When I think about it I suppose I’ve been a prepper from when I was just a kid. When I first started hiking in the woods I had minimal gear and had to rely on my wits and just plain old going without when it came to material stuff. We weren’t rich, that’s for sure, but what we lacked for in material stuff we made up for in strong family relations. Sure, we drove each other crazy occasionally, but every family does that, right?
Then one Christmas back in the late 70’s my mother bought me a backpack similar to this boy scout pack.
It wasn’t quite as heavy duty as this pack, but it gives you an idea of what I had. It was great! I carried that pack all over hell and gone and back again. The canvas straps tore my shoulders up until I got used to it and the waist strap was an inch wide and didn’t work that well, but I loved it. It might even be stored at my Mom’s house somewhere now that I think about it.
Anyway, figuring out the right stuff to put in that bag became an exercise that I still do today. Of course my options were far more limited back then. My knife was a folding Buck Knife that rode on my belt and I cut a whole lot of steak and onions up to fry in my boy scout mess kit with it. I can’t remember if it was a present or if I managed to scrimp and save enough money up to buy it, but I owned it for many years.
After awhile I boiled my gear down to my knife, a canteen, messkit, matches or lighter, a cheap poncho, and whatever I was wearing. Of course I always had to have steak and onions or some hotdogs in there too. Hotdogs, chips, bread, and mustard were a staple for me growing up and they fit nicely into my pack. We didn’t have the luxury of freeze dried goods, so whatever I took had to be eaten within a few days or I was going hungry.
In later years I was the guy who made coffee, pancakes, and bacon and eggs when the power out because I had all the camping gear a bachelor could ever need. I lived on a road where the power out when the wind blew harder than 20 mph, so it was nothing for me to light up a lamp, get my kerosene heater going, and dig out a book when we fell off the grid.
I remember being shocked when I visited a friend’s house when the power was out and they were all cuddled up on the couch under a blanket and in the dark because they didn’t have an alternative way to make light or heat. I remember asking myself how could anybody be so ill prepared?
Y2K
Then along came Y2K, which got me thinking in a different mindset. I didn’t actually believe anything would come of it, but the stories written at the time did stress how dependent we are on electricity and the other necessities of civilization. And that’s when I really began to think about how our world lives in such a delicate balance of systems and infrastructure. I figured that the chances of something happening to our civilization, while remote, did exist and I decided to take action to protect myself and my family, just in case.
Oh, it didn’t happen all at once, but it seems like one day I looked around and said, “Holy smokes! This whole house of cards could come tumbling down without a lot of prodding.” A few years later the housing market imploded. At that point I was pretty sure that there were things happening in the world that I wanted to be prepared for and that’s when I started doing some serious thinking and discovered that I wasn’t alone. There were lots of people out there who thought just the way I did!
I’d avoided the “crazy-survivalist-in-the-hills” label because it wasn’t what I was about. I just wanted a plan on how to survive if things went south on us, not retire to a mountain retreat with enough guns and ammo to start a war. The prepper movement had a little bit of everything and I liked it because the people – for the most part – had a sensible approach to getting ready for trouble.
And the rest is pretty much history. I think I’ve always had the mindset of a prepper, starting as a kid who loved being outdoors. A lot of time I was by myself in some pretty dangerous circumstances, so having a plan on how to survive was critical.
Why did you get into prepping?
Sound off below!
-Jarhead Survivor
Jarhead, your ‘Y2K’ section made me laugh. I was station in Japan (Yoko) at the time, and for New Year’s I went with a bunch of folks to downtown Tokyo (Roppongi). What a party.
I never really thought anything would happen either, but it ‘hit’ me at about 2300 on New Year’s Eve, “Dude, might as well have a good time, because if this really is the end, we are totally f**ked out here”.
