I’ll never forget Mr Puckett-- my 9th grade Social Studies teacher. He was unlike any teacher I’d ever had before or since and maybe it’s partly due to this uniqueness that I remember him so vividly. He was of short stature, but barrel-chested, and he had a crewcut hairstyle as if he was a Marine (but this was Canada, so that’s pretty unlikely).
Anyways-- Puckett kind of went ‘off the reservation’ in our class, and now, looking back- I doubt that his lesson plan was part of any sanctioned curriculum, but who knows for sure? Mr Puckett had lost his wife in a car accident when a vehicle swerved into their lane and his wife (as he told it) threw herself between him and the steering wheel, saving his life while sacrificing hers. It changed him.
So the following Fall session, he told us (his class) that we were going to do a “social experiment” for our Social Studies class. We were tasked with imagining ourselves survivors of a plane crash-- isolated and lost in the arctic tundra, with no one coming for us. What do we do? How are we going to stay alive?
And so began our semester of learning. A group of 25 of us… stranded in a barren landscape.
So in this thread-- imagine yourself a survivor. It’s been done a hundred times in movies-- a pandemic sweeps the earth and wipes most of mankind out- but YOU and a handful of others survive. An asteroid strikes and only small pockets of life make it underground to avoid devastation. Or war seizes upon us and the unthinkable happens…
And that’s how the class began. Mr Puckett would then give us a series of various scenarios that would require us to think through the situation and explain what we would do next, and why.
What would you do first? Most of us immediately thought to seek shelter and other people… What would you do?
“It is not good that man should be alone.” Genesis 2:18
It’s part of our software-- part of our hardware, even… it’s how we are wired, how we were made and completely natural for us to want to be together. To be part of a group is a desire perhaps, but to come together and to propagate is a necessity-- something for the good of a man, and the good of mankind.
And so, as a survivor-- I’m out in search of --a mate-- Is this a priority? Maybe not in terms of immediacy. I need shelter and perhaps protection, and to begin I’m looking for anyone, anywhere- who can help me achieve these goals and supply these needs, but in terms of a future? How will humanity survive, beyond my existence if I am alone?
I tend to keep at least a 30 day supply of non perishable food on hand, along with a lot of batteries, my old hiking supplies (tent, stove, sleeping bag, tarp, etc. and I own several firearms.
My aim would be to gather a very small group of close friends and family and use our skills (everyone in the south can fish, shoot, hunt) to survive as quietly as possible. Groups will emerge and prey on smaller groups. Stealth is essential, as are basic survival skills. Those I would want to be in my group as it grows would include medical personnel, electrician, mechanic, historian , archivist, preservationist. No preachers or politicians are needed.
Until the group has established a stable walled community, procreation would be discouraged. Crying babies attract predators, zombies, and werewolves.
hooks and string can work-but being prepped beforehand would be best. Nets can be assembled by anyone with basic sewing or weaving skills. Having folks with skill or talent is the key. Have room for people to park RVs if needed. Having a rural property in advance with a stocked pond works best-unless radiation has fallen in the area.
Any newcomers who meet community requirements must be quarantined for an agreed upon period of time to prevent spread of disease or contamination.
If access to a library, open or closed, manuals on canning, skinning kill, butchering, and other old school crafts are available. Another key is finding needed resources including instructional manuals before the apocalypse occurs.
Everyone with decent eyesight must learn to handle a variety of weapons and stand guard in towers around the perimeter of the community.
My Mr Puckett took us all out on a field trip… several actually, but on one in particular he took us to the woods and to a stand of willows by a stream-- and there he demonstrated how to make a bow and arrows from branches. Then we spent a few hours taking turns with his (not home-made) compound hunting bow.
Tastes like chicken??? -so I’m told. I’ve never been able to eat anything so adorable.
But yes, Puckett taught us to snare rabbits also. He skinned and cleaned one and roasted it on the fire and I took a hall pass in the woods.
When the first cool Fall day came-- he asked the class to consider the winter that was coming… Are we going to stay here (in Canada) --or should we head south? waaaaaayyyyyyy south.
One of the things I would miss the most in a post-apocalyptic world would be hot showers. That would be a priority for me to figure out. It’s interesting to think of a world beginning (new beginning) where you have all of the knowledge, but none of the ability… Maybe I’d head out in search of a hot springs.
It’s interesting to me, whether it was incidental or intentional, but at the same time I was in this survival/social studies class, in our Language Arts (Canadian, for English class) we were reading Lord of the Flies, by William Golding.
