Greetings Street Survivors, and welcome back to the column that cares about you and your family so much, that we have spent the last 13 years trying to educate and motivate you on a multitude of subjects.

We have just wrapped up our “Experts in the Field” series, which I hoped you enjoyed and learned something from.

Hold on to your horses, while we take a step back in time to learn some awesome tips from past generations that survived some of the greatest challenges in American history and didn’t have any of the technological advances we have today.

Remember something called the Chinese virus, a.k.a. covid pandemic from our recent dark history? Do you remember the empty shelves, people fighting over hay bale sized packages of toilet paper? Six months before that, would you have guessed that could happen in this great country? 

Back in the 1900’s people made their own soap, their own beer and without cell phones and gps systems, they knew how to communicate and navigate. How was that possible and how reliable was it?

More importantly why do we want to look back at the past to regain those lost skills? 

Consider this for a second. The technology exists for a weapon that can create a nuclear-like effect without an explosion, which would destroy all unprotected electronics across the entire country. This Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) emits a powerful energy pulse that can burn out or short-circuit a very wide range of electronic equipment like computers, satellites, traffic lights, medical equipment, everything in your home, business, school, or church that uses electricity for power. The older automobiles that are pre-computer would still function, but they could not get gas from the gas station because the pumps are all electronic. They would have to devise a hand pump to get the gas out. If you’d like to know what the result for society would be with a near total loss of electricity, let me recommend a very realistic book written by North Carolina professor, William R. Forstchen, titled One Second After. His follow-up books, One Year After and the Final Day, are equally terrifying in their prediction of the fall of society, the external threats of enemies taking advantage of our chaos, and the limited assistance from our so-called allies. Each of us would have to depend on our own skills, the preparation that we had made in advance of that fateful day, and the local alliances we had created with family and close friends. THIS is why it makes sense to learn the old ways and improve on them if we can. 

This will be a new series for this column, and it promises to be very eye-opening. If you have elderly family members or friends that will tell you about the “old days,” pay attention and make your children sit down and take off their earbuds to learn something that could impact their lives, instead of chalking up points, awards, and badges in a computer game!

Here’s a couple quick examples of what is in store of us:

Without a satellite, there is no GSP so if you are lost, or need to get somewhere how can you determine which direction to go? Sure, a map would help, but most people do not even have those anymore. There are several ways to find True North using just a stick and watching the movement of the sun. You can make your own compass with a couple simple items you have at home and also use the moon and the stars to tell direction at night. These are great skills to know, practice and pass on to the next generation. The world can turn upside down quicker than you can imagine. 

Medicine has come a long way in the last century, but what if there were no pharmacies or doctors available, and you or a loved one got injured? Some basic understanding of medicine is important, but there are many home remedies that used to be called poultices that are easy to make and can make a real difference for cuts, infections, headaches, and a multitude of other illnesses. 

Prior to refrigeration (which of course would not work after an EMP or major power outage), there were special ways to extend the life of foods through smoking, salt preparations, canning and other methods. Special foods like hardtack biscuits and pemmican could last for extended periods of time and were used back during the Civil War when food was very scarce for the troops on both sides.

Stay with me on this journey over the next few articles and learn some things that might make life a little more bearable if the defecation hits the ventilation again. Stay safe out there!

Rick ‘Pirate Hunter’ Grover strongly believes we are all in this together, and the more we learn and train, the better we will be prepared for any eventuality. This makes all of us part of an amazing neighborhood team of American Patriots. 

God Bless America!

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