Civil Defense posters of the era showed nuclear families cheerfully building their private home bomb shelters and stocking them for a two-week stay. People were wondering about places to go, about fallout shelters.”įallout shelters are iconic for baby boomers. 11 attacks, we were getting calls from citizens. “When I first came into the program, if you would talk about anything related to nuclear fallout or any of those issues, basically people would laugh. “It’s come full circle,” says Nick Tylenda, coordinator of the Northampton County Emergency Management Agency, who joined the agency in 1977. Anyone violating this notice will be subject to prosecution by the United States government.” In the event of an atomic air attack, civilian defense personnel will take over and issue further instructions concerning this material. Under no circumstances shall anyone tamper or remove this material from this location. “This Civil Defense material is the property of the United States government. They’ve remained in the cobwebbed crypt ever since, along with a note typed by Peifly’s father, Richard, on business stationery now yellowed and curled at the edges.

Scores of steel drums filled with drinking water, survival crackers and sanitation supplies were rolled into the deep, dark basement. He’s been reluctant to throw them out since Civil Defense officials came to his late father’s Allentown auto parts store, Smith & Peifly’s, one day in 1963 and declared the basement a public fallout shelter. Peifly knows he has held onto these items well past their prime. Peifly has some in his basement that date to the 1960s. If David Peifly were to offer you some cheese and crackers, it wouldn’t be silly to ask how old they are.

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