I was trading “How did YOU get started in preparedness?” stories with someone the other day and did some walking down memory lane.
I remember that like, I believe, 99% of survivalists, my acquiring started with the guns. Or knives. But definitely with the more ‘sexy’ aspects of preparedness. Nowadays though…gun purchases are just as good opportunities present themselves, the focus is on day-to-day stuff, food, and money.
I’ve said it before, but I really think it’s true – when you hit the stage where you spend more time, effort, thought, and money on non-weapony stuff than you do on weapony stuff, you’ve stepped into a new stage of preparedness. Sort of a ‘later season’ or maturation of your life as a survivalist.
I know that right now my focus is very much on finances, putting away day-to-day stuff and food, and positioning myself to be in a position to be more resilient and adaptable. Giving myself options, I suppose, is what it’s all about.
Something about having a huge amount of food in reserve just makes me feel calmer. Ditto for money in the bank, although that’s always a challenge given how there’s always a gun somewhere in the world that needs to be brought into my life.
Let’s do a poll:
[yop_poll id=”14″]
Katrina did it…
You could say that i have been into prepping since probably the early to mid nineties (Late teens) with my interest being sparked by RPG:s, particularly the Swedish game Mutant (earlier predecessor of todays Mutant Year Zero and upcoming computer game Mutant Year Zero and basically a swedish reimagination of Gamma world). But i put my starting day as a survivalist in the Summer of 1998 when i was workning as a guard at one of our high (though not maximum) security prisons. I had an hours drive home and often stayed between shifts in a room in an old staff dormitory just outside the walls. There i ran across the trade magazine “Aktuell säkerhet” and a four page article about Survivalists in the USA. That is when i found a word for what i was, that is when my real interest in Gun rights took of (I have been into guns since my early teens) and that is when i started making some kind of effort to be at least somewhat organised in preparing.
I know many who got into prepping far later than me and that have gotten much further, but that is when i started my journey.
Did you notice the poster ‘s name?
It is Twenty Years ago and i read the article twice with a vouple of days between and have not read it since. I dont remember if they mentioned the names of the Interviewed Survivalists or not and i certainly dont remember their names.
I started with Mel Tappen.
Yep. I read his columns in Guns & Ammo very closely. I stiil have the copies of his books I bought in the late 70’s when I was 18 or 19. Him and the book “Lucifer’s Hammer”. Hell, part of the reason I enlisted in the Army was to learn how to shoot and fight. Skills I thought would someday be necessary right here at home. Now I’m old. With any luck I’ll be far, far away from any of the real trouble that is on the way. In the rear, with the gear.
Started with an annual magazine titled GUNS AND SURVIVAL (or something like that – Bud Lang was a featured writer in it) back in 1983 – 84. The stories mainly centered on firearms for surviving the nuclear apocalypse – Russian invasion – economic collapse. I was already a seasoned hunter and was amused by the topics so I bought the magazine. Something in the topics sort of resonated though – I was annoyed how some politicians blamed inanimate objects for the actions of criminals. Wondering if some actions to remove our rights to keep private firearms sort of the spark I guess.
That sparked primative survival too, which went hand in hand with my new found curiosity.
Mid 1980’s, so my mid to late teens, for me.
I kinda grew up in the lifestyle as my family heated our house with wood and fed ourselves from a huge garden and with salmon we caught. But, Hitting my teens while living near a nuclear sub base in the 80’s with Reagan and the Russians trading taunts focused my attention on the idea that things could go asymmetrical in a big way in a hurry. The AIDS epidemic, the books The Stand and The Girl Who Owned A City, and vague memories of high gas prices in the 970’s also reinforced the idea that things can go from “dosen’t suck” to “shit’s fucked up” rather rapidly.
My first forays into actual survivalist stuff were actually fashion related. I wandered into an Army/Navy Surplus store looking for a Pea Coat after seeing pictures of Bono from U2 in a pea coat. I found the pea coat and survivalist nirvana.
