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Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: Horny Questions ()
Date: November 25, 2011 05:24PM

What in the hell is a huge horn like device, yellow in color, and about 80' off the ground, doing in front of Woodlawn ES? Off of Rt 1 area? Does anyone know what this was/is for, and what year this would have been built?


Sorry no pic yet will try to put one here.

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: I Think ()
Date: November 25, 2011 05:29PM

i think ever since Woodlawn got smashed by that otrnado in the 70's, they've had a tornado siren. Not exactly sure.

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: I Think ()
Date: November 25, 2011 05:30PM

**tornado**

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: Horny Questions ()
Date: November 25, 2011 05:37PM

Is it still working? It looked like shit. Still trying to upload from my piece of shit phone.

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: Horny Questions ()
Date: November 25, 2011 05:40PM

Here's the horn
Attachments:
horn.jpg

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­
Posted by: chuckhoffmann ()
Date: November 25, 2011 05:56PM

­



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2013 04:11PM by chuckhoffmann.

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: Olde Farte ()
Date: November 25, 2011 06:14PM

chuckhoffmann Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That is a civil defense warning siren.

It rotates, making a Mordor-like undulating wail:



> ...no duck-and-cover nonsense for me...

I, OTOH, ducked and covered numerous times...out into the school hallway, against the wall, on yer knees, hands over head face down.

Wonder if it would have done any good...

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: duck ()
Date: November 25, 2011 06:58PM

Yeah, those things used to be all the place during the early years of the Cold War (50's & 60s). We called 'em air raid sirens and they tested them a lot.

The world didn't begin in 2005, folks!

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: Olde Farte ()
Date: November 25, 2011 07:21PM

duck Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ...they tested them a lot...

For some reason I have a vague "memory" of 1st Wednesday of the month at either noon or 2 PM or 11AM something.

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: Horny Question ()
Date: November 25, 2011 08:27PM

Thanks for the explanation. When did they stop using these? I know, I'm a pest, but this now makes some sense. Thanks OF & CH.

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: DH ()
Date: November 25, 2011 08:43PM

I remember them being tested also and the 1st. Wednesday does ring a bell.
I also remember the duck and cover when I was in elementary school. Just like a fire drill except they took you into the hall and lined us up against the wall and then we had to duck and cover. What a great time to be a little kid, wondering if we were ever going to get our asses blown up.
I also remember going into Woodies at Seven Corners and they had signs pointing to the stairs to the basement and the sign said fallout shelter.
Attachments:
FalloutShelter_T.jpg

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: Metroid Samus ()
Date: November 25, 2011 09:02PM

I remember back in the mid 80's at Layton Hall ES, there was a horn there. It would go off once a month. We wouldnt' do anything, I forgot what the explanation was. "Testing." For what? Now of course, duh, when we got nuked

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: iremember ()
Date: November 26, 2011 12:42AM

Olde Farte Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> duck Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > ...they tested them a lot...
>
> For some reason I have a vague "memory" of 1st
> Wednesday of the month at either noon or 2 PM or
> 11AM something.

I remember it being 11am

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: think again ()
Date: November 26, 2011 12:45AM

I Think Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i think ever since Woodlawn got smashed by that
> otrnado in the 70's, they've had a tornado siren.
> Not exactly sure.

Woodlawn?? Wasn't that Woodson?

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: rememberwell ()
Date: November 26, 2011 02:34AM

Rose Hill had one also...I remember it as an "Air-Raid" alarm, but that is the memory of an elementary student.

Civil Defense makes it sound a little better - said earlier, basically a "your ass is getting attacked" horn is what it came down to...

To think of it now, we never really took it too seriously or fully understood why the hell it would scream every week/month, but fuck! it was loud.

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: Shadow ()
Date: November 26, 2011 11:27AM

Yeah, they were Air raid alarms in case DC got nuked. Not that there was really anyone could do if it did. Went off around 11 am on Wednesdays, I think it was the first Wed of the month, well up into the 70's. But they didn't put them at schools built in the 70s. LBSS was built in 73, never saw one there that I recall.

