We'll Be Ready When the Bomb Drops in Washington State

These were issued to all Washington State residents in 1961

A while back, I made a post, here, that talked about Ocean Shores as a last place for people to live after the Seattle-Tacoma-Everett-Bremerton Target Complex was destroyed. Well, as it turns out, Washington State went further to prepare us all for the unthinkable.

Going through old documents, I ran across a ration card that was issued by the State of Washington. No, this wasn't for WW2. It was IN CASE of WW3! Governor Rosellini had these made up in 1961 and distributed. You can see ours at the top of this post. This was the same year they were making plans to move the survivors to Ocean Shores. You can read more about this program here. 

Remember, this was all before the Cuban Missile Crisis, at a time when we were theoretically at peace.

I found a site, here, that talks about the various civil defense efforts that took place back in the day. The Washington State "provisional temporary ration program" was just one of these. New York put out pamphlets in the early 60's to tell us what to do in case of a nuclear attack. Rutland, Vermont was slower than most - they were still publishing fallout shelter plans in 1970. As far as I know, our Canadian neighbors weren't quite as dramatic about being ready for "the big one." The closest I found was an evacuation plan - for Canadian County, Oklahoma.

I do not know if any laws were ever enacted about the rationing regulations and associated penalties.