A lot is expected of mothers, especially now.

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Work, run a household, and now, homeschool your children.

Perhaps y’all should try taking a page out of Mrs. Birdsong’s playbook.

The Oak Cliff mother of three descended into her family’s bomb shelter with plans to stay there for a week in 1961.

That was at the peak of the Red Scare, after U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower had encouraged Americans to prepare for nuclear attack. There were public fallout shelters — one was at the Oak Cliff bank tower — but many who could afford it had one built in the back yard.

Having a bomb shelter on your property in Dallas, like this one in Kessler Park, it not that uncommon.

The Birdsongs lived on Springwood Lane, near Kiest and Westmoreland.  Mrs. Birdsong says she’s going into the shelter to test whether it’s sustainable for living.

In this vintage news story, a reporter asks Mrs. Birdsong if she’s going to miss her family while she’s down there.

“Oh, yes,” she says, while shaking her head no.