What made you a Survivalist?

[sjj]

What got you into prepardness?

[Camp10]

Like you, I have always liked the outdoors and being curious helped too. I had a teacher back in about 5th grade that loved survival stories and would read from journals and explain different techniques for fire starting and things like that. This was about the time I saw the movie "Red Dawn" for the first time and I kind of thought it might be a good idea to know the basics for survival. When I was 16 a friend of mine and I spent the entire summer school break living off the land out in the woods outside of town. We did make a couple of trips back to get a few things we decided we needed and to swipe a pack of venison from my parents freezer. After that, I was hooked. I knew what I still needed to learn (and I still need to learn much of that)and what wasnt as important as I thought it might be. An example.. we carried more bedding and comfort items than we needed to but had very little rope with us.

[Rick]

I did disaster recovery and business continuity planning for the company I worked for. It was just a natural extension into my personal life.

[crashdive123]

I have been involved in recovery efforts for several typhoons and hurricanes. Additionally I have concerns about accidental or purposeful FUBAR situations. I refuse to be a victim and do my best to bring others to that same conclusion.

[Pal334]

Frankly, I like to be prepared. also am a bit of a "tinkerer", so like to find and learn alternate ways of doing things.

[Sarge47]

I've said it before, so I'll repeat it again... It was the Stephen King book: "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon," that caused me to think deeper into "survival prepardness." That said, for the record, I am a "survivor," not a "survivalist," I am, however, a magician.

[your_comforting_company]

can you pull a rabbit out of your hat? just kidding.

Listening to my grandparents talk about how it was when they grew up. When I was little my baby sitter was older than my grandparents. they grew up in the depression era and somehow those magical stories of getting a toothbrush for christmas, that filled her heart with joy.. the stories of the simple things..
It took a while for it to set in, during my teenage years I put it aside for week long fishing trips down the creek. I think that's what really set it in.
I kinda just grew into it, learning how it was in those terrible years and going out on my own.
I'm not a gadget guy. Tanning buckskin showed me that I can do a lot more with a lot less, so that started me on my primitive quest.
I'm not a survivalist, I'm a primitive entheusiast, but they kinda go hand in hand.

[gryffynklm]

Surviver?? Survivalist?? perhaps a frustrated hybrid. I would guess Hurricane Katrina made me aware that relying on the government for help would be only a partial solution and certainly not the answer to my families safety. I prefer to be part of a solution and not part of the problem. Finding time to take what I have read and learned to application is the frustrating part. Moving to WV is a plus but survival is not the reason we moved. I've always enjoied working with my hands so like YCC the past ways of doing things appeals to me.

[cowgirlup]

For me it's been a way of life although I've stepped it up a bit in the last few years. I remember reading a story in school about a girl who survived an airplane crash in the Amazon and managed to hike down river until she found a native group to help her. I always thought that was interesting. We always camped when I was little. I love beoing out doors and have done a good bit of hiking.
My dad was a boy during the depression and it made a huge impact on him. So, we always had extra food and supplies. And he kept every useful thing just in case.

[pocomoonskyeyes]

First I think a good definition is required. Too many people are "Turned off" by the term.

Survivalism is a movement of individuals or groups (called survivalists) who are actively preparing for future possible disruptions in local, regional, national, or international social or political order. Survivalists often prepare for this anticipated disruption by having emergency medical training, stockpiling food and water, preparing for self-defense and self-sufficiency, and/or building structures that will help them to survive or "disappear" (e.g., a survival retreat or underground shelter). Anticipated disruptions include

1. Natural disaster clusters, and patterns of apocalyptic planetary crises or Earth changes, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, blizzards, and severe thunderstorms, etc.
2. A disaster brought about by the activities of mankind: chemical spills, release of radioactive materials, nuclear or conventional war, or an oppressive government.
3. General collapse of society, resulting from the unavailability of electricity, fuel, food, and water.
4. Monetary disruption or economic collapse, stemming from monetary manipulation, hyperinflation, deflation, and/or worldwide economic depression.
5. A sudden Pandemic spreading through the global population.
6. Widespread chaos, or some other unexplained apocalyptic event.


The last is usually the ones that makes people think we are "Kooks", since they tend to think of "Alien invasions," "Zombie Apocalypse" Stuff like this. They think we have watched "War of the Worlds" one too many times. Or some other Science fiction type movie.

