I was 10 years old at the time and my family downplayed the situation to me. The memories that I have of that time were making sure that the bathtub was filled at all times for drinking water, seeing that SE Texas was in range of the missiles on CBS with Walter Cronkite, and the next year our class had a float in the homecoming parade with our school mascot holding Fidel Castro on his knees at gunpoint.

Sorry 1962

revvie said:

---

I was 10 years old at the time and my family downplayed the situation to me. The memories that I have of that time were making sure that the bathtub was filled at all times for drinking water, seeing that SE Texas was in range of the missiles on CBS with Walter Cronkite, and the next year our class had a float in the homecoming parade with our school mascot holding Fidel Castro on his knees at gunpoint.

Sorry 1962

---

Was also a child, and lived on Durango. We were scared because of NORAD, maybe.

Duck and cover for the win!

I was going on three years old but the TV was on all of the time, even when the stations stopped broadcasting and it was the test pattern playing. My folks were freaked but tried to hide it. But they were grouped around the TV to get the latest in fo. Mom stiopped making dinners, sandwiches only for for dinner for several days. She was afraid to go out shopping and leave the kids either at home or at school if they needed to be evacuated.

We lived in Bellaire at the time.

ETA:: TV stayed on because of the Emergency Broadcasting System. Only way we know if stuff was firing off.

While not known at the time, Vasily Aleksandrovich Arkhipov kept the world from becoming destroyed by not going with the other two sub officers to launch a nuclear torpedo.

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2022-10-03/soviet-submarines-nuclear-torpedoes-cuban-missile-crisis

Here's an interesting AlternateHistoryHub video about if things went sideways. Kind of curious what some of you ol' Ags might think of it.

Note, there's a portion from 0:25 to 1:06 that had music in the original version, but it was muted (likely due to copyright reasons).

I was crapping in diapers in Corpus. Completely unaware. Good times.

I was a year old (obviously can't remember) but my dad was circling the North Pole in a B-52 carrying 4 Mark 39 H-Bombs out of Columbus AFB. His targets were Gorky (Gorky "tractor works" tank facility) and Moscow. Not 100% sure on all of that but he did talk about it years after retirement. He said many times he wouldn't have survived the mission.

Odd second part - Teacher Wife '82s dad was in Germany at that time. His job was to deliver nukes to E Germany and Czechoslovakia via F-105 and knock out airfields to pave the way for bombers.

I remember my mother buying dried pinto beans. I was born in 58 so I just have bits and pieces. But she kept the dried pinto beans in a can in the pantry. My parents weren't from the south originally so having dried beans was not in my parents wheelhouse. In later years we used the beans when we played Bingo.

My Dad is c/o 60'.

His Army National Guard Unit was called up and he went to Ft. Polk, LA for a couple of weeks.

Has always said he was glad he wasn't TX National Guard. They got called up and had to serve a whole year.

In Nov 63 he was working across the street from Parkland Hospital...

My first recall of US/world events was the Kennedy assassination. (first grade) I have no recollection of world events prior to that.

I was nine years old and don't remember any change in my life or in our lives. Maybe because of how prepared we were of a nuclear attack. We practiced getting under our desks at school a few times each year!

Also 10. I remember going down to a local store with my dad to buy our first transistor radio.

milner79 said:

---

My first recall of US/world events was the Kennedy assassination. (first grade) I have no recollection of world events prior to that.

---

I remember that well. In 4th grade and after some type of class party our teacher announced the news. Remember seeing TV when LBJ got sworn in by Sarah Hughes(how I remember the name don't ask me) and when Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby. Side note is that Dr. Red Duke was one of the physicians in ER when Kennedy was taken to Parkland Hospital.

I was 10. Remember family watching JFK on the BW tv speaking to the nation about it. Dad '49 did not vote for him but, unlike current times, we respected the President as an honorable American. Also remember the under your desk drills in school and having to bring your own box of crackers and cans of evaporated milk. The world was different. One of my 5th grade classmates had an underground bomb shelter in his backyard. Went down into it once. In my neighborhood, maybe a $15K house then.

C@LAg said:

---

I have no memories as that was many years before I was born.

but since the president was a democrat, I am going to retroactively assume the Russians were in the right.

---

When I was growing up the Russians were always in the wrong. Slogan was Better dead than Red.

