What was "the thing" that turned on your prepping lightbulb?

[wab54]

And what is the first "disaster/prepping" story you read?


The Light came on when Hurricane Hogo hit in 1989. And the book that first made me think was Lucifer's Hammer.


WAB

[Shea Grey]

And what is the first "disaster/prepping" story you read?


The Light came on when Hurricane Hogo hit in 1989. And the book that first made me think was Lucifer's Hammer.


WAB

1969, 9 years old, read John Hershey's book, "Hiroshima".....and one night, back then, i had a pair of dreams and visions, the first was always a tornado, an F5, and no matter where i ran, it was coming for me, and the other, i could see glowing, burning skeletons and bones at the foot of my bed...been a prepper, active ever since. Shea

[ainitfunny]

The realization that If I did NOT prep, in a dire emergency I will have FORFEITED ANY CONTROL OVER WHAT HAPPENED TO ME AND MINE, complacency and lack of foresight will have completely neutralized all other options, responses and choices as to what would happen to us and we would be at the total mercy of others who may or may not care about us or have OUR best interests at heart.

[Codeno]

Y2K was the kicker for me, I had never really thought about specifics in detail until that looked like a possibility.

[Thyme]

For me personally, it was when Clinton signed NAFTA, when mini mansions started growing like a cancer all over the country side, with me wondering, how can so many people afford this lifestyle, the decline of morals and decency. That is when I looked at my husband and said "this country is running on bullchit". He agreed and that is when we both started the self sufficiency lifestyle, and have never looked back.

[Vicki]

!997 when my divorce was final and I was a single Mom with two teenage boys and no other help besides what I could do on my own. Then Y2K came flying at me around 98 to 99. Then I read Lucifer's Hammer and The Hab Theory. I went into full mode prepping about then. Then a member here on TB had as their sig line something to the effect of "Don't prep to outlast a crisis, live your life so you don't notice it" put me in a total self sufficient mindset. Been that way ever since and who said "no man's (woman's) an island" is not correct. Everything and everyone do not have to be connected to survive. Whoever said that is nutz.

[Satanta]

When I was 8/9 and ate green beans for three days in a row many times because my dad when not working was out partying so no food was brought to the house.

It got stronger when in my late 20's I was homeless.

No clue as to the first doomer type story I read as I've read books since I was 3. Novels and paperbacks and reader's digest. Read Watership Down when I was 7. Most adults cannot get throught it because it is a large novel.

[Shea Grey]

When I was 8/9 and ate green beans for three days in a row many times because my dad when not working was out partying so no food was brought to the house.

It got stronger when in my late 20's I was homeless.

No clue as to the first doomer type story I read as I've read books since I was 3. Novels and paperbacks and reader's digest. Read Watership Down when I was 7. Most adults cannot get throught it because it is a large novel.

that touched my heart....may you never go hungry again, "blessed are the poor in spirit", Shea

[Ranger]

Flying in inclement weather around SE Alaska w/USFS.
Prep/survival bag required by our crews just in case.

Ranger

[sssarawolf]

It also started with me as a young child and a teen. Went hungry to many times.
Was left without water or a way to get it as a youngster. But one thing my mom could do is cook anything and everything being raised on a farm. Would watch her cook supper even at 2 and 3 yrs old on our wood stove. Yes I do remember that far back lol.

We lived in the boonies a lot; my dad was a lumber jack in Wis and MN.

As a young women with 3 children a husband out of work and not home; most of the food in the house going to the kids (what there was) I would not put myself and them through that again. Luckily they were all under 4 so didnt know people didn;t normally eat what we were eating.

A couple of years down the road a new husband and he didnt mind my mind set .
We fit real well in the Church with the food storage program when we heard it after joining.

The book I dont know; I devoured books. Always loved reading; the library was my friend.

[Hognutz]

Waco

[PghPanther]

Sept 15th 2008 day of banking crisis...................I was unemployed at the time but had 3 good jobs lined up.......two weeks late they all disappeared as credit and expansion was gone..........

