Discovered this became a ramble, but there is a point at the end 🙂
Back before PREPPER was a common term, guess I was one. Not a survivalist, which is what some think became preppers, but aware that there could be an EOTWAWKI. Guess anyone who was born in the nuclear age had to have that somewhere in their consciousness, after all we grew up with the early Sci Fi movies of beings from out of space (my two favorites – Day the Earth Stood Still and War of the Worlds), nuclear annihilation (Dr. Strangelove), duck and cover drills in grade school (actually all the way through at least 8th grade), Strontium 90 tainted milk and cookies, Cuban Missile Crisis, the cold war and bomb shelters.
But do remember always keeping plenty of food on hand along with extra water from my first apartment on. Back in the 70’s, living in NYC, learning to can, dehydrate, baking, and other skills. Unusual behavior at the time. Oh, we could get stuck in a black out for a few days (lived through the first two NYC black outs without difficulty), blizzard making it difficult to get to the store, or at least for the store to get deliveries (even in NYC). Will never forget one Sunday heading out on cross Country skies in manhattan and being upset because the Times wasn’t available!
Later that day, my boyfriend and I went downtown intending to see Ghandi, which had just opened, presuming we’d miss the crowds, NOT! Not much keeps New Yorkers down!
So what brought this all on? today as I was reading something came across a reference to On The Beach. My mom was a Neville Shute fan and had most of his books and so read them early on. Mom was from England and was amazed at how accurate his descriptions of war torn Britain were in books written before the war had really begun. Of course, now I understand that he was intelligent, and engineer, and had lived through WWI, so it was probably relatively easy to understand and imagine what the destruction would and could be, as well as be aware of where technology stood at the time and what that meant to war fare.
On the Beach affected me deeply, as it probably did everyone who either read the book or saw the movie.
Was only about 16 when I read Earth Abides. Another post Apocalyptic novel, that I see mentioned more and more often. Written in 1949, it saw the end of the world through pandemic and at that place in my life, that triggered something in me. An awareness of how fragile our entire planet is, not just from war, but from many other things.
From that point on, despite my circumstances, was always conscious of Something Could Happen any time.
It was only moving out here to AZ from the Metropolitan area that I was able to expand my ideas of preparing. Of course, there is more information readily available, more ideas, more technology making things happen – both for the prepper and to push us closer to the brink!
Guess, getting older has made a difference too. Do not see either my sweetie or I just sitting back in a chair and waiting to die no matter how old we are or what happens. At the same time we have to consider what we can do at 70, at 80, to keep going!
and speaking of partners, He has not always understood what I’ve been about with this. Fortunately, my shopping habit has extended to the matter of supplies and tools rather than clothing and shoes and handbags. Not that I’m not woman enough to want those things, but have become quite adept at thrifting and making, keeping my $$ available for my prepping.
But this election cycle has him suddenly aware. Its like he’s been hit in the head with a cosmic 2 x 4. Suddenly he’s conscious of how easily our electric and water and food supplies could be disrupted. How quickly things could go wrong. Of course, watching the mishandling of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, the floods in Louisiana, the forest fires in California – forget the fires, we’ve been out there a couple of times on business the past year and have been awed at the effects of the drought! Add to that terrorists attacks, living in the southwest and the awareness of how vulnerable we are on our border (watching the original Red Dawn today, early infiltration coming in over the Mexican border). Its all adding up.
Then you go to the grocery store and find California fruits and veggies being discounted, plenty of meat and poultry on the shelves, Nestle still selling bottled water from CA (arrowhead if you don’t know), and its hard to keep on high alert. Its hard to bend your brain around the idea that all this could come to a screeching halt instantly.
Because there isn’t anything in the back of the grocery store, its all on the shelves. When its gone, its gone. The same for the hardware stores, the clothing stores, the drug store. So even in a small city like here, it wouldn’t take long for the shelves to empty and people to panic.
To be honest, expect that a lot of people would immediately leave town and head for the cities. Either to reach family or because they think government help will come to cities first. We were deserted in the days immediately following 9/11/01. It was very eerie.
So all this brings me back to the question of why? Why did it trigger ideas and thoughts and awareness in me and not in other people? Why didn’t everyone who saw those sci fi movies, read those books, start advocating change? Why did I learn skills that others thought were outdated and old fashioned? Why did it take so long for my sweetie to wake up?
More and more people are waking up to the fact that we are really close to that edge, but so many more or still asleep when we need to be developing community and plans and skills.
And no, I’m not meant to be a leader. Teacher maybe, but even that will be hard as I can’t stand people and if the SHTF, I’m going to be more of a hunker down and keep a low profile kind of person.
Still, wonder why?
thoughts and ramblings 