If you are a baby boomer like I am, then you grew up in the era of duck & cover drills and you remember Civil Defense sirens being tested on the first Friday of every month.  If you are not a baby boomer  let me explain.  Duck & Cover drills were performed periodically in school, similar to a fire drill.  Except during a duck & cover drill the teacher would exclaim “duck & cover!” and the students immedately jumped under their desks and covered their heads with their hands.  This was to practice what we were to do when we saw the flash emitted by a detonating nuclear bomb.  Also we were warned not to look directly at the flash lest our eyeballs melt.  Good times.  Civil Defense sirens were basically air raid sirens to warn everyone to get ready to duck & cover.  These were tested at 11:30 AM on the first Friday of every month, which I’m sure the Soviets figured would be the best time for an attack.

Anyhoo, the Civil Defense authorities that thought up duck & cover and installed the sirens also put together a map of targets that the Soviets were likley to nuke when the shit got real:

click to enlarge

They planned for every eventuality.  The triangles depict targets is an “500 warhead” scenario.  The black spots are “2000 warhead scenario” targets.  I happen to live within the intersection of two black spots that are within the intersected area of three triangles.  So I doubt the duck & cover would have helped.  But I guess it’s better than telling a second grader to “bend over and kiss your ass good-bye”.