Outdoor Life Prepare for Anything Survival Manual (61 page)

Like most things, there are pros and cons to making trades. Here are a few of the benefits and drawbacks of the barter system.

You can trade your goods or services as you see fit.

Both parties must desire something that the other party possesses.

The barter system works under any conditions, regardless of a failure of utilities or infrastructure.

It can be hard to determine “prices” or fair trades.

You can trade different combinations of services, goods, and supplies.

Some things are difficult or impossible to divide without losing value, like a pair of shoes.

Barter can transcend language and cultural boundaries.

Bad trades and barters can make for bad neighbors.

I was born on a farm in the middle of the Great Depression. When I was about 4 years old, we were robbed of two full barrels of flour and cornmeal as we slept one night. I still remember the white flour all over the grass—they had spilled it in their hurry. It was a crushing loss of riches. By the time I was entering school, World War II had impacted our family greatly. My parents and each family member had a ration book full of stamps for coffee, tea, sugar, and other items. We kids still have our ration books.

During that same time, we had to move several miles away from our farm, as the Marine Corps purchased large tracts of the area to serve as training grounds. Our original farmhouse, barn, and outbuildings were eventually used for target practice, with marines shelling them until they were completely blown up. But I did manage to save a few bricks from the old farm.

On our new farm in Virginia, I grew up working with my hands. We raised livestock and grew our own food, canning and preserving it ourselves. We had no electricity or running water, and we dipped our water from a hand-dug well with a bucket. I was about 11 before our area began to have access to electricity.

During the Great Depression and World War II, people found ways to survive. Since a high percentage of Americans were farmers and rural people, they knew how to produce food and were able to do so. Now, a high percentage of Americans do not know how to produce food—and it’s the number one skill that people should learn.

Our family was self-taught in the ways of fixing things and making repairs, which seems like a lost art now. Some people paint pictures—that’s art. Some people weld metal, and that’s an art, too. I learned about cutting torches and acetylene torches as a teenager repairing farm equipment. Later, I turned these skills into a career as a professional welder.

Today, few people seem to know how to fix and repair their own things. Compared to Americans in the 1930s and ’40s, we would be in far worse shape if an economic collapse or a world war were to occur today.

People need to take the time that they’re wasting on electronic gadgets and learn how to produce and preserve food, and how to survive under harsh conditions. My greatest concern is people’s lack of ability to do things for themselves. This is not rocket science, it’s simply going back in time and learning the skills of our grandpas and grandmas, repeating the practices of self-reliance that allowed large families to survive very well—during some very tough times.