People who actively prepare for the apocalypse probably think they have everything figured out. They have their cute bunkers, supplies, weapons and bug out bags ready…but do they really know what they’re in for? After all, we never really know what the future will hold, as society from the 1950s proved. Back then, most people were fearful of a nuclear apocalypse and did everything they could to ready themselves for it.
Their end-of-days designs look almost cozy now…and are proof that our society has always been obsessed with worrying about the end of the world.
The Blueprints
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Companies began producing guidebooks explaining how to turn basements and backyards into underground hideaways for your family to wait out the apocalypse.
The Style
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The simple metal cylinder was the most popular style of bomb shelter. As something pre-packaged and easily buried in most back yards, it was the most economical choice for the majority of American families.
DIY
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Families could also put together their own bunker by themselves, or turn to the many contracting businesses that sprang up to help the less handy build an underground fortress.
Spacious
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These shelters had to have room for everyone and (almost) everything. It had to fit the whole family and have enough food and water for the family to survive at least a couple days, if not months.
A New Business
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A whole economy was created overnight, as concerned dads turned away from their socks-in-sandals gardening activities to take up preparing for the nuclear holocaust.
Community Shelters
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It wasn’t just the paranoia of individual families with eccentric dads, either. Whole towns built mass bunkers to provide shelter for the anticipated Red Storm. (Have you noticed that most government buildings are also fallout shelters?)
Man Cave
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Some bomb shelters also doubled as the patriarch’s man cave whenever he needed to get away from the family. He could just go down there and get peace and quiet whenever he wanted.
Extravagance
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Some of the shelters that people built (or planned to build) seem better than most apartments.
There you go, it turns out that our society has always been anxious about surviving the apocalypse. And who knew that a fallout shelter could also double as a man cave? These 50s dads had some epic ideas (although nowadays, every bomb shelter should at least have wi-fi).