My suburban Houston area neighborhood built its own bomb shelter. Concrete and underground. Our family moved there in 69 and it was still maintained for years. Eventually the neighborhood kids would go mess around in the various rooms. Mom is still there and so is the bomb shelter but the entrance was sealed off with concrete.

I was about 8 years old. I was aware of something going on, but not what was going on.

While we did have a tv, the tv station was 100 miles away and the reception was really bad. What news we got was from newspapers and magazines, neither of which I was reading yet.

I was 4. All I remember is that my Dad did not come home for several days. He was civil service at Ft Hood. A diesel mechanic, heavy equipment/ tanks.

My father worked at Wright-Patterson AFB as an engineer on electronic countermeasures. I had a memory about him being gone a lot around that time and asked him about it years later and he said he was gone a lot after the crisis dealing with what we learned about Soviet radar during the crisis.

My dad was stationed at Clinton Sherman AFB in Oklahoma, which was the SAC base that had the long runway for the nuclear equipped B-52s. Everyone was called out of church as I recall and dad gave us a hug and he was gone flown to an AFB in Spain (Terahote?). When it was all over, dad told me when he landed in Spain he saw B-52s as far as the eyes could see. He went so far as to tell me the Soviet Union would have been completely destroyed had the Russians shot down half of our B-52s. Thankfully that ***** Kennedy bent over to Kruschev and ordered our missles out of Turkey. That was close!

I was 7 living in South Houston. My parents were really good about protecting us kids from worrying about serious events such as this. I know we kept water in the bathtub. We had a supply of batteries, beans, rice, peanut butter and similar items.

We had missile drills at school. Most of us boys were disappointed that we couldn't go outside and watch the missiles explode if they came.

Remember adults being uptight but didn't know why. Neighbor across the street had a bomb shelter installed under their house immediately afterwards.

Was 8-9 years old, dad was stationed at Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage. He was in Air Police. We were living in an apartment off base waiting for base housing. Dad had a pack and weapon by the front door and had to able to be on base in 15 minutes or less (we lived off government hill right off the base) if called. They had drills from tim3 to time.

When Kennedy was shot, they announced over the loud speaker everyone was to leave school and go home.

I was almost 14 living in Meyerland. Our family talked about how if we were separated, we would meet with family friends who lived down by NASA.

I was 14 years old. We were just out of the blast radius of Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, LA.

On the first day, I came in from Freshman football practice. I found my father sitting on a foot stool, not more than 2 feet away from the black and white tv. He was very very nervous. I asked him what was wrong. He said "We are about to go to war!"

It then got real serious.

My dad stationed at Barksdale when I was born

I wasn't alive at that time. I found Errol Morris' interview with Robert McNamara about that period in time very illuminating. Many people never really appreciated just how close things came.

FWIW, I highly recommend "The Fog of War." It was a well-done piece about the life experiences of Robert McNamara.

TXAGBQ76 said:

---

Was 8-9 years old, dad was stationed at Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage. He was in Air Police. We were living in an apartment off base waiting for base housing. Dad had a pack and weapon by the front door and had to able to be on base in 15 minutes or less (we lived off government hill right off the base) if called. They had drills from tim3 to time.

When Kennedy was shot, they announced over the loud speaker everyone was to leave school and go home.

---

It would have been dark by the time I got home.

parents said church was jam-packed on the Sundays leading up to the crisis

aggiehawg said:

---

I was going on three years old but the TV was on all of the time, even when the stations stopped broadcasting and it was the test pattern playing. My folks were freaked but tried to hide it. But they were grouped around the TV to get the latest in fo. Mom stiopped making dinners, sandwiches only for for dinner for several days. She was afraid to go out shopping and leave the kids either at home or at school if they needed to be evacuated.

We lived in Bellaire at the time.

ETA:: TV stayed on because of the Emergency Broadcasting System. Only way we know if stuff was firing off.

---

I am a few year shy of you Aggiehawg, but not many. Not to derail, but my dad said I watched so much TV as a kiddo back then that he told me "someday, I will come in to this room and you'll just be watching test patterns...". Well one night about midnight, the Project Terror or whatever had been on had just finished and the station had gone off the air seconds before and the test pattern had just started. Dad walked in at just that moment, looked at the TV and started laughing, jokingly saying out loud..."I knew it, you'd watch test patterns if it was on..."

Sorry for the Olds reference, but that test patterns ref brought back some funny memories. Thanks Aggiehawg.

Dad was stationed at Bragg. He sat at Pope waiting to jump in during the height of the crisis.