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Post by mnn2300 on May 5, 2014 9:54:48 GMT -6
As a plot device, in a PAW world where able bodied people are needed, how do you deal with the equivalent of a divorce? .....without a gun LOL Would probably have one person moving their stuff out (voluntarily or involuntarily) Marriage would go back to being a contract (usually verbal) between two or more people.(See some of Heinlein's writings for what appears to me to be workable group marriages)
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Post by papaof2 on May 5, 2014 12:22:09 GMT -6
I think it would take a long time for people in general to recognize and adapt to the changes that a SHTF event would cause. Many people have the "Red Cross/FEMA/whoever will take care of me" outlook, which will not work for a major event. My guess is that anything which affects 10% or more of the population at the same time will be a paralyzing event. Losing 10% of the farmers, 10% of the truck drivers and 10% of the medical community would definitely impact the remaining 90% of the people.
In regards to future divorce, with no place else to go and no safe way to get there, people will either quickly learn to be more tolerant of each others' faults or we'll lose another 10% of the population to murder caused by events such as "I couldn't take another night of his/her snoring" - once people reach their stress limit, they can be triggered by things that otherwise might have been bearable.
How many of the people that you've ever talked with about being prepared even for little things have thought you to be an idiot and responded with something along the lines of "FEMA would be here if we needed them". If FEMA was a supply organization instead of a funds organization, that might be the case. I used this year's Atlanta traffic jam plus snow as an opening to talk about having more than just a flashlight in your vehicle. Someone who spent 10 hours on their 30 minute drive home gave me the "It'll never happen again" response. (By the way, turning everyone loose from school and work at the same time caused the traffic jam; the snow that came immediately afterward just made it impossible to clear the jams at the icy bridges/overpasses as the salt/sand trucks couldn't get to the problem areas because of the cars blocking the road.)
Sent from my IdeaTabA2109A using proboards
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Post by millwright on May 5, 2014 14:12:59 GMT -6
Should we be forced into a lifestyle comparable to the early 1900s, many of the old ways that we really can't grasp the functionality of now, will begin to make sense again.
Back then you couldn't afford to waste anything, time, effort, or material. Grandma & Grandpa seeping in separate beds......might have just to get decent sleep.
It will be a rude awakening to all but a few in this country.
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Post by rvm45 on May 7, 2014 16:08:18 GMT -6
I've read close to two-dozen of Louis L'amour's books... And he wrote at least two non-fiction books about his adventures as a young man. All the experts who should know praise his accuracy in describing Frontier Life. Compare his Fiction to some of Elmer Keith's real-life anecdotes. Someone once asked L'amour why he had so little sex and romance in his books. He said because folks back then, by and large, had very little time or energy to devote to such foibles. Their courtships were quick and energy efficient and calculated to make the most of a woman's child-bearing years. Here is another thing to consider: Have you ever seen one of those Glamor Make-Overs? Beauty is a bit more than skin deep—there is bone structure to consider—while ugly goes clean into the marrow... Sure, your Trophy Woman will probably always look a lot better than average... But five years into the collapse—all her make-up is gone and she has callouses on her hands and feet and she no longer has the time, energy or razor blades to shave her legs or her arm-pits, much less pluck her eyebrows into pleasing shapes... How much prettier will she be than the plainest of Plain Janes? Dye-Vorce—if I don't miss-spell it, most of y'all won't say it right... Many, most folks who aren't suffering abuse—but who simply on't like each other anymore—will choose to stay with the status quo rather than rock the boat. A family is, amongst other things, a Mutual Assistance Group to aid survival. Since we don't need that aspect of it very much in the modern world, we've become far more cavalier in destroying families. Note: Even some of the seriously abused will also hesitate to leave—it is just that they have a sound reason for leaving. .....RVM45
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Post by kaijafon on May 12, 2014 16:24:44 GMT -6
while many stories are told in "journal" form (I did one myself); I have to wonder how realistic it would be to have TIME to keep a journal. Like RVM said above, nothing would be wasted. Even time to jot down a few lines might be considered wasteful. IF you were not too tired to do it.
