# In what ways were our grandparents better prepared that we are?



## admin (Apr 28, 2016)

Long before anyone started using the word "prepping" our grandparents and great-grandparents were often amazing preppers and survivalists.

In what ways do you feel that they were better prepared than we are? Why do you think that is?


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## Sasquatch (Dec 12, 2014)

Mentally. They weren't snowflakes. Didn't make excuses and didn't expect anyone else to take care of them. They did what they had to do to provide for their families. 

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## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)

They learned how to live within their means and did well with much less for starters.


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## admin (Apr 28, 2016)

Sasquatch said:


> Mentally. They weren't snowflakes. Didn't make excuses and didn't expect anyone else to take care of them. They did what they had to do to provide for their families.


I was a young teen before my grandparents even had an indoor toilet. For them, there were no easy alternatives. You simply had to figure it out.

They were farmers. I remember a big "junk" pile out behind the barn and wondered why they didn't get rid of it, but it turned out that stuff got recycled and reused a gazillion different ways. If the tractor needed something, often parts could be found in that pile.

Their garden was massive and cared for as if it were gold.


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## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)

The junk pile and crapped out vehicle's in the back 40 were there for a reason. The trendy bigfoot home people would have a hissy fit these days.


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## Camel923 (Aug 13, 2014)

Less technology dependent. Many had subsistence and farming back grounds. They had skills to do things that most of us do not so we buy new rather than make or repair. Sewing, cobbler, canning, others. They had no social net and knew what hard times were.


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## admin (Apr 28, 2016)

Sasquatch said:


> Mentally. They weren't snowflakes. Didn't make excuses and didn't expect anyone else to take care of them. They did what they had to do to provide for their families.


And yet jumped in to help the neighbors in a heartbeat when tragedy struck.


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

Simple they lived through some rough times . What we call prepping was everyday life for them.


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## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

My grandparents (my mothers parents) were country folks and very poor. They didn’t have a farm or land but always rented a house. For money they had ‘boarders’ and pap did a little moonshining. They got some of their food from the surrounding woods, game (often poached out of season), mushrooms, berries, etc. No indoor plumbing! Mom often tells me remembering snow blowing in under the door in the winter. Gram did canning when she could get goods to ‘put up’. This used to be coal country and mom says her and pap used to walk the railroad tracks to pick up coal for the stove which served for both cooking and heating. Baths were once a week in a washtub. They had a hard life but were survivors. I’m not sure you could call them preppers. They just made it day to day but they had skills to survive the depression and very hard times. Can you seriously imagine todays snowflakes living under such conditions? HAH!


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## Lowtechredneck (May 7, 2018)

Don't forget situational awareness. They actually knew what was happening around them. I am still amazed watching people walk out into traffic because they are so engrossed in their electronics that they fail to notice the cars.


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

hawgrider said:


> The junk pile and crapped out vehicle's in the back 40 were there for a reason. The trendy bigfoot home people would have a hissy fit these days.


 Some of it is Still there. Son in law and Daughter bought the other family farm awhile back. They are moving in until Grandma is ready to come live with us. They have been chopping down trees cleaning up some old barns. Find a lot of old memories.
They saved one of the building that was both for pigs and chickens at different times. Grandma was happy that one will live on.
Fun part old welder father in law and I used for years only worked one 2 setting anymore rusted pile of junk. Grandma figure it was still useful it did work on 2 setting. Every old electric motor I think that was ever on that places was in a pile.


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## huntntrap (Feb 5, 2017)

They were tough hardy people who were smart enough to think and fend for themselves.
They knew how to get by without and they knew how to work hard.
They were all mcgivers. Every single one of them.
Most grew up on farms learning the value of work.
There were few full service grocers. Most towns had a small store where they sold the staples.

Back then 10 people could keep each other alive between the skills of them all. Now it takes 100.

Too much technology making it easier for future generations at the expense of actual tangible skills.

