Lost Wisdom From Days Gone By
What many consider to be “survivalist” by today´s standards was daily activity only fifty years ago. A barrel placed under the rain gutter would catch falling water on a stormy day; a root cellar would preserve the gardens harvest for months; seed wheat was stored for next years planting, and an icehouse would keep food items cold through the summer; a woodpile or load of coal would insure that a home would be kept warm for months and that a flame could continuously burn in the oven; a loaded shotgun usually hung over the fireplace at the ready because a well-placed shot would provide meat for the table during lean times, as well as stop any unwanted intruder´s, animal or otherwise.
At what point did people stop preparing for the possible and probable? My parents´ generation is often referred to as the “Silent Generation”. Born between 1925 and 1942, this generation of Americans experienced a very different world than the one we know today. They survived the Great Depression, World War II, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cold War, Vietnam, and a recession in the late 70´s and early 80´s. Moments most of us only know as someone else´s history, they had survived. For them, self-sufficiency consisted of setting aside seed from this years harvest for next years planting, root cellars and icehouses as a matter of self-preservation, collecting and storing wood for the fire was an ongoing chore, grains and supplies were purchased in bulk because trips to the trading post or country store were infrequent, and furs and pelts were carefully preserved because they would eventually be used for clothing or bedding.
My mother, born in 1933, tells me stories of my grandfather´s massive gardens, and how he would regularly harvest vegetables and hunt year round to put food on the table. What was not eaten was promptly stored in the icehouse for future use. My mother herself knew how to bottle fruit, butcher meat, make butter, sew, and shoot rabbits for the dinner table. My father, for his part, was a hunter and an incredible gardener. His property was alive with peach, plumb, pear, cherry, and nut trees. He even grew rhubarb, asparagus, gooseberries, red currents, grapes, and Russian artichokes. Together, they also maintained additional items around the house and in the garage. They had army tents and sleeping bags that they had picked up cheap at the surplus stores; backpacks, hatchets, and camping stoves were also on hand. They had several hunting rifles and a supply of ammo to go with them. Deer hunting was a yearly ritual in my home, as it is with many families. My mother always carried a rifle up on the mountain. I remember with too much clarity the year my mother brought down a buck, and my father didn´t. That was a difficult year in the Ehlers´ home.
As a boy, I believed that my family´s hunting and camping supplies merely supported our many outdoor hobbies, but I´m sure that my parents knew that these things would help sustain our family in the event of an emergency, whether it was a natural disaster or a catastrophe caused by man, or both.
Of course, as a child, I could not see beyond my everyday necessities because at the age of ten, I had never known extreme hunger or truly understood sacrifice. That is where my generation and my parents´ generation differed. My daily food, water, and shelter requirements were met every day and taken for granted. For my parents, who grew up during World War II and post-depression, the ideas of sacrifice and preparedness had very different meanings.
Sadly, my lack of imagination as it concerns potential disaster did not improve as I grew into adulthood. In my twenty´s, I never considered my immediate family´s personal security beyond what they required on a day-to-day basis. In fact, it was my wife who became acutely aware of our lack of preparedness. My idea of a well stocked pantry was naïvely satisfied by asking her pick up an extra can of beans or tuna fish at the grocery store. Her idea was coordinating bulk food purchases with the local church cannery and would often times buy water containers and store them under the bed.