Sunday Funnies - Employees Only

This door is near the rear of a downtown jewelry store in Salina, Kansas. The thing to ponder is that the shelter sign was probably placed there in the fifties or sixties. Out at the southwest edge of town was about 7,000 acres of land devoted to the Smoky Hill Air Force Base. The base (later renamed Schilling Air Force Base) was operational throughout WW2 and most of the Cold War. It was home to several Air Force heavy bombardment groups of B-17s and later B-29s. Salina, which is near the geographical center of the United States, was then considered a potential bomb target. Bomb shelters were considered wise accommodations for the town. After the wartime airfield became the peacetime Salina Municipal Airport and related businesses, this fallout shelter became an employee lounge. But no one removed the old sign from the door. The symbol to the left on the “employees only” sign seems to indicate one should not even open the door. A challenge if I ever saw one.

The Profile (more than you really wanted to know) is here.