no shelter, but I remember drills at school where we went into the hall, sat on the floor with our backs to an interior wall, and covered our head with our arms. lot of good that would have done!!!

Last year we removed a fallout shelter from a home that was built in the 50's. Was an interesting design. About 5' of the shelter was above ground level and it had a lead pipe that went through the exterior wall and turned down to provide air flow into the space. Guess the thought process at the time was that radioactive materials wouldn't come through a pipe if it turned down?? That's the only one we have ever run into.

When I was a kid, some friends of our family built one in their basement. They were very proud of it, and invited us over to see it one evening. It was a small concrete room in the basement stocked with non perishable food and 3 cots. No door, you walked around concrete walls to get inside (radiation cannot go around corners, but can go through concrete).

How ignorant we were back then. Even if the shelter did work, once all your food was gone, what were you going to do. You couldn't go to the grocery store to restock, everything outside would be contaminated, including all the food.

I guess people were just building their own mausoleum.

Voting this best original Houzz Thread :-D

ASVInteriors: I always enjoy your thoughtful & informative posts!

My parents kept a metal cabinet stocked with canned goods and bedding in our basement. I remember being much more afraid of Beanie Weenies and Spam than I was of nuclear fallout!

My dads childhood home had an air raid shelter. I don't recall seeing it stocked. I think it was just to dodge the German bombs over England.

Still do duck and cover drills for tornados in Texas. Fraidy holes are common in West Texas.My father in law build and stocked a Y2K basement which is now a food storage room. We just toured Boston for a graduation and laughed at seeing a fallout shelter sign on one of the old historic churches.

Ours was built in the basement (lol). About 2 feet thick on top, with dirt, and heavy walls and concrete ceiling making a basement room. Here's the funny part....an L shaped entrance, because clearly any threats would not turn corners. I guess the builder never finished putting the doors on, before he moved on. If someone did not clear the drains outside, then of course the place would have flooded. It was a favorite place for cave crickets, and we could not get rid of them. Also any food we put down there, got eaten by rodents. Other then that...it has a shower, hot water heater, water, a bucket for a toilet, Electricity. I could never spend more then 30 minutes in the place, it's just bad without windows (lol), and natural light. Of course my father also had guns...lol.

I'm in Switzerland and have one in the cellar. It's where I store all of my wine, water and extra food.

I love Switzerland... Haven't been there for about 15 years! (Gasp!) I'm aging myself! But yes when I think of fallout shelters I think of my friends and their places there!