However, that said, I also think that in many stories, the characters go way beyond what is NEEDED and forget that mankind got along without many things for centuries.
So what is REALLY needed? information/knowledge. yep. That all can be stored quite well in your head. Once you have that.... one only needs a few things: food, water, cover. Setting up a huge farm and having a lot of people around just makes even more work. lol!
Of course how they gather all that they 'need' and use the stuff is interesting. But would the characters survive if their compound was destroyed and they all were scattered?
And if you were living "lite", then one would probably have time for a journal.
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Post by papaof2 on May 12, 2014 18:32:58 GMT -6
An individual living alone but with a large stock of food, water, etc might have time to do an extended journal.
A family using animals to farm perhaps 40 acres and keeping chickens might spare an adult some time while the children fed the chickens and gathered the eggs, but a child would have to be some minimum age (9? 11? 13?) to be assigned to muck out the horse's stall. This would be depend on the exact make-up of the family (ages, abilities) and their mix of farming style plus their chosen animals to raise.
A nomad living off the land (with perhaps occasional work along the way) would likely have a mix of days with little to do but write (holed up out of the rain during a bad storm) and days with no time to write (on the run from "bad guys", or working at a farm during harvest).
In all cases, there's an assumption of the availability of paper and pen/pencil to keep the journal with.
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Post by kaijafon on May 12, 2014 19:45:03 GMT -6
just a fyi, which most probably already know: write in PENCIL... it will last longer and the weather better. That is what we use in our field note books
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Post by papaof2 on May 13, 2014 15:30:46 GMT -6
I noticed that an order I placed online with another company is coming from an Amazon warehouse in Chattanooga, TN. 1sale.com had wireless motion sensor lights on sale a week or so back and Amazon is processing the order (known only because I saw a reference to an Amazon server buried in headers of the UPS "You have a package coming" email).
That got me to wondering: How many places does Amazon have warehouses and what type of merchandise is stored at each one?
I know there is at least one big electronics warehouse on the north side of Memphis (things I've ordered from newegg.com have shipped from there). I've driven by that warehouse many times and its function wasn't obvious the last few times I was by there (unlike when another online electronics company used it and had their logo on the side of the building).
These mostly unmarked warehouses might be good locations for scavenging in a SHTF scenario (an electronics warehouse might include gel cell batteries, solar panels, DC->AC inverters, FRS and other radios; a general merchandise warehouse might include anything from toilet paper to bottled water to clothing to OTC medications to bicycles to water filters to LTS foods).
Have a character be a former Amazon employee who knows where all their warehouses are located and what is usually stored in each one. Pick the closest (or the least difficult to get to) and have your characters explore and scavenge there. If everything that's needed isn't in this warehouse, what's the risk/benefit of going to another one?
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Post by headlesshorseman on Jun 6, 2015 8:01:02 GMT -6
why do so many writers make the mistake of making women do all the 'women's work' and the men do all the 'men's work' after the Poo poo hits the fan? why the reverting to that sexist stuff? can men not cook and do laundry? can women not learn to farm and work on cars/tractors/trucks? just curious. I see it in most all PAW fiction. You will like Little Knife and Linda in The Big Dry, also Gloria and Amy in Nomads Amy caused the big strong man to comment that the next time they questioned someone let's provide a house we can burn later instead of clean up after them. I am planning a book that is about the end of the world that was destroyed to make room for this one. the main character will be a Creek Indian.
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Post by freshwaterpearl on Jun 9, 2015 11:08:44 GMT -6
On the subject of writing a journal, I’m writing a story in journal form. He is an explorer in a strange land and writes as a professional. He doesn’t write everyday, only when there is something pertinent, like how the wall of a lodge was blown away with him hanging on to it. I’m doing it just to write in a different manner. It’s more interesting for me.
I think one writes in one way to entertain themselves, such as rescuing a lovely maiden, and another way to write the great novel. Are we writing to the choir, so to speak, or a larger audience? And, even a tired plot can be a great read if it’s well done.
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