I gotta say, I was kinda surprised by the numbers in the last poll. 46% of the people responding had been into preparedness for 15 years or less. Put another way, I had been blogging about preparedness for they even got into it.
Another thing that surprised me was largest group was people who had only been prepping since Obama was President – 6-10 years.
Honestly, I was expecting a fairly even distribution across the board. But, I should probably also consider the age component… most people here are probably in their 30’s…not grey old geezers like myself.
But, now that I think about it, lets address that as well…….
[yop_poll id=”15″]
I first became interested in prepping in my teens, but then life – and marriage – got in the way.
As often happens, the marriage ended.
Once I got past the financial pain, I decided to get back into prepping.
So, although I am now in my fifties, I would say I have only about fifteen years of TRUE prepping.
I’m now trying to make up for lost time…
I didn’t answer the “when” poll because I really couldn’t decide the answer. I was born n raised in a poor homestead type of farm, so we were always “prepping” for hard times, which was just about always a season away. if we didn’t grow or raise it we likely didn’t eat it. I was always into woodcraft/outdoors/guns because hunting supplemented our diet regularly, and let me tell you back then game was scarce in these parts. but I really got settled down and well funded about 2000 or so and started stacking the preps in. retired from uncle sugar in 2010 and started prepping nearly full time. now I just do so when I find too good to pass up deals. guess you could call me middle aged.
I notice a bad trend here. Most of us are 60 plus and many are probably 70 plus. We know that there are problems ahead. The real issue is the lack of younger people that see a problem or more likely care about it. Us old keesers are not going to be able to take care of all these youngsters that have nothing but an empty stomach when TSHTF.
Its not our responsibility to take care of them.
That will be when they discover that youth and vigour DO NOT overcome age and experience!
They can learn or die…
Ummmm? I have been reading you for so long I don’t really remember when but what happened to the “Coeds” plan? And you don’t get to be called old geezer until it takes you all night to do what you use to do all night. Or maybe it takes you all week to do………Whatever.
It is when you have a much younger GF (I’m pushing 60) with a 12 year old son… On the bright side, she brings 205 acres, a truck, and an old Victorian built for the climate prior to electricity to the table…
Best Regards
By “Old Victorian” do you mean a House or her Granny?
Many a good tune played on an old fiddle!
Heh, well it WAS her Grannies house, but the whole family played guitar as I recall… Don’t know if I’d want to “play” a fiddle that old!
I suppose my eureka moment came in ‘96 on a 2 week backpacking trip up the Long Trail with Boy Scouts. I’ve lived with a preparedness mindset ever since.
As a 30-something “youngster”, I have a different view of the demographics discussion.
Almost every “boomer” and “over 50er” I know is deeply entrenched in consumerism and self-aggrandized political status quo. Contrast this with the majority of my acquaintences in my age demo- all recognize that the current Boomer controlled political and financial establishments are unsustainable and primed for collapse/reset. While many may appear directionless, a symptom of Boomer-controlled Marxist education institutions, they do see the writting on the wall.
As for my homestead- when the balloon goes up, I wont discriminate on age. However, youth will be needed and welcomed to the team.
We started right after the 1973 truck strike. We had a newborn 4-1/2 pound preemie daughter and the grocery stores were cleaned out in a matter of days back then. We converted a small hallway closet to a pantry and have had food and things stored ever since no matter where we have lived.
Missed your “why” post.
Don’t tell anybody, but…
I’m only a “sorta” guy.
Because, here’s the rub.
I had thyroid cancer when I was 18.
22 (almost 23) years ago.
So…essentially, I take a pill, every day (though the dosage has now been changed to one ever 6 days) to live.
There was one time I was able to ask my doctor about “how long would I have without my medication”.
He gave me this blank stare, like I’d grown another head.
“How could you run out of pills? You could always call the office for an emergency prescription.”
Thankfully the TV Show “Lost” was on and I used it as an example.
“You know, plane crash, like the show Lost, I ran out of pills. How long do I really have once I run out? A buddy of mine asked me and I had no idea. A week? A month?”
He thought a minute.
“Well, if you go on a trip, you can always get a 30 day supply to take along just for that trip. But in that case, it’d be hard to say. You might have 6 months or 6 weeks, it depends on the person, mostly.”
So…
I can have a metric buttload of firearms, ammunition, food, water, filters, or whatnot…
But I figure I got about, at best, 6 months into “something” happening before life just doesn’t happen, assuming I last that long.
And one can’t exactly go to the pharmacy and say, “one year’s worth of pills please”.
So…
I don’t take it too seriously for that reason.
My wife is in the same boat. Had to have her thyroid removed. We got a second prescription and keep filling both of them and rotating the meds so she always has at least a second three month supply on hand. Remember, it is not just about the end of the world, but all of those everyday SHTF events that we all have.
Looks like a lot of old school survivalists are lurking here, I’m curious how you look at the current crop of ‘prepper movement’ vs the old school survivalist movement.
It seems to be that many of them are only playing at Prepping.
Having a few cases of food and a gun or two won’t do much good when they are being stored in the basement of a townhouse in a major city!
But the local bandits will get a few good meals from it…