Nothing happened of course, but the “prepper seed” was planted for me that night.
i saw what happened after 9/11 and hurricane katrina and thought my god what happens if something like that where to hit HERE and the rest is history
i’ve been an airplane “nut” since 1963, when i took a TWA flight from LAX to PHL. we were wheels down in philly, in four hours, and fifteen minutes. the trip out to cali took a week by car. i started taking flying lessons in 1978.
if you crash in a small airplane, and haven’t died within minutes from the trauma, or smoke-inhalation, it’s likely you will linger on until you die from exposure. my adult “preparations” began with a few doo-dads to keep in my flight bag: a mylar blanket, a sheath knife, a first aid pouch, and an “angle-head” flashlight. (in addition to my old Boy Scout stuff…)
one of my earliest memories is of my Dad building some shelves in the basement. they were thereafter kept full of canned goods. he also stored some big glass carboys of drinking water. this was during the time when nuclear war, though “un-thinkable” was clearly a possibility. (and this was shortly after we’d gone through the ice storm of ’58. shortly after we had fled from the seashore ahead of hurricane Donna…”
during the countdown to Y2K, we made a few commonsense additions to the “preps” i already had in place. the best advice i heard during that time was to be prepared as you would be for a “winter storm”. (still good advice)
that would have been it, were it not for 9/11, and the anthrax scare a month later. “duct tape and plastic sheeting” just wouldn’t cut it. i knew i’d need to do more…
so here i am.
I’ve been a prepper since the Cold War times in ’70s.
Having been forced off the grid after leaving the Navy, I realized that paydays would be far apart. I had to provision and plan to get by for months without the possibility of resupply. So you look for alternatives; things that you don’t have to spend money for, salvage, forage, whatever you can find. You learn to make do with what you have, too.
Three things I learned from that time in my life. First, thriftyness is a valued skill. Second, you can tolerate a lot more hardship and distress than you think you are capable of. Finally, sometimes you just gotta sit and think for a while before you commit to something.
Jarhead ,
your an ex Marine , what do you think of the CFP 90 ? The reviews look great and they say its comfortable with heavy loads as opposed to a alice pack that is uncomfortable with any load lol .
T.R.;
I used one of those when I was up at Fort Drum with 10th Mountain and I thought they were garbage. As far a Field Pack goes, the Large ALICE or the New Field Pack with the composite frame is a better ride on the shoulders and hips. However if you are looking for comfort ,the North Face TERRA 45 PACK in “Thorn Green” is a pack that gets it done and comfortably as well, without looking like a Light Infantryman. I completely enjoy mine and use it whenever the opportunity arises.
Hi KC,
We were guests down at Fort Drum back in the 80′s. Canadian Armed Force, Service Battalion/Military Police.
Your guys used to laugh at us because we marched better. ;-)
I like the military packs for several reasons , I found a small ” assault ” pack in flecktarn . Its very well made and is molle compatible , wich is another plus . Had to order it from germany . It gets the job done very well . The main problem I have with the civie packs is they ride too high and I cant stand the screaming look at me colors . I need a heavy load pack . Alice packs look fine but from what I hear , they are highly uncomfortable , I dont know . OD , woodland , or didgie woodland ok , ACU no way in hell . The Marine ILBE looks good , but havent seen one close up yet .
BTW ,
nothing wrong with looking like a combat infantryman lol .
Great story Jarhead & there are some parallels with me. When one starts out as a youth without any sort of paranoia influence from parents or “mentors” the interest seems to transcend the whole prepper mentality & the interest of survivalism becomes more wholesome & pure in my opinion.
A small example of that transcendent idea is how you built a fire in your latest video & spoke of your nephews. It was very obvious to me that the primary motivation was a passion for creativity & simplicity. Making use of acquired skills, your obvious intelligence & a drive to live outside of our man made world produces a near inexplicable freedom.
I was a natural athlete & very coordinated from birth. I did every sport available plus many other things (skateboarding, riding a unicycle, bodysurfing, road biking and on and on). I was never boastful, excelled at all of it & the thoughts about the pure joy of the activity that kept me so highly interested.
I was left on my own starting from the age of 9. Remember, this was the early 60′s & kids playing after dark, miles from home, was perfectly normal. My dad was a think tank guy who worked for aerospace & was a chief designer for stuff for NASA & the US government. He travelled a bit and when he worked in town he was pretty much unavailable due to his position & input. Brilliant but not much of a life. Mom became a highly functional alcoholic & wrote a couple of books, newsletters & was a chairperson for a multiple amputee aid foundation. She was busy even though she worked from home.
Funny how the above game me incredible freedom to explore all aspects of life & being a “good kid” all was pure adventure & excitement. No video games, 7 channels on TV that was shut down everyday from 1 am to 6 am, no Internet or cell phones & kids naturally respected adults & followed rules by in large. We even opened doors for women and older people, called adults as sir & ma’am as was the habit of us all.
