Mystery boxes?
Just out of curiousity, just what was in those little boxes everyone had to carry around their necks? Anybody know?
shareOMG....Where do you people live?? Under mushrooms?? Arent you interested in the history of the world?
Those were gas masks.
I love IMDB and post here semi-regularly, because there is almost always some knowledgeable soul who can answer my question. I think that means that yes, I am interested in the history of the world.
I would wish that this be a safe place to ask those questions without being insulted in return. It certainly doesn't encourage me or (I venture to say) anyone else from asking more questions, which is one of the ways that I can learn about that history.
I didn't know that there were gas masks in the boxes, although there is a scene in which Day and Young try theirs on. Was gas used as a weapon during the blitz? I heard somewhere that while Hitler was busy trying to beat the U.S. on creating an atomic bomb and freely experimenting with germ warfare, he was against chemical warfare because he had been injured in a gas attack in WWI. If true, it's certainly one of history's great ironies.
"I've loved you my whole life."
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Probably because of the relatively common use of gas in the trenches in WWI, it was feared that it would be used against civilians in WWII. Everybody in Britain was given a gasmask, carried in a cardboard box around the neck. Babies had special ones as well. You were supposed to carry them at all times, although in practice people ceased to bother, as the gas attacks never materialised. It's a pretty iconic image, though - war children especially, carrying their gas mask boxes wherever they went.
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I think the gas masks issued to the British citizens were also an effort at building a sense of security, albeit a false sense of security. In the 1950s in the U. S. during the Cold War, many children were drilled in the case of a nuclear attack. Children were to dive under desks and cover their heads with their hands. This would be pretty pointless, but maybe the government thought that it would give the citizens a sense of control and keep them calm. OP- I am a teacher and the only STUPID questions are the ones that go unasked. No one knows everything, and how can we learn unless we ask? Don't worry about the first poster's rude answer and keep asking questions!
shareI agree that it's not obvious what's in those boxes. And the second poster (not the first or OP) was unnecessarily rude.
By the way, I was one of the school kids who had to undertake those "duck and cover" drills when we lived first in suburban VA (just outside Wash., D.C., an obvious potential target) and later in Miami, FL (shortly after the Cuban missile crisis). The idea wasn't actually nonsensical.
For more info go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_and_cover
If the poster didn't want to know, he wouldn't have posted the question. You were rude and arrogant with your response, and it wasn't necessary. North americans didn't ever have those little cardboard boxes, so of course they'd wonder about them.