disaster in 1979? I remember the CMC (I guess we're using acronyms) in 1962 (I was just a kid), but what was TMI?

Three Mile Island

I posted this on another thread but thought it would be appropriate here:

Few people know or remember how close we came to nuclear annihilation in October, 1962. Smithsonian Air & Space magazine recently had an article about a U2 spy plane that inadvertently flew 400 miles into Soviet airspace at the height of the Cuban Missle Crisis. The plane was over the North Pole and got lost because the Aurora Borealis conditions made star navigation impossible. The pilot also lost the homing signal which resulted in his violation of Soviet air space. The Soviets scrambled interceptors but luckily they could not catch the U2 over Russia. The Soviets were convinced the plane was the first plane of the first wave of US bombers. The US was at DEFON 2 at the time - Land and sea based missles were ready for immediate lift off and bombers were loaded with their nuclear payload and flying to their Fail Safe points of no return. If this U2 had flown any deeper into the Soviet Union, they would have launched their own pre-emptive strike. This information was kept top secret for fear of the public's reaction. Talk about "within an eyelash of extinction".

The other comment that I have is in response to Johnny Utah's "lucky the Russians backed down". This is the version we learned in school. The Soviets believed Kennedy was the first to back down when he agreed to not deploy missles in Turkey. There are two important lessons here:
the first is effective diplomacy is not a zero sum game. If a diplomatic solution is desired to avoid war, it is important to have both sides save face. Although it was a peace settlement, the Treaty of Versailles in 1918 and the resulting onerous cost to Germany caused the rise of the Nazi party in 1933. Who ever is the next president, I hope he and his administration take these lessons to heart.

The second, and most frightening lesson of this crisis is that both Kruschev and Kennedy came to the same conclusion that the true enemy was not each other, but some of the generals that served under them. General Curtiss LeMay, member of the Joint Chiefs and Strategic Air Command, pushed for a first strike. To Kennedy's horror, General LeMay thought 30% casualties would be acceptable in a nuclear exchange. Luckily, there were other generals who saw the horror of this plan and prevented its execution. General LeMay retired from the military in 1965 (he was the inspiration for George C. Scott's character in Dr. Strangelove) and ran as George Wallace's Vice President in 1968. Enough said.

@Polar Bear. I didn't see the magazine article you referred to, but there was a much publicized, frightening incident in May, 1960, which "About.com" cites as the precipitating event that broke of Eisenhower-Krushev talks in Paris, and that ultimately led to the Soviet missle build-up in Cuba. It was the shooting down by the Russians of Pilot Francis Gary Powers who was within Soviet Airspace on a U2 ariel photograhy "spy mission" for the U.S. According to "About.com" "mystery" still enshrouds the incident. Powers should never have been flying low enough to be shot down by the Soviets' surface-air missle. From the plane's wreckage, it was clear that this was, indeed, a "spy plane"--a fact that Eisenhower evidently never admitted, but which led to increasing distrust between the U.S. and Soviets. Powers was tried in the USSR for espionage and inprisoned there for slightly under 2 years, before being exchanged for a Soviet spy the U.S. was holding. Powers later worked for Lockheed, according to bio information

I was wondering if this was the same incident you were talking about? Although I was very young, I remember it, because that's all the nation was talking about when it happened -- it was shocking, and the general feeling was that the U.S. was really "caught with egg on it's face" -- to say the least. A real diplomatic embarassment.

P.S. "Cold War" tensions and atmosphere were very real in the 1950's. In certain parts of the country school children regularly under-went "air-raid drills" during which everybody would immediately stop what they were doing, put down pencils and books, and crawl under their desks until the siren stopped. I remember their being talk of people building "bomb shelters" if their homes had basements, and stocking with supplies. (I'm sure this has already been covered by other poster(s) somewhere on this site, so please pardon the redunduncy).

@jackie_monroe - same type of plane, different incident. The pilot of the October 1962 mission was an Air Force colonel but it wasn't Powers - I'll have to find his name from the article. Powers was released in 1962 but I don't think he was active in the military and/or active flight status at the time of the Cuban Missle Crisis.