Y2K for me, backed up by the Rodney King Riots and 9-11. Several earthquakes, then moved to TX where I got to see Katrina, Rita, Ike, and Andrew…
I LIKE having food to eat, and ways to prepare it.
n
Started in the early 80’s when the Cold War looked like it might go hot. But back then my preps were minimal due to limited finances. I was more into dying women, nice dinners, my motorcycles, etc. then stocking up large amounts of food and ammo, although I did learn to reload and bought reloading stuff back then. Shot a lot more and competed in 1 and 2 gun matches back then ( no 3 gun in my Wisconsin area at the time ). But I defined preached the after nuclear Armageddon thing and a couple of my GF’s thought is was a little wacko but put up with it. I had a BO bag loaded up and some Mountain House food stashed, but nowhere near what I have now.
I first heard of survivalism from my crazy uncle, so of course I didn’t think it was something normal people do. Then in the early ’80s I came across a copy of Howard Ruff’s “How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years.” I still have it. Ruff got my attention because he talked about everyday things, like food. I don’t like the idea of starving just because I didn’t plan well. Nothing he predicted has come true – yet – but being prepared is like having insurance. And insurance is good to have when you need it.
It’s in my blood.
Grew up in very rural early 1960s Japan in childhood in a traditional Japanese house. Belonged to my grandparents. My Father worked for the Pearl Buck Foundation and was gone all the time so we lived w my Mother’s family in Shizuoka Prefecture – Thatch roof, sliding paper walls and bamboo mat floors. Kitchen was hard pack dirt and charcoal and bottled gas cookers. We drew water from a well pump, had an outhouse only, no central heating (or cooling) outside of charcoal burners and fans. We had electricity but nothing to use it for except for lights and small stuff. Took baths in a huge iron pot with a fire underneath it and a wooden float you had to balance on to keep your feet from burning – ISYN.
We used to get fish from the stream behind us when the reservoir we lived on let water loose from the outlets by stretching nets across the outlet mouth and trapping them. Raised ducks, veggies, and had fruit trees. We wasted NOTHING. The family had been bombed out three times in WWII, almost starved while living in a cave at the end of the war – most of the people in the neighborhood did also and they had a reverence for food – especially rice – that I’ve never seen since. I got my ass beat once for climbing on the rice chest for disrespecting the food.
We also lived with my American grandparents when we got back for a while. He was born in 1891, she in 1893. This is Norwalk CT. They also wasted nothing, made and ate traditional old time New England food- homemade salt pork, corn cake, clam and lobster everything (they were dirt cheap or we’d dig our own), potatoes, onions, boiled suppa, homemade Concord grape jelly (and wine), corned beef and tongue, apple cider, homebrew applejack. What the colonists had eaten for 300 years.
Saved every cent and never threw anything usable away. He had started at an engineering firm in 1909 as a stockclerk and beer boy. Ended up staying almost 60 years (interrupted only by WWI) and retired as a VP. Typical old line frugal Yankees. The family settled New England in 1632 and survived Indian wars, floods, fire, disease, famine, the Revolution, depressions, panics, you name it. They passed on the knowledge to each generation of how to survive.
My Father was more of the same only with a serious military veneer for readiness and logistics – He was a Marine infantryman who’d survived Peleliu, Okinawa, Pre Communist China, French Morocco, and Chosin. Hardcore MoFo. Not real big on touchie feelly stuff (hell who would be after being continuously in high density combat since the age of 17) but taught me a lot.
I never really thought of it as prepping or survival – just normal everyday commonsense. Oh… I was a Boy Scout too. “Be Prepared”…
Best Regards.
During my teen years I was acquiring backpacking gear that kept me alive on 50 mile hikes and snow camps. Ate dehydrated and freeze-dried meals, learned to fish, learned to shoot, learned to hunt. Learned to make whole wheat bread. Little did I know I was becoming a survivalist.
I joined the military in 1973 and learned all about living in the field and later on various tours, living in austere conditions. In the mid ’80’s I was with a group of like minded people who gamed current events gone bad, you know,what to do, what to have,what you need if things went bad. By the late 90’s I was seriously concerned about surviving everything from pandemics to terror attacks but still being in the military my access to food and equipment was certain. During this time I was collecting firearms keeping a three week supply of food for me in my home. In 2009 I retired and really started to look at prepping more seriously mainly due to lack of military support. While I am nowhere near where most people are at, I do have enough to survive a year even in Canada’s cold winters. I never really called myself a prepper. I always considered myself a pragmatist. Things can go wrong, so be prepared. TTFN
The precursor was way back when I was a kid in the sixties and read a book called Tunnel in The Sky by Robert Heinlein. Later, in the seventies while in the military I was sent on a SERE course and that pushed me further along the road to a preparedness mindset.
