wondering how everybody got started

**Bladen** · 10-25-2009, 08:00 PM

how did you get started in survival type things?

im sure a quite a few people were brought up that way.

i myself got lost in the woods in an are where i could have walked in any direction for 30 minutes and found a road, railroad track, or a river.

i was lost for about six hours.
this is when i was pretty young.
12 or 13 i think.
it got me thinking though.

it might be interesting to hear some other peoples stories.

**oly** · 10-25-2009, 08:14 PM

I was brought up that way and then drifted away for a few years due to life happens

**hunter63** · 10-25-2009, 08:20 PM

Grew up in an small town in central Wisconsin, if you crossed the alley, went thru a vacant lot the woods started.

Great play ground, always seem that we got into the woods, we were in a different world.
I still feel more more comfortable in the woods then in the open?

No body seemed to care that we cut trees (jack pines) to build forts cabins etc, dug holes in the sandy soil and generally had a good time, for as long as I could remember.

North of town was a lake and "mound", sort of a butte, had them all over the county, to climb and camp on.

Watching Davey Crockett on the T.V. on one of like 3 channels that we got, and doing Cub and Boy Scouts just sorta added to the fun.

**Matt86** · 10-25-2009, 08:20 PM

I have lived on a farm most of my life and i grew up exploring the woods,fishing and hunting. I remember when i was about 11-12 i started camping out in the woods by my house and i would see how long i could make it before i had to head back home...trust me it wasnt very long those first few times..lol! but i guess thats when it REALY became a major interest to me.

**Rick** · 10-25-2009, 08:23 PM

Part of my tenure in the business world was disaster recovery and business continuity for domestic operations. That merged into my personal life and I've been doing it every since.

**Sourdough** · 10-25-2009, 08:24 PM

I am not a survivalist, I am an Outdoorsman & Explorer. However I do find the survival-ism thing interesting. (OK, So I have food phobias).

**crashdive123** · 10-25-2009, 08:25 PM

Cub Scouts - Boy Scouts - Military -both parents went through the Great Depression and passed along many of the lessons they learned - Father escaped Nazi Germany - have seen the aftermath of natural disasters - decided a long time ago to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

**pocomoonskyeyes** · 10-25-2009, 08:31 PM

When I was a kid I used to read about my favorite historical figures- Mountain Men and Indians(Native Americans to be PC). I was amazed at how they could go off into the Wilderness with nothing or almost nothing(by todays standards anyway) and live there for at least a year or more. I found out in Boy Scouts that there was a Wilderness Survival Merit Badge. I Wanted that badge, and I wanted it bad. I already spent a LOT of time in the woods, and I do mean a lot. Any way I was senior Patrol Leader and I sort of got everything started and eventually we had a "survival weekend" planned so we could meet the final requirements to get the badge. I got a bad cut the first day on my wrist (Still have the scar almost 40 years later). Our Scout Master was a Doctor, and he asked me if I wanted to get it sewed up right then and stay, or go 30 miles to the nearest Hospital. I told him sew it up here(I really wanted it that bad). He and the Asst.Scout Master both laughed and said I had to go in to get it sewed up. Anyway I never did get my WS Merit Badge. But that underlying passion has never left me. I still "dabble" in it's many subjects now. I probably always will.

**your_comforting_company** · 10-25-2009, 09:08 PM

necessity.
I was taught as a little kid that a man has to be able to do for himself and his family. I had a regular job, hunted and gardened, all that typical stuff, but still there seemed to be a lack of money to go around. So I started learning to do more with less.. How did people do things before there was a such thing as money? I delved into tanning and that changed my whole brain. now I wasn't just hunting for meat.. I had so much more that I could use the animal for like clothing and tools. I like to think of myself more of an explorer of primitive methods, than a 'survivalist', though in a survival situation, all of the primitive skills would be handy, so they just kinda go hand in hand. to me survival is knowing how to improvise with whatever is at hand in your environment, be it food, clothes, shelter, fire, whatever. I started in primitive so that I could learn to live with less money and not sacrifice comfort.
buckskin is so comfortable... I love tanning, and I think that's what really got me started. at least I'm sure it's what changed my way of thinking.

**RangerXanatos** · 10-25-2009, 09:20 PM

For the babes and the best survival knife...

I've always been one to be outside and no one could keep me in when I was little. Our back door had a locking doornob, a chain at the bottomw and a chain at the top. I could get the lower chain and doornob, but couldn't reach the top chain. That was until I figured I could unlatch it with a broom handle.

Anyways, I like to camp and hike so I am more interested in the little things and not so much as TSHTF and I want to know how to get back home in case I get lost or my car breaks down in a deserted area.

Daniel

**rwc1969** · 10-25-2009, 09:26 PM

As a kid? Mad Max, Rambo, the crying indian, GI-JOE action figures, Quest For Fire, playing cowboys and indians, war, building forts, etc. LOL!

Really, it's just a love of the outdoors and a feeling of satisfaction I get going out and getting, seeing, doing something that just exists in nature. The abilty to do something on my own with no help from others. The abilty to overcome nature's adversities and co-exist with it. I've always had a natural love of the outdoors.

