What got you into survival?

**COWBOYSURVIVAL** · 09-11-2009, 11:47 PM

Originally Posted by Ole WV Coot

I feel I was fortunate. Grandpa was born in 1895 in E. KY and lived until I was in my 20s. He and others his age and older taught me what they learned from their Grandfathers & Mothers. Grandpa taught me how to make what I needed & raise what I ate. Grandma knew all the "greens" & any plant you could use for medicine & food. I was a teen when my great grandma died, and before that she taught us youngsters that wanted to learn about making soap & things she had to learn. Her folks "loaned" her out when she was 6 because they couldn't afford to feed her and the rest of them. She never went to school and worked for room & board(food was family leftovers). Grandpa talked to me like an adult, he used what he knew to survive in France during WWI, still applies. Dad taught me a lot but learned more from some of his friends, WWII vets who fought all over the world, especially the Pacific and hand to hand with the Japanese island hopping. I learned more when the vets had a few drinks in them and I really enjoyed learning and everyone was glad to teach me, including some bad habits. Guess I would make it, still have about 80 or more acres up a holler in KY. I left at 18 so if that explains where I am coming from it may help why I post the things I do. I never stopped learning to stay well fed and in one piece everywhere I happened to be. Guess I come across wrong but I want to forget where I got some survival knowledge, just trying to help you younger guys get to my age.

My Father broke the Mississippi mold, your story reminds me of my Father..

**panch0** · 09-12-2009, 12:25 AM

I went through hurricane dolly and was sorta kinda but not really ready. I had 25 gallons of water and two weeks worth of canned food when it hit. The only thing I did not have that was important was a generator. I was scared just thinking Wow this could have been worse and I would have not been even close to being prepared. Of course I didn't know anything then and am almost the same now. I read through post most of the time a try to contribute, but am still learning. I always liked knives since I was a kid. One of the factors that got me interested in knifemaking was having a skill that would be a useful bartering tool. I gotta lot to learn and implement.

**Sarge47** · 09-12-2009, 02:42 PM

My (Foster) father passed away at 58. Both a Diabetic & an alcoholic, his two biggest heroes in life were Al Capone & Adolph Hitler. He was both anti-Jewish & anti-Blacks. I was, happy to say, the black sheep of the family. He owned a lot of guns, but never really hunted and had no idea how to clean & cook any type of wild game. I once took him rabbit hunting & he never fired his gun, although I bagged seven rabbits that day. He stood in awe as he watched me clean, prepare, & cook them; I don't think he ate any of the rabbit, however. I was "self-taught" from books & "boots in the field" as Sourdough likes to say. I always wanted to be kidnapped by an attractive, hot, Naitive-American chick & be used as her "boy-toy," but it never worked out either.