I got exposed to surfing in the “golden age” – the Beach Boys, Gidget & Moon Doggie surf movies & a general brotherhood in the surfing community. By the time I was 16, I was driving to parts unknown with some friends & fending for food, shelter, fire & just figuring it out. Very little money, no maps, just followed the coastline with a compass, pair of binos & a knowledge of the weather. We camped in the dirt, built fires to cook food, scavenged whatever & stared at the stars at night. We were hooked especially with civilization being nowhere in sight.
Sometimes we were gone for 3 days, sometimes a couple of months – it did not matter. This was my influence & some of the best memories of my life. What was interesting is the carry-over to today for me. I never panic about whatever calamities that may happen because it seems so independent to “me”. I have been caught in some very precarious situations but had always reacted calmly & thought my way out. I have steeped experience & know what it is like to have nothing but wits.
I remember Y2K very well because my dad was sort of in the know & bought a years worth of freeze dried food. I saw the panic in both parents face (I blame MSM) & really did not care if the computer world blew up in fact, I hoped it would. I did prep with a gallon of water, some cash, tank of gas & my camping equipment within reach. It would have been an adventure like the hundreds I did before, so no big deal.
I came to these “survival” sites looking for Lewis & Clark experiences because I’d love to get lost in the wilderness in my advanced years simply to get away from the idiocy of our new brave world. I hoping to (re)learn things & begin doing weekend trips. It was quite shocking to the point of feeling surreal, reading much of the information & subsequent comments at how panicked people were at the current environment. It was a form of Y2K all over again except people were taking every nuance and making mountains of the mole hills. The ripple effect is quite disturbing to me. When I read some of the stupidity at Creekmore’s site & “how did you prep this week”, I think – my God what is wrong with you? I am dumbfounded as to how he has managed to not run out of material. It seems to prove PT Barnum’s theories about people ….
Anyway to end this diatribe, I have always prepped but it is a only mental thing for me, the rest is pretty straight forward & simple. The last thing I will ever do is panic or lose sleep over X because it is more than likely, out of my control.
You mention Creedmore very often, are you aware of this? FYI, I was booted off his sight many years ago too.
With all do respect, I think that your writing is really great, but you need to lay off your fellow’s. You seem like a pretty level headed person so I’m sure that you know that most adults know how to remove the wheat from the weeds.
We all get tried having to wade through the “nuts and flakes” of survival, you are not the only one. There are at least 3-4 survivalist sites I won’t go to because of the same thing.
Jason, I see great promise in your writing, I’m hoping you’ll grow and take a new direction with it.
Yes, Warrior I am aware of my consistent comments about what’s his name :-)
I am so happy that I now get to disagree with you!
I have found 3 things disturbing about his site:
1. His supreme lack of intelligence or common sense – more specifically myopathy.
2. He will censor comments he does not like, agree with his limited position and has been known to actually omit sections of postings to gain favor & create a gang mentality to attack posted comments.
3. Probably most important – how many of his followers (lemmings) react AND essentially shut down in the fearful beliefs & assumptions he presents. One has, by default & in my opinion, a responsibility when in a leadership to act appropriately, especially if one claims to be about integrity.
One of the things I developed several years ago was a workflow, analytics etc to offset or help mitigate this national mortgage crisis. What I had discovered in my beta tests was how fragile people are these days & under stress in this current “crisis”. The solution I discovered was NOT the processes for recapturing the revenue stream through various formulas rather, the solution was to gain the confidence of the person in default with dignity.
I said in many presentations to banking heads – “win the consumer (100%) & you win the game”. You gain their trust & do NOT compromise on the process or information & people by in large will naturally follow & I had proved it. I saw and analyzed the many scams being perpetrated on the consumers & they were extraordinarily shallow & full of false hope. It is entirely possible to profit IF that is a result of a job well done & not the primary goal.
Because of this experience I do not stand by in silence & watch people being misled. Like many, he kicked me off of his site when I began to challenge his motivations. I wrote emails after explaining my point of view in the hopes he would at least look at his reflection via those who comment consistently. It is obvious they have fear, bitterness, open hostility & very little hope, waiting for the world to crash. However one may argue – is it the individual’s pre-disposition OR is it leadership? You were in the military so you know the answer.
People these days have difficulty standing firm in beliefs without pointing the finger at someone else to blame for their lot in life. You & I are about the same age and you should be able to see how much personal responsibility has taken backseat to about the “me attitude” which completely fuels disgruntlement throughout our society.
