I need an inner sanctum.  It is all very well reinforcing the exterior walls of my shelter but, within this sanctuary, I still need a safe refuge.  It says so in Protect and Survive, the public-information brochure, which was issued by the Office of Information in 1980, and which hasn’t been updated ever since.  Is this apparent tardiness the realistic response to a changing geo-political environment since the bad days of the Cold War, or simply government complacency?  I am not taking any chances.  Like it says on the cover: protect and survive.

The pub table is a readymade shelter.  It is strong; it is sturdy; there is room beneath it for me to curl up and sleep.   For fourteen days, if need be.  With a simple barricading, it can be made blast-proof; with the addition of a few personal knick-knacks it can be made homely.

Beneath its protective solidity, I feel a regression back to childhood.  A long tablecloth to black out the external world: back then it did not take very much to feel safe.

© Beery Sue

Beery Sue discovers that it is easier to enter her inner sanctum…

…than it is to get out.

See how Beery Sue started her project in How to Build a Nuclear Fallout Shelter in your Local Pub #1.