I knew it was going to be a long hard winter in my career.............when I began studying what happened I learned that the system is broken and will collapse someday..............

so I began prepping soon after........

[changed]

I grew up in blizzard country. If you didn't have food before the blizzard hit, you might not eat for a couple of days.

[Anne in TN]

1998 Coming up to Y2K

[Seeker]

I grew up in blizzard country. If you didn't have food before the blizzard hit, you might not eat for a couple of days.

Yes, grew up with a "winter" mindset as prepped for by my parents. Then . . . Cuban Missile Crisis and "Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen.

[Hansa44]

My Mom and Dad.

Dad had 9 brothers and sisters. Both parents were alcoholics. He had to quit school at age 13 because of the depression and needed to work to get food for the family.

In the 70's I started to follow their lead.

By the way...everyone of these 9 children turned out to be wonderful, responsible people.

[Adino]

Wasn't any 1 thing for me.

I too had hungry years growing up. I got into gardening when I was 7. We didn't have enough food and my brother and I traded work for fruit and veggies and potatoes. Ever since if I could afford it I'd have a stocked pantry.

As far as prepping because the world is a mad house? Started in '94 when my best friends Dad opened my eyes to the duplicity of uncle. Then the Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Bldg. was taken down and discrepancies between what happened and how it was explained became glaring to me.

Then Waco happened.

The TWA flight 900 was taken down off LI literally within a week of me moving to Manhattan. More blatant discrepancies.

Then y2k actually began the study of emergency preparedness.

911 the towel was thrown in and everything I process gets tossed thru the prep lens.

[Belties]

David Wilkerson's warning a few year's ago, TBForum which I had been gone from for a few years and returned to just previous to Wilkerson's warning, and my own gut feeling/common sense watching the newly inagurated, incompetent moron in the White House take our country on a road from bad to worse. All those nudges within a year.....

[caddyshack]

I watched "Panic in the Year Zero' when I was about 8 - never have been the same since.

[summerthyme]

I've often wondered WHY I started prepping, as I sure didn't lack for anything growing up. For sure, marrying at 16 and living on a shoestring was a real motivator to grow, process and store as much of our own food as possible.

I was already feeling those "nudges" (what I call "God hints") before I read the first book that REALLY got me thinking- it was "A Gift Upon the Shore", and while it's virulently anti-Christian, I ignored that slant, as the rest of it rang all too true, at least in the potential for their scenario to happen.

When our house burned in 1980, I'd JUST obeyed a very strong "nudge" and spent over $100 on basic groceries (a lot of money back then- that was about 3 months worth for our family of 5- two preschoolers and a nursing baby, plus hubby and I... because we had our own meat, milk and veggies even back then)

Still obeying the "nudge", I had stored all of that food in the second kitchen in the house (it had been set up as a 2-family house), rather than the large main farmhouse kitchen.

When the house burned a week later, the main kitchen was destroyed. The food in the second kitchen was fine- smoke on the outside of packages, but not even water damaged.

That was confirmation for me that the "nudges" were real and accurate, and I've listened and obeyed them ever since. At times, it's scary... I often spend a lot of time praying that we'll NEVER need the preps I'm obediently putting by (the "Package" from Shane is one of those I never, EVER want to need!! But shortly after I was "Nudged" to buy it, and I had told God "but we can't afford it!"... we got an unexpected check in the mail for the EXACT amount needed (within a dollar, IIRC).

I've had too many of those "coincidences" to doubt that the "orders" are real. And it still scares me at times.

Summerthyme

[Straycat]

Growing up poor and watching my parents struggle. Also grew up in hurricane country, which reinforced the mindset to stay stocked up.

[fairbanksb]

Moving into the house I have now. That was in 87. Grew up in hurricane country but was always dependent of my parents. I joined the AF in 75 and moved around too often to stock up on things. I was stationed back in FL in 86 and bought our home in 87 and that is when I started prepping for hurricanes. I was a lurker to TB2K before joining. It was then that I started prepping for longer term events besides hurricanes.