Once a friend said something to me when I was 17 that had a tremendous, lifelong impact on me. We were standing on the beach & I threw a piece of trash on the ground (the wrapper from my sandwich) right in front of him. He looked at me & was really pissed off & asked why I did that. Being the idiot I am I said “what difference does it make, look at all of the trash on this beach, it’d take a miracle to clean this place up”. In a split second he said “yea, well that miracle begins with you”. Which sums up my point – be responsible for the sake of being responsible and pass the torch even if it’s giving someone the red hot end first.
I guess what the dude was trying to say is;
#1 This is not Survivalist Blog, so get over it.
#2 We’re at war, there are about a billion Arabs that want to kill American’s, there are 48 million on food stamps, real unemployment is like 17%, everybodies house has lost value, and all three guys running in 2012 pretty much suck. Now throw in the FED printing funny money and Obummer being a marxist, we “doom and gloomers” have alot to be worried about.
So please stop passing off your superior attitude as something less than a childish need to feel important, O.K.? Prep like a mormon, how about “prep like your life depends on it!”
I guess next time I’ll use smaller words for your benefit. Since you seem to have such a remarkable handle on future things, how are those Arabic lessons coming along?
You like to piss, moan & point your finger while seething in your basement beating out messages comprised of narrow minded conjecture & foolishness.
BTW, when is the last time we had someone running for president that we actually voted for, instead against?
Everybody’s house has lost value, so what? Real estate is a long term investment & inherent with EVERY investment is risk so, who says that loss is a crime? Only the entitled, instant gratification, spoiled, whining children.
Wake up – the Fed has been printing funny money for decades since we went off of the gold standard. But you are right – doomer’s & gloomer’s do have a lot to worry about … that sort of goes hand in hand & creates a sense of purpose.
You could not have made a better example of what I was referring to, congratulations.
Jason,
You write as if you were jilted by this Creedmore guy. From what I gather, you seem to be real upset by his rejection of you “super” ideas on prepping, so I have to ask, were you in love with this guy, or just craved his attention?
Seems the only one craving attention is you.
Best of luck ~
LOL , yeah Creekmores site is what it is , Ive seen much much worse sites that advocate criminal behavior as a way of current life and not just for the proverbial ” SHTF ” . I go there mainly because you will find a good article written by a guest now and again like an article of how to survive as a homeless person ……..that was actually very eye opening and interesting about how they get things done . But yeah , prepping more like a Mormon would and less like a doomer is probably a more productive way to prepare for just in case and still live a life . Think about death too much , you will forget how to live .
I grew up in South Florida and had many friends/classmates who had escaped from Cuba. As a High School christian kid I trained with Alpha 66 (an anti-Castro group) a few times before I enlisted to fight in Viet Nam. I later served in Central America, also to fight the Marxist threat.
I guess the Movie “Red Dawn” did it for me because up until then, I never really thought that we would fall for Marx’s lies in this country. Nov. 2008 proved me wrong. Obama, endorsed by both Pravda and The American Communist Party.
Prep for the worst/pray for the best.
Cold;
Thank You for mentioning Alpha 66 and their efforts for a Cuba Libre. Along with Chavez and Ortega; the Castro Brothers are completely blessed that the United States hasn’t completely cleaned their collective clocks, especially since Putin couldn’t care less if the U.S. took action against those guys. That and the fact that metro Havana has adopted private permaculture, thus the people still eat and better than they did under Soviet Patronage.
Our family started prepping because of our farm background, I guess. When you live way out in the country, the utilities are always whimsical, at best, and non-existent at worst. We have snow storms and wind storms which can knock power out for weeks at a time, and we’re always at the tail-end of the repair list. My parents kept kerosene lamps handy and my dad could do anything. (So can my husband!) My grandmother, great-aunt and mother all canned and could produce dinner over any source of heat. They kept a well-stocked pantry and so do I. After seeing food riots on the media and seeing exactly much help the government isn’t, we felt that the burden was on our shoulders and it was time to cowboy-up. We don’t talk about this much and have found very few who agree with us or are even interested. I’m still trying with my family and have made a few impressions. I find the boys listen, but the daughters-in-law are actively opposed. Don’t know if that’s a mother-in-law thing, they just don’t like suggestions, or are in denial, but we were always prepared when the kids were small, and I can’t understand the total disinterest in the future. However, I’ve become very good at just keeping my mouth shut. How about you?
