They built the shelter to protect them from radiation in case of a nuclear war.

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

This song came to life during a much longer period than intended. In October 2019, I participated in the Helsinki memory workshop of the Re-Connect/Re-Collect project. I came there straight off the boat from a German tour with my band. One of the memories that came to mind was our family’s visit to our family doctor who proudly showed us his new fallout shelter and the mixture of excitement and fear I felt. They built the shelter to protect them from radiation in case of a nuclear war. I decided that as a professor of electrical engineering, I couldn’t make much of an academic contribution to the project, but as a songwriter and singer I could try to contribute a song or songs based on my memories. I knew soon that a ”talking blues” was going to be the form of this song. The pandemic, however, and the corresponding isolation and hibernation of the music scene killed my creativity which period lasted a long time. But finally, not long ago, inspiration returned just for long enough to write this song. After talking to my brother and sister about it, I found that he remembers certain details differently than I do, but after all, it was 59 years ago! I thought this is anyway a song, so a little bit of artistic license is allowed. For example, I remember playing croquet, but I cannot tell if the fallout shelter was really exactly where the croquet field was. But I hope the mixed feelings come across anyway.

Listen to and download the song at https://ldonohkami.bandcamp.com/releases

TALKIN’ FALLOUT SHELTER BLUES

Music traditional, lyrics Donald Lupo

n nineteen hundred and sixty-two 
Marion was where we lived and grew 
5000 people, most necks red 
Roadsides lined by tobacco sheds 
Tobacco………..cotton…………deep Dixiecrat South…. 

Daddy was a Methodist preacher, you see 
Smart young man with a masters degree 
And one of his friends, just a couple of blocks 
Was a church member and our family doc 
Money……… education ….but right wing as he could be 

We’d go and hang out with their sons 
And play outdoors and have some fun 
But most of all what we wanted to see 
Was whatever was on that color TV 
Round edges……… green faces ……… but it was color! 

We were drinking lemonade and watching a show 
When the doc said, come on everybody, let’s go 
Head on out to the back yard now 
I got something there gonna make you say “wow!” 
Back yard eh…………..hmm………….you sure this is better than The Flintstones? 

Well we went out back saw a concrete shed 
Where there used to be a croquet bed 
Not very big, about 7 feet tall 
A shorter door in one of the walls 
Strange looking thing………. What’s it for?……….. is it better than croquet? 

Well he opened the door and said “come in” 
We went down some steps and into a “den” 
“It’s a fallout shelter” he said with pride 
When the Rooskies bomb us, this is where we hide 
Commies………….Rooskies……….the buzz words that made us all go pale 

Well the room was dim and the walls were bare 
But 10 beds were spread around there 
Two months’ worth of food and drink 
A diesel generator, a toilet and a sink 
Pretty basic………..and dark………but oughta be safe 

Well I didn’t know, should I be scared 
Or just impressed while I stood and stared 
“If newkewlar war comes, we won’t whine 
We’ll stay right here then come out fine” 
Come out fine eh? After nuclear war….. what are we gonna come out to?!