[Terrwyn]

My DH was deathly sick with the flu, we lived out in the country miles from anything, and his boss came out and took the company car away from us and left us stranded with no transportation. Back in the 60's in the middle of winter.
I started prepping then and have not stopped since. Been thru 6 or seven big earthquakes and 1 humongous brush fire. And prepping has held me in good stead thru all of them. I learned in a hurry to never again be dependent on anyone or anything for my well being.

[33dInd]

JIMMY CARTER..........AS PRESIDENT

[fish hook]

Nothing in particular,never hungry or without water,though it was close at times.By the time i was 10 or 12,i knew that i had a responsibility both to my family and others to be able to help in time of trouble.At that time i thought i would be here during the tribulation and see The Savior return.At my present age ,i think that may have been an error.This is the road i have chosen,and i find great comfort in it.The first book that spurred me on was "Revelation" followed by "Alas Babylon".

[Spanky]

I have been around preppers most of my life growing up in a Mormon community. My parents had a food storage plan when I was a child after a painful lesson when my Dad could not work due to illness. We had Mormon friends that regularly left food on the front porch for us in the middle of the night. We came to find out who it was (multiple families) many years later. I started prepping for my family at Y2K and truly kicked it up into a priority following being sent to New Orleans to help out following Hurricaine Katrina. I saw what happened out there and made up my mind that my family and kids would not have to go through that.

[China Connection]

First book that made a big impression on me that I can recall.


On "New Lies For Old" 1984 by Anatoliy Golitsyn
On "New Lies For Old" 1984 by Anatoliy Golitsyn - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), text file (.txt) or read online for free. A top-ranking KGB defector reveals the ...
http://www.scribd.com/doc/20963870/O...or-Old-1984-by... - Cached
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[Red Baron]

I had relatives that grew up in wartime/postwar Germany.

Many stories about bombing, disease, hunger, authoritarianism, and deprivation.

Add to that my vivid memory of the Cold War and you pretty much have The Whole Package right there.

[Dex]

Spent a lot of time living on the street as a teenager, that got me started. Reading books like The Stand also planted seeds. Later in life in the working class and living on the jagged edge in my 20s I began stocking up. The real clincher was Y2k, I was in technology at that time and knew that things could have gone a hell of a lot worse, it was in 99 that I started to become a bona fide prepper.

[coloradohermit]

I was pretty much raised to prep. My parents were children during the 1919 flu, teenagers during the depression and young adults during WW2. When I was 7(1958), the folks had just bought their first house and that first winter there was a heck of a snow storm - one of the top 10 in the DC area history. They were prepped and that week or so is one of my best and favorite childhood memories. Dinner on the card table by candlelight in front of the blazing fireplace. Kids building snowforts during the days and playing boardgames at night. TV wasn't the consuming time addiction it is today and we didn't really miss it for the time the power was out. Neighbors coming over to cook on Mom's gas stove when their fancy all electric kitchens were useless. And that's just the way it ought to be. I think it was Vicki who said we don't prepare to survive a crisis, but so that we don't even notice it.

As others have said, the first book that hooked me on preparedness and survival was Lucifer's Hammer.

[Bumblepuff]

What was "the thing" that turned on your prepping lightbulb?

"I was in the Home Improvement department at Wal*Mart lookin' for extension cords. When I saw
some for sale on the top shelf in the Lighting section, I reached up to grab one, but I tipped over a
whole case of 100-watt lightbulbs and was knocked out cold till Skeeter splashed his Slushie drink
on my face. Ever since then I've been preparin' for the worst and hopin' for the best!"____ "Yup!"

[American Rage]

My parent's experiences during the depression and growing up next to a nuclear target, should the cold war ever go hot.

[Bad Hand]

Prepping is one of the first things my mother taught, always have always will.