I have really enjoyed everyone’s posts, they have inspired me to tell my story. I grew up in the woods and on the lake. My Grandmother (that’s right my GrandMOTHER) taught me how to garden, can foods, build sheds, hunt, fish, and ride motorcycles. She was a missionary that spent alot of time in South America helping build Churches and seeing how the people there lived and survived in the 1940′s and 50′s affected her. She was a prepper and nearly self sufficient her entire life. For her it was a way of life, she didn’t think she was doing anything special . She was just living the only way she knew how.
Then in the 1980′s, like Cold Warrior above, I saw “Red Dawn” and it blew me away. Not long after that I joined the Army and served my Country proudly for several years including Desert Storm with the 2nd Armored Cav. Between my Grandmother and the U.S. Army it was inevitable that I became a Prepper. I recently went through a HUGE career change and became a ER RN. Another skill set for my “prepper portfolio.”
Who would have ever dreamed that a Communist muslim would become the leader of our nation .
I’m trying to coin a new phrase for Obama, Islam-Marxist, like it?
Sorry, “Islamo-Marxist”
works for me
nice piece- i got started in the boy scouts then after hs grauadtion, joined the military for 25 plus years- active and reserve. after some time in central america i realised how great the USA is, then iraq pushed me over the top; most of the world lives in what we might call the “TEOTWAWKI” situation
more ready then most, but not as ready as i wold like to be…
I was a Navy brat living in Hawaii when Kilauea started going off in the 70′s, and we’d just moved to Oregon a couple years before Mt St Helen’s blew in 1980 — I was 11 years old at Girl Scout camp that weekend, and got to be evacuated (it was actually fun because I was too young to realize how scary it could have been). We get a lot of windstorms in Oregon, so growing up we were always ready for the power to go off a few times a year, and my mom was paranoid about running out of toilet paper & other necessities due to her first couple years of being a destitute divorced mom, so having a month’s worth of groceries & dry goods tucked away was normal to me while I was growing up. Natural disasters were normal to me while I was growing up. I never understood why people would freak out & run to the grocery store when a storm was forecast, because “shouldn’t you already have everything you need to get through a few days without power?” was the attitude I was raised with. My mom dated guys who hunted (I love elk jerky), my mom took me crawdad fishing & smelt fishing, we canned vegetables & ate beef that was grown on my uncle’s small ranch (where my job was to collect the eggs from the chicken coop because they scared my sister). I got my first period (sorry if TMI) on a camping trip with no feminine supplies along (worst lesson in “make do with what you’ve got” ever!). Our main heat source was a wood stove, and without a man in the house, I became quite handy with a splitting maul by the time I was 13. Mom wouldn’t let me use the chain saw, though, and I’ve spent most of my adult life in cities & suburbs, so I was 40 before I ever used one. :)
So, when I first heard of “prepping” several years ago, my reaction was, “You mean, there’s a NAME for it?!”
my grandparents came up during the depression. The stories they would tell their children made my parents ALWAYS have more food then we could ever eat in a year. So that part of the lifestyle was normal to me. But what got me to do it? My friend gave me a movie to watch. l let it sit for 6 months and then one day l put it in the player. This was just after l found talk radio. After l watched that movie l was like OMG l need to get ready for ______ <—insert reason here
After that l started getting things together here and there but thought l needed guidance (since both grandparents have passed) so l went on the web looked up blogs under SHTF and found this one and have never looked back.
Grew up poverty level. We never had much. But like you, jarhead, I grew up backpacking all over. I had a cheap nylon pack, with no side pockets, but i crammed everything I needed in it. I had to make do, no fancy gear. As for prepping, I started taking that seriously only recently. I have almost all the gear for my bugout bag in my camping gear, but food Storage and stuff, barely began to think about. I have plenty of knowledge in the woods, having lived for months at a time in the wilds back then. But now, I have kids. And a wife. Have to keep them alive, too
Love this blog…
To Everyone,
You ALL sound like such great people! Wonderful stories. Love this blog.
I just wish that we were all neighbours. :-)
When I was 12 years old, I found a copy of “The Earth Abides” in a box of books my grandmother had given to us, and I read it. Several times. It had a profound influence on my view of the world and how insecure it is.
anne- great book, read it many years ago. read ‘alas babylon’ if you get a chance and ggrew up prior to 1970.
In truth, I’m not sure I’m a ‘prepper’ in the proper sense of the word. Like Uncle and others, I just sort of fell into the lifestyle by growing up in it.
