Sitting outside, a placid, beautiful spring Atlanta morning, listening to a bevy of song birds while my dog explores the backyard. The news from my iPhone is ominous: a North Korean submarine now capable of lobbing nukes at the U.S., Iran closer to a nuclear weapon, the ongoing Russian/Ukrainian slaughter, and the threat of southern tornadoes in the days ahead. Please, Mick Jagger, “Gimme Shelter.”

If all this is hauntingly familiar from 64 years ago, you would be correct. 

President John F. Kennedy advocating that every American family build a bomb shelter at home, speaks on October 6, 1961.

President John F. Kennedy advocating that every American family build a bomb shelter at home, speaks on October 6, 1961.

Credit: Kennedy Center

 “We owe that kind of insurance to our families and our country” - President John F. Kennedy, Oct. 6, 1961, advocating every American family build a bomb shelter at home. 

“It’s laughable now,” said Jane Shalhoub, a 45-year resident of Midtown’s Piedmont Heights near the Ansley Mall. “So much was going on with the Cold War, everybody threatened by the (USSR) rivalry.”

A retired school teacher, the UGA alum raised her now-adult children in a 90-year-old cool brick bungalow with a bomb shelter buried in the back yard.

A photo of the Shalhoub Home bomb shelter.

A photo of the Shalhoub Home bomb shelter.

Credit: Jeff Hullinger/ GPB

The Shalhoub home is a testament to the wonderful design qualities of 1931; the backyard is a reflection of a different era — nuclear paranoia and destruction. 

“On my son's 14th birthday (1996), he and his friends wanted to celebrate and journey down in the yard,” Ms. Shalhoub revealed, laughing and shaking her head.

The shelter ($1,000) buried in 1960 Midtown was one of many on the cozy street off Monroe. 

“The kids went down with flashlights and discovered it was 9x9 with four submarine-style beds that pulled out from the concrete wall, a panel for electrical devices, and shelving where you could place canned food.”

Family fallout shelters came in all shapes and sizes. Some were more modest, others more elaborate.

Graphic of a Temporary Basement Fallout Shelter for Families

Graphic of a Temporary Basement Fallout Shelter for families.

Credit: Jeff Hullinger/ GPB

“My backyard had little narrow chimneys, looking like arrows, cylindrical roofs for ventilation and submarine steps, rusty and dark to take you down under,” added the older sister of the gifted Golden Globe and Tony Award-winning actor Tony Shalhoub (Monk, Wings, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Men In Black). 

“My dad was an immigrant who lived through World War II; he didn’t want his grandchildren having bomb shelter memories in the backyard. He said, get rid of it.”

In 2006, Ms. Shalhoub had engineers come to her backyard armed with lasers and “chopped off the lid.”

The bomb shelter was inverted and turned over like a bird bath.

“We covered it with dirt and grew grass over it.”

 While the Shalhoub residence has a buried and shuttered shelter, others in the Piedmont Heights neighborhood have not sealed the Cold War relics. 

Note from Shalhoub family member detailing their home bomb shelter.

Note from Shalhoub family member detailing their home bomb shelter.

Credit: Jeff Hullinger/ GPB

The Shalhoub kids with a shelter in the backyard have prospered: both teachers, like mother, one at New York University, the other at a high school in China. 

In the words of Ms. Shalhoub’s brother, in character as Adrian Monk: "It's a gift, and a curse.”