You are correct - Francis Gary Powers was shot down prior to a planned summit meeting with Khruschev and Eisenhower in 1960. Powers caught a ration of crap because he didn't activate the self-destruct mechanism on the plane and the Soviets were able to collect the wreckage in tact, including the top secret optical/camera equipment. It was a political and intelligence windfall for them, to say the least. In addition, he was the scapegoat for a lot of politicians who thought he should have committed suicide instead of being captured. Can you imagine any of them taking the cyanide pill?

Powers did die a hero when he crashed his helicopter into a vacant field in order to avoid crashing into a playground with children. I was in Southern California in the late 70's and he did the traffic for one of the local stations. In his two years of captivity with the Soviets, it was revealed that he did not give up any secrets and conducted himself with the highest military honor. He's buried in Arlington National Cemetary and received many post-humous military honors after the fall of the Soviet Union and his secret file was released by the former KGB.

@Polar Bar. Thanks for elaborating on the 1960-U2 incident vs. the 1962-U2 incident -- the latter of which I did not know about (and as you indicated in your 10/30 post--probably few did).

I'm glad you mentioned the "scapegoat" issue, because it brought to the forefront my vague recollection (or feeling, really) that Powers was painted as the "bad guy" in the press at the time -- almost as if he were a "rogue pilot," who either through misfeasance had negligently "wandered into" Soviet airspace, or worse, that he had perhaps a more sinister motive.

It's a good example of how an individual's reputation will be sacrificed by the group in power when the group deems it necessary. (The sacrifice of his reputation was, I suppose, considered a "slap on the wrist," up against the fact that he did not do the the thing which you mentioned a lot of politicians thought he should have done). And no, I cannot imagine any of them "taking the cyanide pill."

But then, I guess folks like Powers in high, sensitive, "top secret-type" positions realize that the possibility of being sacrificed--one way or another--comes with the job.

I still think it was a shame that he and his family had to live with a certain "taint" for all those years, and that full "exoneration" didn't come until after his death. (I'm speculating on that timetable, as I remember some years later-- and I think it was before he died-- that it came out that he had acted appropriately, and was not "the bad guy").

I was in SC in the late 70's also, and ironically enough, I do not remember the media coverage of
Powers' death. And I don't for one minute think that there wasn't sufficient "play" given to it in the positivie light you mentioned, or in the amount of coverage alloted.

But the fact that I remember vividly the U2 incident-- and not much about Powers subsequent to that--
gives me personal evidence of the theory that "memory" is strongest when formed in the presence of one of those high-cortisol-producing states. (Either that, or the fact that this was one of the few "international" events that got talked about by my parents at the dinner table, so I knew it was big)!

Btw, your comment in previous post that "past is prolgue" is very appropos. I think what that small phrase means could be the basis for a semester-long course in any discipline/field of study in academia--not just history,psychology, anthropoplogy, sociology, physics, etc. (It's almost too big and deep to comprehend)! But I guess that some who don't mind grappling with what's "just out of reach" are some who are the core fans of MM.

I think that I'm fascinated with this show and blog because it feels like I'm learning something. And also the evocation of "memories" of recent history is a impetus for me to examine my own history. So I really appreciate insightful, informative posts like yours. Keep writing.

@jackie_monroe: you wrote "an individual's reputation will be sacrificed by the group in power when the group deems it necessary." Ask Colin Powell about that.

Powers wasn't the first or the last to be thrown under the bus for the sake of political expedience. The captain of the USS Pueblo, whose ship was commandeered by the North Koreans in 1968, was accused of shirking his duty and his reputation and career were ruined. Once again, history did eventually prove that he and his officers conducted themselves with the highest military honor. These examples are probably one of the reasons "Fortunate Son" is one of my favorite songs.

Past is Prologue - I don't know where I heard this but as you point out, it is thought provoking. If I can throw one other idea I have been thinking about is the Past is not Static. I am fascinated how my perceptions of the truth/the past are changing with my age and experiences. The more I learn, the less rigid I have become. To find out that maybe I didn't have the whole picture in front of me, has made me slower to judge and slower to conclude. At the same time, I have always been fascinated by the motivations of those around me, why do they do what they do. I meet alot of people in my profession and I have developed an ability to profile people pretty quickly. This kind of pattern recognition is usually on the mark and when it isn't, I am usually pleasantly surprised. What's this all mean, I don't know but it sure beats the heck out of thinking about my 401k.