For sure, I have a lot of ‘preps’, but it just makes sense when you grow up in the 50′s and 60′s and it’s just what everyone did then. Garden, hunt, fish, forage, farm, heat with wood- and work your bunns off doing it all.
After my discharge in ’72, there was a real lack of adrenaline rushes, for lack of a better term, among several friends and myself, and we overcame that with ‘survival challenges’, such as a month in the BWCA with only a sleeping bag and fishing rod, knife and canoe. There were some mighty hungry days involved in those, but we all learned a lot about ourselves. It’s amazing how many think they’re going to wander into the great outdoors and survive with a BOB. When reality hits… needless to say.
And then Jimmy Cahtah was selected as prez… what amazed me about that is there was no RW2 because of his policies- which caused me to begin adding weapons and ammo to my closet in expectation. Being a revolutionary wasn’t in my thinking, I just wanted to be ready if I had to, as did a few of my friends. It still amazes me there was no RW because of Jimmy C, but that has opened my eyes to the fact there probably won’t ever be: Americans just don’t have the stomach for it.
Still, it’s a good idea to prep for our own safety, not to mention, I’m too old to change my ways, as robably are many others who ‘prep’.
i hope we don’t have the stomach for another Civil War. (but the provocations are certainly there, whether anyone believes it or not)
the criminals will need to be purged out of DC sometime though…
Unlike you, I am brand new to prepping.
Now, I don’t want to delve too deeply into politics; but, you asked …. so:
To the extent that I am a prepper, I have to credit Glenn Beck.
Or, to be more accurate, I have to credit Barack Obama, … and Ben Bernanke.
I realize that food storage type “prepping” is some sort of article of faith among Mormons (I am not Mormon); but when Glenn Beck began promoting food storage during the same shows when he talked about the amount of money the Fed was “printing”, the idea suddenly seemed not only reasonable, but urgent. So, I started by buying a months worth of food at Wal-Mart and socked it away in boxes in a closet. Other aspects of prepping sprang from this initial purchase. Now, I’m up to a years worth of food for two people (and 6 months worth for the 3 dogs), two guns (I had previously never owned a firearm), ammo, emergency heat & light, clothing, toilet paper (LOTS of toilet paper), etc., etc.
I am still waiting for the massive inflation that I thought was imminent three years ago (technically, the “inflation” has already happened, we’re just waiting for its effects). In the meantime, three things have occurred to me.
First, I had thought that, due to political and economic stress, there was the possibility of breakdowns in civil order, and — for a short time — I even thought that there was a real possibility of larger scale breakdown of society, and possibly even something like a civil war. I no longer think these things will happen — at least, not on the scale that I had once feared; but I’m no prophet, so it’s good to keep on prepping.
Second, and maybe more importantly, I realized that prepping was/is a good idea even in the best of times when no big problems are anticipated. Even if (like me) you don’t live in a place subject to Katrina-level disasters, floods and fires still happen. Prepping for such things is on a much smaller scale than the prepping that I have found myself doing; but it’s always wise to have a weeks worth of portable provisions, just in case.
Third, in the course of my amateurish “prepping”, I realized that (as of 2008) I now live in farm country. My endeavors at prepping have led me to become enamored of a self-sufficient lifestyle. Not permanently “off-grid” per se (and I still haven’t bought a yurt), but more capable of becoming completely self-contained and totally “off-grid”. I have far to go before achieving anything like it; but I realize that the idea gives me the sense of true independence that I’ve been looking for for a long time. I come late to this realization (I’m 40 now). Until recently, I never lived anywhere where it would have been possible, and, partly because of that, I never gave it thought when I was younger. I wish I had. But, it took prepping to lead me to it.
That’s my brief experience with prepping, how I came to it, and where it brought me.
JSW… your survival challenges sound like my camping, lol. Used to keep a couple cans of beans or stew, coffee and pot, fishing rod and a blanket or bag, and tarp behind the seat of my truck, for those spur of the moment, “sick of people”, camping trips. I’d take off for a month, or as long as the coffee held out. Yeah, I usually lost whatever job I had, but I was a lot more at peace with the world. Now, I’m lucky if I get to go hiking once a week.
Y2k definitely proved that prepping for one event on a particular day doesn’t make sense. Being prepared for most every event at any time is what makes most sense. Whether it’s a job loss, a flood, a hurricane, or an economic collapse, preparing just makes sense.
Good article, Jarhead.