Seeing my dad come in w' bushels of morels. Having and helping to raise all sorts of animals and plants on a small homestead type farm. Having a pet raccoon. Being in Cub scouts, Webelos, Boy Scouts, Deer camp!

Hearing my mom tell stories of growing up in Michigan after the depression, poor, and her dad bringing things in from the wild to make "real" medicine and such. He and his wife were the only doctor, dentist, obgyn

her and her 11 brothers and sisters saw growing up. They all turned out fine. Hearing my Dad's mom and dad tell stories of growing up in the hills of kentucky gathering all kinds of food from the wild that I thought only goats and feral dogs ate. Mamaw telling me how she remembers the first car come thru town and how scary, smoky, loud, smelly and yet somehow exciting it was. She said she hated it, but you could tell she was excited about it. Hearing my fairly well off uncle in law tell stories of growing up in the south with his family, living in caves and gathering everything they needed for survival from the wild. That was true survival. He had lots of good stories, and painted a pretty picture, but you could tell it was a tough living.

Grandparents on both sides of my family were poor, having little if any money and they got much of what made their living from the wild. They didn't go hungry, die of disease or get poisoned. They didn't go to the store and buy stuff. They made most everything they had and bartered. Clothes, house, furniture. There was a lot less bickering in the world back then and I think it's because people didn't have much idle time and they actually needed, at times, and counted on their neighbors as they counted on them.

Seeing how all that knowledge and wisdom seemingly skipped a generation when my Mom and dad made their way into the industrialized world of today. Thinking about all that was lost and for what? TV and internet? I'm trying to re-gain some of that lost knowledge and wisdom.

For me it's not about survival per se, but that is the end result. It's about having an understanding of nature and the ability to live with it rather than against it. I don't look at "roughin it" as roughin it, I look at it as something fun to do. I enjoy it! I love goin out and camping on the ground under the stars. Roasting a fresh squirrel, duck, fish over a fire and eating it with my bare hands, building a raft, fort, traps, etc. pickin fruits and such off the vine and eating em fresh. If I had to do it day in and day out for years on end would I still love it? I don't know!

How I got started was by being introduced to it at a very young age, before age 5, by people who really, truly knew their shtuff. They didn't hype it up. They didn't have booksmarts, they didn't brag about it, there was nothin to brag about, but they knew their sheet and were so humble about it all. I was too young to learn it then, but I'm trying now.

**finallyME** · 10-25-2009, 09:38 PM

When I was in third grade or fourth, I read a bunch of picture books about Daniel Boone (I think, I don't remember exactly who it was about). Then I joined cub scouts and boy scouts, and the rest is history.

**Bladen** · 10-25-2009, 09:46 PM

i was hoping this thread would be interesting.
im glad i wasnt let down.

**lucznik** · 10-25-2009, 09:58 PM

Originally Posted by Bladen

how did you get started...

Well, almost 40 years ago these two people decided that they really liked each other and then there was some stuff involving biology that I don't think I should be explaining in too great of detail (family-oriented forum, don't know how old you are, etc.) and 9 months later, there I was... been surviving ever since.

**canid** · 10-25-2009, 10:00 PM

well, at first i was a bit hesitant, then a hand came down and slapped me. i drew my first breath and haven't stopped since. i decided eventually to learn as much about staying alive as possible.

gradually, i learned there are different ways various peoples have gone about the task, and got curious.

i read a lot of literature that piqued my interest in wilderness survival and primitive ways of life and those have become one of the focuses of my study.

essentially, one of my present goals is to be as well educated as a neanderthal.

**Sarge47** · 10-25-2009, 11:03 PM

I've answered this one before, but I'll do it again. I've done a lot of camping, but have never been put in a life & death situation, which is what I would consider "Survival" in the truest sense of the term. Several years back I read a book by Stephen King titled "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon." (I highly recommend it for "survival reading.") It made me realize that preparations need to always be in place to help overcome any emergency.

**TucsonMax** · 10-25-2009, 11:18 PM

9/11 .

**Winnie** · 10-26-2009, 05:50 AM

I'm more a preparer than survivalist. But I suppose being prepared woud help me survive. I had the great good fortune to be raised by two of the most skills clever people I know and I'm now trying to dig those skills out of the depths of my memory and practice them.

**Beo** · 10-26-2009, 08:08 AM

I started with a bb gun, hunting the local Robins in the trees. Then moved on to a .22 and squirrel and rabbit hunting, then the shotgun and so on... camping and hiking and fishing as kid, teen then went into the Army. In the Army I was a scout 19D3VP, means I was an Airborne Scout with a Ranger Identifier. Went to Ranger school but wasn't in a ranger unit. That got me interested in survival, tracking, scouting, foraging, hunting and fishing. Skills must be constantly practiced to stay on top of your game but I do believe that once you learn it it stays with you, might just take a bit longer to get it done. But practice makes perfect.
Beo,