<human>: Fortunately, I was born during the time the possibility of nuclear exchange between the Soviets and NATO was becoming far, far less likely. This is rather unfortunate for my fetish for the history of nuclear technology, though. I find the idea that humanity has unlocked the power of the stars awe-inspiring and fascinating... and that we are willing to use it to destroy each other, equally so. Somewhat morbid, perhaps. But a man has his obsessions. Anyways.

I think I've read enough about the Cold War period to get the gist of things. Many accounts I have come across must be rather exaggerated though, since it's usually the exaggerations that stand out and get propagated in the media. So to those who got to experience the real thing -- **what was it like?** Did the possibility of a final world war affect you in any way as you grew up and lived in the era? Was it like going through the 2012 Mayan calendar bullshit, except it was perpetual and *actually possible*? Or did you just take things in stride?

I get the feeling that I have a somewhat "romanticized" view of things. Stuff like 99 Luftballons and Trinity (the interactive fiction one) tell me that the threat of a nuclear war was tangible enough to motivate people to produce such media... But that might be a one-sided account. So yeah.

Condense the text into a few key points
<bot>: what was it like living through the possibility of an all-out, mutually-assured-destruction nuclear war?