To me the simplest definition is -"One who studies how to Survive,should the need arise"

Back to the original question: It all started with westerns,and reading Mountain Man books(both Biographies and fiction) as well as other "Adventurers".Tie this in with a love of the outdoors/woods and you will almost certainly end up with a "Survivalist", although today come prefer the term "Bushcrafter".
I tend to be more on the end of knowledge than stockpiling/Preps,although I do some of those as well. See my signature as to "Why". I have been "Stripped" of almost all I owned, and know how fragile this can be,to depend solely on stockpiles/stores. Better to have a "Plan B" if you ask me. Besides you will want to augment your supplies any way to Stretch them further.

[Rick]

also am a bit of a "tinkerer"

Hey, don't feel bad about it. It's just part of guys getting older. Getting up in the middle of the night two or three times, slow getting started. Talk to your doctor. There are some meds on the market that can help with that.

[Old GI]

Thank you, DR Rick; I'll look into that.

[Ole WV Coot]

I grew up running the hills and when I got my "Greetings from the President" letter in '64 just plain ole survival took over, but it was too far to walk to Canada so I got on the bus, WRONG bus.

[oldsoldier]

Sorta like coot. I grew up in the country learning and living a somewhat self sufficent lifestyle. gardening, raising everything from chickens, a ouple of pigs,sheep, and an occasional calf. Living on 125 acres mostly wooded with a couple of small lakes. It was just natural to be exploring the land and later the surrounding acerage of people we knew. By the time I was 11-12 I was roaming,hunting,fishing in about 6,000 acres. Learned where all the wild berries ang grapes grew. Knew about a couple of bee tree's that I visited a couple of winters. Learned to trap from an old timer that lived "down the road a peice". Then when I joined the military in 77 It was just natural to somewhat excel over my city boy fellow trainee's as to get the attention of superiors and get "invited" to go to the special training. Jungle,desert,mountian survival school. Jump and air assault school, and so forth. Each of them reinforced my up bringing. I remember a bird col. telling me once during some rather intense training. That There are two kinds of people in the world those that WILL and CAN survive and do whatever it takes to do so, and then there are the one's that won't. He said "Boy you will be one at the top of the food chain in the first bunch" I guess it was then that I went from your typical country boy self sufficent mind set to being a prepper/survivalist/survivor.

[Pal334]

Hey, don't feel bad about it. It's just part of guys getting older. Getting up in the middle of the night two or three times, slow getting started. Talk to your doctor. There are some meds on the market that can help with that.

Mmmm,, a funny guy eh? May your camel become constipated

[hunter63]

I guess I never thought of my self as a "Survivalist", this just kinda how I always lived my life.
Actually find it amusing that for a lot of people, seems to be a epiphany?
(like, where have y'all been under a rock? Don't watch the news? Read the paper?)

O.K.
Father, forest ranger, outdoors-man, gardener, handyman, WWII bomber crew member, with 2 bailouts over enemy territory, made it back both times. (some of my first remembered stories and I still have his compass).

Mother, school teacher, big reader, home maker, depression survivor, (really wish I would have listened closer to her stories, as well)

Early T.V. WWII's movies, Westerns and Davey Crockett, and of course "Annette "(but thats another story)

Put this all together with Boy Scouts and the fact that I grew up in a small town, 1/2 block from "The woods", a small lake (mill pond), climbable/camp-able "Mound" (sorta like a butte).

Mixed with "boy" imagination/curiosity, understanding parents, paper route/lawns/snow shoveling(cash), I couldn't help how I turned out.

Big influence, the book "Lucifer's Hammer" (I think around the 70's) apocalyptic senerio.......
Was a movie also, but I still perfer books over movies. (Couldn't remember this name until I was going thru the "what are you reading thread")

The "back to the land movement", 60's/70's

Oh yeah, then there is still the "When are you gonna grow up, thing"

[Old GI]

Not a survivalist; just a wannabe that will never reach the objective, but keeps trying.

[owl_girl]

many things in my life have been of influence. i dont know what things or experiences would have had to not been present in my life for me to have not become one or if it would have made a difference at all. i may have become one without all those influences just out of love for it.

[trax]

I happened to wander in here, posted a couple of opinions and Sarge told me to "man up" so I ran off into the bush and learned all this hunting and tracking and trapping stuff. That guy's a magician I tells ya.

[Sam]

and they would like you to help load your supplies in their truck.

I like counting on me for as much as I can, I grew up with my Gandparents (him WWII island hopping Marine, her farm girl that survived putting up with him for years.)
I like making things with my hands, quiet places, and wonderful views.
I also have a wife in the works that I am DETERMINED to take care of best I can (even tho she takes care of herself just fine.)
I don't want to depend on the government to remember to feed me I a disaster happens, the thought of doing that makes me nervous.

-Sam
The government is there to either ignore or interfere with a person, depending on it's mood.