Among our various readers, there are a surely a few of you who enjoyed the columnist Mike Royko back in the day. Royko died in 1997, but for decades he was a sharp-tongued Pulitzer-winning columnist for the Chicago Daily News, Sun Times, and finally Tribune. He also penned Boss, a harsh biography of the old Mayor Richard Daley. His son David now has a couple of Royko's old columns up on the web (to accompany the new book, Royko in Love, from the University of Chicago Press). One is a humorous piece authored by a 22 year old Royko in 1955 for the O'Hare News - the airforce base newspaper from the installation at O'Hare Field. In it he wrote:
The many letters we have received requesting information on survival during an atomic blast indicate an immediate need for a set of rules. I have looked into the field of survival and have compiled some important things to remember.
If enemy aircraft are sighted, a warning will be provided by use of a loud siren. The Russians are sly, so they may attack at noon when the lunch whistles are being blown. To distinguish between the two, all lunch whistles are being arranged in the key of C and all air raid whistles in G flat. The war department has announced that a pamphlet on reading music is being printed and all families can be provided with one by sending in ten cents and the tops off two airmen....
If you are home at the time of the attack, go to your basement immediately. Then pile all your furniture against the doors and walls. This offers absolutely no protection but it is good exercise and provides more room on the floor if you should have unexpected company and want to dance.
Were those the days? It kinda makes me nostalgic.
H/T: The Reader
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