Then the real kick in the teeth happened in 2003 when a serious blackout left us with no power for 3 days. I live in the country and no power means no water because the well pump is electric. I remember how I had to jury rig a tripod with some rope and a bucket to get water from the sump for the toilet and I had to make a filter to be able to use water from our sump for drinking and cooking.
After this, I swore that never again would I get caught like this. I’m not paranoid about it, but I’ve got the bases covered in the event of a serious short term emergency of up to a month or so. For longer, I’m part of a group, and we have a place to run too.
I started in 2013 or so once I got settled into a good job. Prior to that I lost just about everything in the economic collapse of 2008. Eventually I lost my home and business. Took me two years to realize there was no getting out of this intact and I walked away from it all in early 2010.
Me, my cat, and all my possessions in a 1/2 ton pickup left for greener places.
Spent three years trying to find a good job and get back on my feet.
Still stinging from that disaster and starting to pay attention to finance and a few good podcasts I started to buy Gold and Silver. Although mostly silver in those days. I also bought 2 cases of MREs that summer. (Of course looking back…)
My purchasing of guns was more about the freedom to own and shoot them than survival. I used to live in a Commie Controlled state where guns are heavilly regulated and such. I laugh. My EDC Walther PPQ is verboten with it’s stock 15 round magazine there. But I can have my Barrett 99 in 50BMG with no issues… Idiots.
Now like my other preps guns/ammo are part of the plan and just plain fun too!
I’m working to improve all the time. My health is the next big thing I’m working on. Damn near got dead last summer. I spend about the same on guns and preps. Only reason I spend as much as I do on guns is I like target shooting and am always playing with a new caliber. I also reload for everything I shoot so I will have some extra to put into other preps.
It’s been a while since I actually thought about what led me here. Thanks for the reminder. Time to refocus.
No 50 cal in califuckyou.
My escape was from the PRM.
(People’s Republik of Maryland)
Grew up with Grandparents who lived thru the Great Depression had a Aunt who was a “hard core” survivalist(guns,4×4,retreat in the woods). Mom thought they were crazy and wanted to live large until we lost almost everything(house fire/Fathers death) and had to grow our food,second hand clothes,squeeze every penny til it cries. I never want to be hungry,cold again.
Superficially, when I was a Boy Scout in the late 60’s/early 70’s. Then, when I went to EMT school, and once I started working for Da City, well, I saw, first hand, what happened to unarmed folks when trouble kicked in the door.
Not attractive.
So, I started as a gunny prepper. Once I realized that I couldn’t eat ammo, and that I really enjoyed eating, every single day, I started buying my dry and canned goods, by the dozen. One time I was paying for my shopping cart, loaded to the gills with canned goods and dry goods, and the clerk made some crack about the volume of my purchases. I replied that Scouts sure get hungry, and left him with a grin. And a large check to pay for it all.
So, I’m now only OK with the long term food stash, pretty good on the guns ‘n ammo piece, really (REALLY!) need to get my geezerly butt into reasonable physical shape. Project ONE, presently, is paying off my debt so I can afford to live on Social Security. And, have savings sufficient, to have alternatives to SS.
I am/it still is, a work in progress.
My Grandparents were Depression Era farmers who survived that by being self sufficient. I remember my Paternal Grandfather still had a milk cow well into the ’60’s. He made shoes and whatever else was needed. Even though my father was a College Professor he never forgot his farm roots. He brought back half a beef for the freezer at Thanksgiving and a whole Hog at Xmas. He always did things for himself. Mom canned and was a stay at home mom.
I grew up reading stories about outdoors men who had a cache of supplies, Who put away food for the winter every year. So doing what I do is just normal and natural. Even when I lived in a travel trailer I found ways to squirrel away extra food for the lean times. When I owned my house I had a huge garden, a root cellar, etc. So to me people that don’t “prep” or what ever term you want to use are the weirdo’s.