1968 Emergency Handbook

Here's another booklet from my collection, this time from March 1968.

It's called IN TIME OF EMERGENCY: A Citizen's Handbook on NUCLEAR ATTACKS – NATURAL DISASTERS. Like the booklet yesterday, it was published by the Department of Defense - Office of Civil Defense.

There's a couple of things that surprised me about this booklet. First of all, the date. Since the 1950's are routinely lampooned as being the era in which everyone was waiting for 'the big one' to drop, 1968 seems a little late in the game for this sort of thing. I guess our government wasn't taking any chances, which is fine with me.

The big difference between this booklet and the one on Fallout Protection from yesterday (besides the battered, faded look of the publication itself) is the look and tone of the illustrations inside. Gone are the happy drawings of the family snug as a bug in a rug in their prefab bomb shelter.

This book is a lot grimmer.

For example, here's a couple pages about what to do if there is a nuclear flash. (Click on the pages so you can read them.)

That's a pretty big difference in art direction from the other booklet, if you ask me. The guy looking for a place to take cover (below) looks like he's already mutated into a lumbering sewer beast.

Here's some useful information in the booklet about tornadoes (which should be of interest to Lorainites). I can't help but chuckle at the illustration of the guy on the phone peering out his doorway as a cyclone approaches. "Uh, hold the phone a minute. Can I call you right back?"

As a graphic designer myself, I like the booklet's use of simple graphics to explain rather complicated topics.

But some parts of the book are still a little curious, such as this page stating, "If anyone has been outside and fallout particles have collected on his shoes or clothing, they should be brushed off before he enters the shelter area again." The man in the tattered raincoat and fedora looks like he is removing the fallout particles like they were just so much pesky dandruff or cat hair!