I understand that you have to take some sponge baths; however...
March 11, 2013 8:11 AM   Subscribe

The year is 1959. A local radio station, in conjunction with Bomb Shelters, Inc. is seeking a newlywed couple to partake of a sheltered honeymoon.

Directly after the reception - wedding cake leftovers in tow - the newly minted Mininsons descended into a 12-ft. deep, 6 x 14ft. wide shelter - and the annals of Atomic Pop Culture. On the fifth day of their two-week trial by shelter, Civil Defense Administrator Coleman Wages contacted Melvin and Maria Mininson by phone.

CW: I understand that you are having trouble with your can opener
MM: We have only one can opener and it is broken, so we have had to use the scissors from the first aid kit to open cans. I cut my hand, so the first aid kit is essential.

Note - after test it was determined that can opener operated but couple did not know how to use it.
posted by obscurator (14 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
This needs to make its way into the next Fallout game.
posted by dunkadunc at 8:23 AM on March 11, 2013 [3 favorites]


Coming up to earth from underground, Minisons said, "It's like heaven." They celebrated a worldly party at a Miami Beach hotel that night

I like how very vague that caption is, especially after the prior page, which noted "They didn't suffer from claustrophobia until near the end. They found they could do without their fresh-air blower (slash card table) for six hours at a time without suffering ill effects." Was the bunker to be heaven? Or escaping from the bunker alive and sane?

This is begging for a 50+ year update, with a review of the couple's marriage, and a tour of the bunker if it's still intact.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:24 AM on March 11, 2013 [2 favorites]


Note - after test it was determined that can opener operated but couple did not know how to use it.

The wedding night must have been amazing.
posted by DU at 8:29 AM on March 11, 2013 [14 favorites]


Ah, the Conelrad article (first link below the break) found the couple in 2001, but had no mention of the bunker.

It sounds like their experience was a bit maddening, not because of the confined space, but because of the constant phone calls from family and media, and because one of them cheated at checkers.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:31 AM on March 11, 2013 [3 favorites]


because of the constant phone calls from family and media

It's good that this will not be a problem during the actual nuclear apocalypse.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 8:33 AM on March 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


Oppenheimer? I don't even know her!
posted by Kabanos at 8:41 AM on March 11, 2013 [8 favorites]


It's good that this will not be a problem during the actual nuclear apocalypse.

Everyone will be too busy uploading videos of their cities being vaporized to YouTube to bother calling anyone.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:44 AM on March 11, 2013 [4 favorites]


Man, I was hoping the twist would be that they forgot to ever open the bunker until decades later and it turns out Blast From The Past (featuring a young Nathan Fillion) is actually a historical drama!
posted by kmz at 8:44 AM on March 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


Somehow I managed to misread this so that I thought they could not get the bunker door open because the can opener was not working.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 8:49 AM on March 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


What a strange little moment in American history. Thanks for sharing it. The Conelrad followup notes that the concrete hadn't even completely cured (and cooled) when they moved in. Reminds me a bit of one of the disasters in Biosphere 2; the raw concrete they poured there ended up being a sponge for atmospheric gasses, which either sucked up too much oxygen or too much carbon dioxide depending on who you read.

And to derail slightly.. those ads! "12 Most-Wanted Features You Get In This WIZARD". It's like a BuzzFeed linkbait headline sucked back 54 years and embedded in a magazine. Also "Metafilter: MEAT, MEAT, MEAT TO YOUR DOG!".
posted by Nelson at 8:50 AM on March 11, 2013 [2 favorites]


Everything is better when you experience it in a Vault.
posted by The Whelk at 10:13 AM on March 11, 2013


Metafilter: It makes men go for salads.
posted by obscurator at 10:28 AM on March 11, 2013


Life magazine on Google Books? How does anyone expect me to get any work done?
posted by randomkeystrike at 12:40 PM on March 11, 2013


What happens in the bomb shelter stays in the bomb shelter.
posted by arcticseal at 8:23 PM on March 11, 2013


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