@Polar Bear. It's nice to actually LOL (which is what I just did, reading the last line of your post: " ...it sure beats the heck out of thinking about my 401K"). Among other reasons I'm drawn to this site, it's nice to know that I'm evidently not the only person who has --to a greater or lesser degree--transferred my on-line hours and attention from financial prognostication (I've given up on that)--to the more emotionally rewarding concerns of MadMen.

I'm not familiar (at least not by title) with the song "Fortunate Son." Which artist...group? But I well remember the USS Pueblo, and agree that it's another (publicized) example of that syndrome--those "unwritten rules" about "The Way Things (Really) Work." (I'll add "sometimes" to that last sentence so as not to sound completely "cynical").

As for your perceptions of the truth/past "changing with (your) age and experiences..." I think it's great that you find the change to be a positive one, i.e., becoming "less rigid."

For me, the information explosion wrought by the computer age, is both electrifying in it's scale and yet also overwhelming. (I mention this thought to speak to your comment about "the more (you) learn..." With the availablity of "knowledge/information being at least 1,000-fold greater than it was in my peak learning years--(actually maybe 10,000 times greater -- I wonder if a statistician has computed it)--I think the ramifications of that fact to humankind and "society" and historical interpretation, etc -- is at this juncture incalculable.

Which brings me back to Mad Men. Is part of the nostalgic appeal for a time when there wasn't that much "to know" because there weren't that many sources of information? Were people more inclined to feel back then that they did, indeed, have the "whole picture"? I don't know the answer to my own question, and I have wondered: "who will be the historians of today's history?" Not just those degreed people working in universites and think tanks; and not just people getting textbooks and compendiums published in hard-back. I think it will also be written by bloggers...maybe even by TV series writers.

Without having seen every episode of Season 1, I'm hesitant to make this comment, but...I have wondered why Matthew Weiner didn't begin the series in the 1950,'s. (On the premise that the "Roaring 20's," "The Depression-Era '30's," and the WWII 40's are all decades that have been pretty thoroughly covered in novels, moveis, plays, etc., my thinking is that now Weiner's doing the "60's...but what about the 50's)? However, I can suppose that Season I in it's entirety was enough to say about the 1950's? I'm not so sure.

Anyway, thanks for another thought-provoking post...I just love it when I'm not thinking about my 401k. :)

@jackie_monroe, Creedence Clearwater Rivival, lyrics by John Fogerty

Fortunate Son

Some folks are born made to wave the flag,
Ooh, theyre red, white and blue.
And when the band plays hail to the chief,
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, lord,

It aint me, it aint me, I aint no senators son, son.
It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one, no,

Yeah!
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand,
Lord, dont they help themselves, oh.
But when the taxman comes to the door,
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yes,

It aint me, it aint me, I aint no millionaires son, no.
It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one, no.

Some folks inherit star spangled eyes,
Ooh, they send you down to war, lord,
And when you ask them, how much should we give?
Ooh, they only answer more! more! more! yoh,

It aint me, it aint me, I aint no military son, son.
It aint me, it aint me; I aint no fortunate one, one.

It aint me, it aint me, I aint no fortunate one, no no no,
It aint me, it aint me, I aint no fortunate son, no no no,

PAST IS PROLOGUE

I was 15 during the Cuban Missile Crisis and I remember most of it quite well. We were allowed to bring transistor radios to school, which was very unusual - but we could only listen between classes. About half the kids had them on their shoulders listening while we changed classes - silently, but it was Catholic school and we were silent everyday but not like those 2 weeks. Lunch room was eerily quiet.

My age group grew up with the threat of the bomb and an attack by the Soviets, so the CMC was not unexpected. I remember lots of talk about what life would be like after the bomb or bombs were dropped. Some of us didn't want to survive because there would be nothing left. We talked about having to have sex with anyone who was left so we could get pregnant and carry on the human race.

I don't remember a lot of people in church - I think most people hunkered down in their own homes when they weren't at work and figured if they were going to be blown up, which could happen at any moment, they would prefer to go in their own space.