We didn't really do anything when the sirens went off, teachers claimed they were testing the siren. Cause if DC was getting nuked there wasn't anything 'ducking' was going to do to help us.

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­
Posted by: chuckhoffmann ()
Date: November 26, 2011 12:05PM

­



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2013 04:10PM by chuckhoffmann.

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: Horny Questions ()
Date: November 26, 2011 01:41PM

These are all really cool, thanks a bunch. An interesting bygone part of county history. Now to find others that might be up. And OF I think, thanks for the vid, that was an interesting way of seeing what these were like when activated.

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: beej ()
Date: November 26, 2011 03:36PM

Is that what went off a little after 5am this morning?

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: KK ()
Date: November 28, 2011 09:30AM

I grew up not too far from Woodlawn, went to elementary school there. Remember once that some FCPS "inspectors" came around to check to see if the tables we used in the classroom would be suitable for us to hide under. Another time, on a Saturday, I was a friends house, I guess I was probably 8 or 9. An air raid siren went off, and stayed on. We were accustomed to the tests, but this stayed on for a long time. The mom, of my friend hereded the whole family into the basement. We stayed there for about 30 minutes, as I recall. As a kid, wasn't really scared but wondering what the hell was going on.

It was an interesting time, recall someplace on Rt. 1 that sold bomb shelters. Basically a concrete chamber that you could have buried in your yard with a hatch so you could get in and out.

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: over the hills ()
Date: November 28, 2011 11:49PM

I will have to check and see if the one at the old Va Hills School is still there

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: I remember those ()
Date: November 29, 2011 08:48AM

Used to have one of those at Chesterbrook elementary. I remember they used to test is once a month or so in the early 1970s. Loud as all get out and seriously scared you as a kid. They didn't bother making us duck and cover, but they did let you know that it was basically a siren that would warn of bomb attack or tornado. No matter you didn't know what that really meant when you were 8..

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: Siren ()
Date: November 29, 2011 09:14AM

Public defense siren. Use to be tested every month.

LOUD AS HELL. When the siren goes off the horn rotates around. The siren can be heard loud for miles. As it spins the siren sounds goes loud then drops when the siren faces away it drops.

Here's what it sounds like -


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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: Scott ()
Date: November 29, 2011 05:17PM

I also remember those things going off, first Wednesday of the month, 11:00am. Fairhill had one.

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: sirene ()
Date: November 29, 2011 06:38PM

I lived about a mile and a half from the elementary school I attended and I could here that thing going off during the summer when I was at home

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: Dave ()
Date: November 29, 2011 08:33PM

Siren Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Public defense siren. Use to be tested every
> month.
>
> LOUD AS HELL. When the siren goes off the horn
> rotates around. The siren can be heard loud for
> miles. As it spins the siren sounds goes loud then
> drops when the siren faces away it drops.
>
> Here's what it sounds like -
>
>

Olde Farte's video above was better

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: Meadowridge99 ()
Date: November 20, 2014 07:05AM

Is it still there?

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: Big and Black ()
Date: November 20, 2014 11:20AM

Nigger alert siren now.

Lets us know when to rape and pillage

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: wally ()
Date: November 20, 2014 12:31PM

I'm from the Midwest. We have these tornado sirens all over the place. They are tested statewide every Friday at 11am. If you hear a siren going off at any other time, you'd better be heading to your basement if you have one.

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: former walt whitman'er ()
Date: November 20, 2014 12:44PM

When i went to the original Walt Whitman Intermediate School(former original Mt. Vernon H.S. but now the Allah Snackbar Terrorist Training School) they also had an air raid siren and I believe it was every Wednesday they tested it. I had a class which was right in front of it and DAMN THAT THING WAS LOUD!!!!

I wonder if the Allah Snackbars converted it into a loud speaker and do their prayers over it???

Sad times now-a-days. All you young folks have no idea how good the times were back then.

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Re: Giant Horn at Woodlawn ES
Posted by: Meadowridge99 ()
Date: November 20, 2014 02:53PM

Where exactly at the school is the siren located?

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