Sad as it is, we couldn't all go to a beautiful, gleaming, just-built modernized elementary school. Some of us had to be content with, you know, the dregs.
Some kids, on the other hand, got the really unique experience of going to school in a literal, honest-to-goodness nuclear fallout shelter, as was the case with attendees of Abo Elementary School in Artesia, New Mexico:
You might look at that and say, "Gee, that looks like a really small school." But that's not the school, exactly. That's just the entrance to the school. It's a bomb hatch.
The school was built in 1962 "partly to further the development of American fallout shelter design" as well as "to further knowledge about the long-term effects of life underground in a shelter environment."
Really you gotta question the wisdom of that: If you want to learn about the "long-term effects" of a potentially dangerous experiment, is it wise to use, you know, schoolchildren?
Well, it was different times. They were feeding kids lead paint back then, right? Going to school in a windowless quasi-jail was positively healthful by comparison.
And just to be clear, this wasn't merely a school built underground. They really took the "bomb shelter" aspect of the whole thing seriously. According to the National Parks Service:
In addition to traditional school features like classrooms and a cafeteria, Abo Elementary School featured an emergency entrance equipped with a shower to remove fallout particles, rations and supplies for 2,080 for two weeks, an air-conditioning system that could filter out radioactivity, a generator to supply emergency power, and a morgue. The extant 150-kilowatt generator, powered by a 319 horsepower diesel engine, drew its fuel from an underground storage tank that could hold 10,000 gallons. The building was also features an auxiliary water system, designed to supply the shelter's inhabitants with water during an emergency...
Imagine rolling up to your first day of school, seeing all this, and it hits you:
Here's a shot of the school under construction and in use:
Unsurprisingly, after all that nuclear fallout failed to materialize, the school closed down, with a new one being built to replace it. The underground complex is now used for storage:
Pretty creepy. All in all, a weird part of Americana. But if the whole project seemed like a colossal waste, don't fret, there was actually an upside to the whole thing:
[M]any students who suffered from chronic allergies or asthma were transferred to Abo as its advanced air filtration systems reduced the impact of dust storms and allergens. Indeed, these studies concluded that many students' health improved as a result of extended time in the school.