[zeda1]

1998,read an article by Gary North and then Infomagic, I was hooked.

[willowlady]

Mom's stories of growing up during the depression made me a setup. Then in 1973, whilst living on a military base, a visit to the commissary during the Yom Kippur war drove it home. I could not believe the behavior of the people, mostly women, in the store. If they could act like that because there wasn't enough HAMBURGER for everyone, what in the $*@#&! would they NOT do in a real emergency situation? I left the store without making a purchase since I didn't relish being on the evening news.... Been prepping in some form or another ever since. Y2K put me into high gear.

[Sleeping Cobra]

What was "the thing" that turned on your prepping lightbulb?

Timebomb 2000 and The Tree of Liberty. Forum boards very often report news that the Main Stream Media will not report.

[momof23goats]

well, I grew up in a southern hill family. puttin up was a part of life, you grew it, you canned it up.
that is just theway it was. then I got out on my own. canning seemed like the thing to do, I found out really fast, I didn't like store bought food.
so I raised it my self. still doing it.

[blueridge]

During the Korean War noticed a friend's Mom storing 'extras' on shelving in the basement.

Didn't fully understand the whys & wherefores at the time - but it lit the spark during later years.

[GenErik]

There wasn't just "one" thing, there were several: Tornadoes/Hurricanes/Floods and the power outages and shortages that go with them. Also, since it is just me and Erik (we weren't blessed with children), my family are all 100's of miles away and dgi's, Erik's family has all passed. And of course, world events, Y2K, 9/11 and the economy have only served to strengthen our feelings.

[straightstreet]

I was a late bloomer I received David Wilkerson's devotionals in my email. Here is what first got my attention and I shared it with DH. It's been a prepping lifestyle ever since!:

Saturday, March 7, 2009
AN URGENT MESSAGE
I am compelled by the Holy Spirit to send out an urgent message to all on our mailing list, and to friends and to bishops we have met all over the world.

AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN. IT IS GOING TO BE SO FRIGHTENING, WE ARE ALL GOING TO TREMBLE - EVEN THE GODLIEST AMONG US.

For ten years I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires—such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago.

There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting—including Times Square, New York City. What we are experiencing now is not a recession, not even a depression. We are under God’s wrath. In Psalm 11 it is written,

“If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (v. 3).

God is judging the raging sins of America and the nations. He is destroying the secular foundations.

The prophet Jeremiah pleaded with wicked Israel, “God is fashioning a calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh, turn back each of you from your evil way, and reform your ways and deeds. But they will say, It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart” (Jeremiah 18:11-12).

In Psalm 11:6, David warns, “Upon the wicked he will rain snares (coals of fire)…fire…burning wind…will be the portion of their cup.” Why? David answered, “Because the Lord is righteous” (v. 7). This is a righteous judgment—just as in the judgments of Sodom and in Noah’s generation.

WHAT SHALL THE RIGHTEOUS DO? WHAT ABOUT GOD’S PEOPLE?

First, I give you a practical word I received for my own direction. If possible lay in store a thirty-day supply of non-perishable food, toiletries and other essentials. In major cities, grocery stores are emptied in an hour at the sign of an impending disaster.

As for our spiritual reaction, we have but two options. This is outlined in Psalm 11. We “flee like a bird to a mountain.” Or, as David says, “He fixed his eyes on the Lord on his throne in heaven—his eyes beholding, his eyelids testing the sons of men” (v. 4). “In the Lord I take refuge” (v. 1).

I will say to my soul: No need to run...no need to hide. This is God’s righteous work. I will behold our Lord on his throne, with his eye of tender, loving kindness watching over every step I take—trusting that he will deliver his people even through floods, fires, calamities, tests, trials of all kinds.

Note: I do not know when these things will come to pass, but I know it is not far off. I have unburdened my soul to you. Do with the message as you choose.

God bless and keep you,

In Christ,

DAVID WILKERSON

http://davidwilkersontoday.blogspot....t-message.html