A guest article from the General:
I was thinking how hard it was for me to get on board the Prepper train per say. I was raised by grandparents and remembered the stories of the past, the depression and grew up with closets full of sheets, blankets, toilet paper, and other essentials with no expiration date. I would ask why and my grandmother would say when you live thru times like we did, you know what items are very important to have on hand. She always bought her sugar in 25 lb bags, just for the 3 of us, and did the same with flour and rice. Extra coffee was stashed in cedar robe closets.
Now I wish I would have known to ask so much more about the depression, time before electric fridges, cooking on wood stoves and cooking outside. How SHE made her soap? What was the best way she found to preserve foods, do laundry, oh what a book of tricks I would have up my sleeve! Could have asked my grandpa how he made his great garden, raised his pigs, cows, chickens, guineas that I grew up around. How was it for him as a man back then? No power tools for ANYTHING!
Unfortunately, my guardian grandparents have been gone since the 80’s, their siblings are gone too. My grandparents on my mother’s side are also gone, as well as their siblings. So please if you have elders, who have survived during those years, please ask questions, lots of questions. If you don’t have elders with that experience, try an older neighbor? They absolutely love reliving the stories and you don’t even have to tell them if it’s for the SHTF information. Soak up everything they know, it will be invaluable when the SHTF. When you do ask these questions, have your family around, listening to the history of your elders. They could read it in books, they can hear you till they are blue in the face, but to have an elder who LIVED it….that should click and help them understand the reason prepping is so important! Don’t expect them to give you their allowance toward preps, but they may be a little more ready to help out with putting preps together, etc.
Well, I hope this gets you thinking about ways to get the family on board for prepping. Also, cherish your elders, appreciate and learn what THEY know and what they lived thru. It could make a huge difference for you in the very near future. Till next time, keep prepping.
-The General-
