Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Well, let’s cut to the chase: it wasnt really so much about zombies as much as it was an intro into urging people to be prepared. Although, I must say, it was funny when the instructor said that preparing for zombies was good since it meant you would be prepared for other disasters like hurricanes, at which point someone called out “Hurricanes don’t exist!”

The gal instructing the class, who was pretty cute, was probably way overqualified. She has a degree in Emergency Management and the chops to teach it as well. She brought some of her own gear along to show what a BOB would look like, so she apparently walks it as she talks it.

The content of the presentation itself was your usual stuff about having water, food, duct tape and plastic sheeting, etc, with some zombie themes thrown in to keep it on topic. Really, for someone like yours truly there wasnt anything new but I wasnt there for the content, I was more interested in the demographics.

Including myself there were 14 people. Of that, one had the serious tinfoil-hat vibe, three looked like living-in-basement comic-book nerds, and the rest looked about average…although not like your usual REI customer (trendy Patagonia-wearing snowboarder or runner). At least one guy there was ahead of the curve since I heard him talking about his #10 cans of wheat.

I chit-chatted with the gal afterwards to get more info about the class itself. She said that it was one of the most well-attended of any class REI offered. The impetus for the class came from higher up the corporate chain. Although she was grossly overqualified, the classes at other REI’s are put on by regular staff. (She’s got the degree in EM but works at REI because she doesn’t want to move out of town.)

All in all, it was fun. Not terribly informative to someone like you and I who have been into preparedness for a while, but fun to see the presentation and to people watch.