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## jimb1972 (Nov 12, 2012)

They were not accustomed to sitting around being entertained. People today are too used to the ease of modern life, in the 1800s and early 1900s people had to work hard all spring, summer and fall if they wanted to survive the winter.


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## Loyalism (Aug 1, 2018)

It should be pretty obvious, back when our grandparents were younger, life in America was much more tense. Like the cold war for instance, that was a REAL threat and people did take it seriously, nowadays we do not have a real reason to prep besides hypothetical's. Which are valid, I am not trying to downplay any reasoning someone has to prep.


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## Prepper Vince (Jul 31, 2018)

Sasquatch said:


> Mentally. They weren't snowflakes. Didn't make excuses and didn't expect anyone else to take care of them. They did what they had to do to provide for their families.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


Totally agree!
They weren't freeloaders or lazy.
They were hard workers and strived to provide for their families and their future lineage.


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## Gunn (Jan 1, 2016)

My grandparents did not have electricity until the 50's, a TV until the 80's. I remember going to their place and for entertainment it was cribbage, canasta or hearts. He used to repair all of his stuff even his firearms. Grandma canned everything. In my young eyes my grandpa could do anything. Now that I know better, he could do anything. He is probably the person who influenced me the most next to my dad. He worked hard at "Prepping" before I even knew what it was. It was the "Norm" in Scotland and which he continued to do after they moved to the "Colonies". He lived to a ripe young age of 107.


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## Ragnarök (Aug 4, 2014)

My grandparents were born in the 1920’s. People from that time period generally did not have the same luxuries we enjoy today. More People back then worked harder. Over time excuses became accepted and look at us now. 

Having grocery stores that cater our every need/want gives people a false sense of security. 

People look at our government differently today than they did in the 20s and 30’s. They expect to be taken care of.


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## youngridge (Dec 28, 2017)

Don’t even know where to start...never throwing anything away

Left over food and scraps got fed to the hogs

Grain spilled in the field got fed to the stock

Compost was unheard of, they had hogs 

Chickens roamed in every pen, best tasting chicken I ever had

Machinery got parked in the grove when beyond repair, great place for fabrication material as well as parts

Neighbors were just that, neighbors. You seen em all at least once a week, that was called church

There was no hunting season or trapping season, if they needed meat, they needed it. Deer and duck heart are some of my favorites, cow tongue was another 

Garden was huge! All the greens that were uneaten got fed to the hogs, including the weeds. Hog manure was applied in the fall

Largest strawberry, raspberry, and asparagus patches were at my grandparents.

Canning was a summer routine all the way through the fall. Towards the end they would go to the grocery store when meat was on sale, buy up the lot and can it. 


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

My family on my mothers side were all farmers. When she went to college they had a falling out. I grew up in the concrete jungle.

Someone said people back then had no social network. I disagree on my end. My relatives tended to help each other where ever help was needed. Take barn raising for instance. They came together as a community to get things done.


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## StratMaster (Dec 26, 2017)

Gunn said:


> My grandparents did not have electricity until the 50's, a TV until the 80's. I remember going to their place and for entertainment it was cribbage, canasta or hearts. He used to repair all of his stuff even his firearms. Grandma canned everything. In my young eyes my grandpa could do anything. Now that I know better, he could do anything. He is probably the person who influenced me the most next to my dad. He worked hard at "Prepping" before I even knew what it was. It was the "Norm" in Scotland and which he continued to do after they moved to the "Colonies". He lived to a ripe young age of 107.


I remember the long nights of playing hearts with my Grams and aunts as well... while eating her home made cinnamon rolls fresh from her old school kitchen. Nothing like that occurs on this planet now.


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

OMGosh what a great thread. I'm loving everyone's stories. Keep them coming, please.

My husband can trace his lineage on his mom's side back to two families off the Mayflower, and at least one ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War. So, if I think I'm having a bad day, I try to remember their struggles.


My husband's dad was one of 12 children who grew up in a row house during the depression in a coal mining town. The father died of black lung, so the kids had to go out and earn money for the family and keep the roof over their heads.

