Reflections of the past

Luckily, they have you as a resource to help teach them how to survive. Today, they know only what is. When that disappears, you can lead them back to what is most needed in life: To keep on living!
Survival is an instinct that gets lulled to sleep during times of plenty. It can be revived during hard times, but it sure helps to have someone around who's been there. Tell the stories, show how it's done. Not fun to live on rice and beans....but it sure beats not living.
Good luck and enjoy your new role as teacher and respected elder.
Oh, in the tradition of the "one-ups-manship" game of the past.....You were given a pair of shoes Every Year? :)

"..shall not be infringed."

But I did walk 5 km to school in the searing tropical heat of rural Okinawa during the summers when my parents sent me over there to visit the ancestors on the mother's side. They don't have proper sewage over there; just a ditch on the side of the road covered with a concrete slab. The kids over there loved baseball and we used to practice smashing the shells of giant african snails at 25 yards with rocks (they were pests). I remember huge lines of ants crossing the dusty gravel farm roads, and playing around in the mud looking for mudskippers by the community center where the old folks (they get really old in Okinawa, like regularly 90-100) got together to play gateball.

It's not a bad life, compared to our extravagant lives, only a few adjustments here and there, and much more inexpensive. I wouldn't be so pessimistic.

I'm pretty young and I grew up like a typical middle class kid. I keep thinking about how if the worst case scenario happens, I wouldn't have the instincts for it. Luckily, this forum has helped a lot (I have TONS of food stored away) and my husband is an Eagle scout.
----------
"We will never give up. We will never give in." - Dr. Ron Paul

Grew up that way. My dad was a bit better off because of Grandpa owning a General Store.

I grew up with the TV, Nintendo, Picky eating and fast foods.

I however know the history of what was after hearing stories from my Grandma about the Great Depression and how it changed them.

I have to admit I'm fairly grounded for my generation..

. . . we did not have "chain" grocery stores, and most everything was produced locally. There were many small farms that were over flowing with the finest produce, and free along the road or just ask, and they'd provide. Raw milk was available, and a pint free for the asking. Along the coast, steamer clams and the best fish just off shore . . . . free for the adventurous. We did not have to visit the store at all.
I too placed card board in my shoes.
Jobs included wiping the windows on cars in a gas station, mowing lawns and helping in local farms.
Today, just fifty years later, none of the past exist. All replaced by condos. I am a mere "pet" being manipulated and collard today.
I miss those days. Imagine, our family had the only television on the block back in 1953. The only one!

And my experience is very close to yours with a couple of minor discrepancies. I had indoor plumbing but my father didn't. Electricity to run the window unit and the tv that picked up 3 channels. Wood burning stove and heater.

Extremely rural Arkansas is a great place to grow up. Especially since you get a great deal of liberty and hardness of character coming from living off the land.

Will children survive? Yes, They will fare much better than the over privileged, pampered adults.

great post frank!

"When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny."
-Thomas Jefferson

I am more concerned about the return of my money than the return on my money. --Mark Twain

Thanks Frank..enjoyed the reflection from the past!

On September 14th, Hurricane Ike passed through Indiana in the form of a major storm. I live in SW Ohio, we got hit with a major windstorm, I've never seen anything like it. Power went out all over and in the height of the winds the people in my neighborhood gathered in the middle of the street watching trees being snapped in two and roofs, siding and spoutings being blown from houses, it was surreal.

That evening, with no power, doors and windows remained open and people turned in early because, quite frankly, they didn't know what else to do. My wife and I layed in bed listening to the neighborhood. You could hear people talking and kids playing, but little else.

My wife said something I'll never forget....she was asking me if I remembered the part in The Wizard Of Oz when the house lands and the good witch proclaims..."It's alright, you can come out now.", that's what she felt like at that moment. I had to admit, so did I.

For the next several days, without power and once we got over the shock of it, things looked pretty peaceful, almost a welcome relief from the rat race.

There's no doubt that what's to come will be very bad in many ways, but I realized that night that with the adversity also comes blessings. Perhaps I should concentrate on the blessings.

What goes round, Frank... I see it coming around to that again, in a more unfortunate manner. I think it will be quite a culture shock to the adults especially. ids are pretty resilient. They will occupy their time just like you did as a kid. Just like I did as a kid. You played outside. You read books. You colored with crayons. You went over your friend's house. you did chores around the house.

Adults, on the other hand, have gotten stagnant and lazy. they have actually become dependent on technology, whereas kids see it as a 'fun toy'. 'Unplugged' adults will quickly start "Jonsing" for their electronics. How will they communicate without e-mail? Cell phones? Blackberry's?
How will they eat? What will they eat? I've heard the average household has enough food for something like 1.5 days!
Hunting? Fishing? Scavenging? Foraging? Planting and harvesting? I don't know if most people have the stones for that sort of change. We will lose a lot of people if there is a real-live-knock-down-drag-out depression in this country.
But we won't lose Frank.
And you won't lose me either...

I may not know the truth, but I know when I'm being lied to...

I hope people understand that it was resources, particularly energy resources that allowed people to abandon the lifestyle you describe. Exploiting these resources allowed machines to replace human labor and freed up that manpower to be used to produce something besides the bare necessities.

The increased production also allowed the population to grow exponentially. The world population was under 1 billion just 150 years ago, and now it is 6.5 billion and growing. Now consider also that we have exploited all the easy to get resources (the low hanging fruit principle) and that in the future what resources we can find will come at a much higher cost. Also consider that we have probably already reached the point of maximum energy extraction and that in the future we will have less fuel to keep our industrial age going.

The implications for the future are ominous. Consider that once energy production begins to decline it will obviously decline at some rate. Any decline rate will produce a halving period. If the decline rate is a mere 3.5% then in 20 years production will be half of the beginning amount. Can you imagine our economy continuing to function with half the energy to fuel it?

We face multiple problems. Look at the news and you should note that the predatory debt based monetary system is crumbling. This is a fraudulent system imposed upon us so that wealth could easily be extracted from the average person for the benefit of banks and government. Government granted to banks the privilege of creating new money out of thin air and loaning it out at interest. Unfortunately all this "money" is bank debt, hence the monetary system is subject to debt collapse as you are witnessing today.

Another problem is the growth of government and the related destruction of freedom. When you are not free, you are a slave and that entails carrying the burden of supporting your masters. It should be fairly clear that many if not most offices of government are occupied by those interested in power and personal gain. The Constitution is increasingly ignored, and government has few remaining restraints, so as conditions deteriorate, the power of government will increasingly be used against citizens.

As long as the economy was expanding the growth of the slave system was tolerable because even we slaves saw an improvement in our lives (as described by Frank4Dr), but this burden of slavery will quickly become intolerable as the economy contracts, first as a result of the current monetary system collapse, and later as a result of lack of energy to keep the economic machine functioning.

My view is that in all probability economic production will fall quickly back to levels not seen since the mid 1850's (not a typo). When systems fail they do not do so smoothly, but generally crash. Food, shelter, and most necessities will be hard to acquire as nature puts pressure of the human population to come into balance with the ability of the planet to provide for us. Civil disorder is a given result of such economic conditions, and the struggle to survive will of necessity involve throwing off the burden of plunder by government and privileged interests.

I am not certain of the time table, but this seems to be developing more quickly than I anticipated. There are patterns to breakdowns and the crisis we are now entering may last for five or ten years before violence erupts. Certainly shrinking production will come first and the pain will build until it is intolerable. Unlike 1776 and 1861, the coming violence will be based on survival and not political disagreements; this will make it much more brutal.

Easily the world population could be significantly reduced by mid century and those who do survive will have difficulty getting their grandchildren to believe stories of what life was like before the end of the industrial age. Such stories will just seem to fantastic to be believable.

Frank4DR: Thanks for this blast from the past! Let me say that I consider myself lucky to have been in similar situations. Especially when I was a kid, I used to have fun with so little. I come from a humble, low-middle class family and we've never had it easy. However, during these years was when my imagination used to take me to places I never thought of. Somehow, I miss these memories. Yup, most kids nowadays don't know how life was back then (even though I wasn't alive during those days, my situations in life have taught me a whole bunch). Thanks!

time out, and get an "attitude adjustment", they'll be just fine. Keep passing out your wisdom...along with some hugs & kisses.
Ginny in PA

Thanks for posting.

http://federalfallacy.com