My paternal grandfather was orphaned and came over to the States after being a drummer boy in India and he became an engineer. On my mom's side, her grandfather came over from Ireland and became the chief of police in Brooklynn. 

I have other family members who fought in WWII, WWI and on who served in Koria.


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## admin (Apr 28, 2016)

I think that many times they were stronger because of the challenges they had to face.

Tough times seem to either strengthen a person or breaks them. Several years back, I had the year from hell. I went through a divorce, moved my kids across the country, my youngest son got expelled from kindergarten, my house burned down a few days after Christmas, and so on. After experiences like that, the everyday problems just don't seem to be a big deal anymore, ya know?


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

My father was born in 1898, my mother in 1902. Not really sure when my grandparents were born, but it was in the old 
country, Germany and Poland and that area. They settled in central WI, bought property and started farming again.
The biggest thing I remember was my parents and especially my grandparents (all farmers) used the technology of the day. 
Nothing was dependent of electricity. Well water for the farm was brought up by wind power. Bulk milk was kept cold in a 
cold water bath of the well water. Horses pulled the plow, wagons and such. Electricity didn't come to my farm until 1953.
In 1951, my father sunk another well in the basement of the farm house and put a hand pump in the kitchen for mother.
As my 5 siblings grew up and moved off the farm, my parents decided to move off the farm too. Fortunately my father saw
the hand writing on the wall and trained as an electrician with the local power company and that became his career. 

The one thing that concerns me greatly, if we have a SHFT incident that take out the grid for years, not too many people
have the knowledge to build and utilize the technologies created before the advent of electricity. Should this type of 
disaster occur, one of my first trips will be to Cracker Barrel to secure the tools and implements hanging from the ceiling. I 
recognize most and remember how to utilize them. At my age and physical health, I would have to be a teacher and not a 
doer. fortunately being around my father and learning from him taught me to think outside the box. Or maybe I should 
say to think like an old timer to come up with solutions to problems. Spending over 40 years as a maintenance technician/
mechanic, I understand a lot about a lot of things.


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## rstanek (Nov 9, 2012)

My grandparents were immigrants from Eastern Europe, they learned English, changed their name to an English name, became farmers and were self sufficient and were always ready to lend a helping hand to someone in need, today is a different world......


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

My grandparents Mothers side were Cotton share croppers in GA. Other wise known as white slaves. Until they walked away when old enough.


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## NewRiverGeorge (Jan 2, 2018)

Gunn said:


> My grandparents did not have electricity until the 50's, a TV until the 80's. I remember going to their place and for entertainment it was cribbage, canasta or hearts. He used to repair all of his stuff even his firearms. Grandma canned everything. * In my young eyes my grandpa could do anything. Now that I know better, he could do anything. He is probably the person who influenced me the most next to my dad. He worked hard at "Prepping" before I even knew what it was.* It was the "Norm" in Scotland and which he continued to do after they moved to the "Colonies". He lived to a ripe young age of 107.


Easier for me to repost this and say "ditto"

Both sets of my grandparents lived through the great depression. They told me sometimes all they had to eat for dinner would be a potato, if they ate at all. After the depression they lived like it was still ongoing. They could do anything. Nothing was wasted. I learned so much, but then again I learned so little. I wish I had paid attention more when I was younger...as Kris Kristofferson penned..."I'd trade all my tomorrows for one single yesterday..."


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

I know when my father in law was in school they had one working electric light in the house. The farm he grew up on is 8 miles from where I sit now. He passed on buying the homestead due to family issue and purchased a different 2 farms. One I purchased and live on . The other my daughter and son in law purchased. Lot of history still piled up.


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## Tango2X (Jul 7, 2016)

My grandparents live thru the depression.
They farmed, canned and preserved what they grew/ harvested.
They collected wild fruits and berries for food.
They wasted/ threw away nothing--- if you threw it away-- you may never get another.
They raised kids, crops and animals.
Who does that now??
Of course they were better prepared, that is all they knew.


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