I was in a large grocery store yesterday and happened to see an elderly neighbor .She was at the bakery counter, piling used five gallon buckets in her shopping cart.I asked her if she was planning to plant tomatos in them and she looked around, then carefully whispered "No! It's for that thing that's coming up...Y2K. My sister says it's too soon to store food, but I thought I should get started." WELL,she is the last person on earth that I expected to be preparing. She doesn't own a computer and is very quiet and unassuming.Could it be that MANY more people get it than we think??

-- Bonnie (Bonnie@yahoo.com), March 12, 1999

Answers

Quietly and methodically people are planning. It's really weird how people are reacting, they are preparing but they won't say at what level. People are scared and paranoid and they are afraid. Isn't this a hell of a way to live. We're settled in, got food, water, etc., but we're all sitting at the edge of our seats. Grasping at the latest news and information to satisfy our egos into telling us that what we're preparing for will pay off. It's the waiting game that's getting to all of us, we're like little kids at Xmas time, it's going to all be a big surprise!

-- Mrs. Santa (Mrs. Santa@Xmas.com), March 13, 1999.

I sure hope so Bonnie. <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), March 13, 1999.

Bonnie, I can understand your surprise. I spent a couple of months trying to convince my father about y2k. He is 78 years old and takes care of Mom (Alzheimer's). He will not move close to us and business keeps me here. He was very noncommittal regarding y2k and I felt our conversation was very stilted so I shut up. This was about 3 months ago. I talked to him last night and y2k came up. Turns out he has made arrangements with another elderly neighbor who has a generator, another one that raises meat animals, etc. he is stockpiling food, cash and even cleaned up his old 30-30 that hasn't been out of the closet in 35 years. This little group of retirees (Ocala, FL region) have actually banded together and are setting up a subgovernment with contingency plans and all. I think I'll go down there instead. (I'm deeply relieved and very proud)

-- Lobo (Hiding@woods.com), March 13, 1999.

This week, my fiancee's mother (76)who may have never touched a computer in her life, startled my dear lady by bringing up the subject of *when* she should take all of her money out of the bank...

Yes, many more people are preparing than we realize. My father, it turned out, has been aware of this problem for 20 years. He is pushing for more prep than I'm doing, and I'm at an 8-10 in concern level. Mom is more of an optimist, but not by much.

People are smarter than our government and big business gives them credit for. Especially older folks who have seen harder times.

-- Jon Williamson (pssomerville@sprintmail.com), March 13, 1999.

Bonnie,

A year or two ago my Hubby started delivering freeze dried food to elderly ladies in nice communities. They would sweetly warn him and tell him to prepare his family. We thought it was very funny.

Now, I hope they don't become a target.

It really doesn't seem like there are very many preparing, but who knows.

I wonder about these elderly people. Do they just see the signs? They have lived the depression. Did the wisdom gained, make the signs more apparent? My Grandfather got it immediately (he's like 80) and I doubt he's touched a computer in his life. But he's very good with money, and pays attention to what's going on in the world. To hear him talk, you'd swear he'd spent time in this forum. It was creepy.

He's sharp as a tack, and a fount of wisdom & advice. We're not at all close, but I bet he'll be bugging out to his secluded place way up north. He's not the kind of guy to volunteer that kind of information. But as weird as it seems, even at his age I know he's more than capable of taking care of himself, and that he will.

It's the gen Xers like me I'm not so sure about.

Well I kind of veered off topic, but I've been pondering this older generation thing for a while now. They just seem to be worlds apart from younger people.

-- Deborah (info@wars.com), March 13, 1999.

I called a family meeting with my folks and my 86 y.o. grandmother, and it was my grandmother who understood right away what sort of tough times could be around the bend. She knows what hunger and being without can drive people to do.

-- Suzie-Q (Suzie@Q.com), March 13, 1999.

I have read many articles on y2k but this one ranks high on my list of "print it out and pass it out" to those who aren't quite there.

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), March 13, 1999.

Bonnie- interesting that you experienced that at the bakery counter. We have often stocked up on those same pails over the years to use here on the farm- livestock waterers, harvest buckets, seed/feed storage, etc. The local grocery store always had plenty and threw them away if we didn't take them. Early this winter, I started having a hard time getting any. finally, one of the gals that works there said_" I don't know what it is- all of a sudden, we get 5 or 6 people a day now wanting these- and we used to just throw them away!" Soooo- yeah, I think some people are "getting it"- it's just that they don't want to be thought of as a" kooky survivalist type", or don't want others to know what they've got stashed. I think there's lots more going on with our neighbors that they just don't talk about. And then of course, there are the others....(sigh)

-- anita (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), March 13, 1999.

My 86 yo grandmother got it as soon as I told her. For her the computer specifics didn't matter, she didn't understand them in any case. It was her Depression experience and general wisdom about people and the world. I believe she will be here at y2k.

-- Mitchell Barnes (spanda@inreach.com), March 13, 1999.

My seventy-four year old dad got it immediately! WW2 vet...took mom alittle longer..but she get's it now.

-- Moore Dinty moore (not@thistime.com), March 13, 1999.

I think the senior citizens "get it" a lot more easily than the Gen Xers because they have been there before. They saw the depression, they saw WWII, they remember the stories of WWI. They also have a better sense of history, partly because of just paying attention over the years, and also partly because the history they were taught in school was not "sanitized" and PC'd as it is now. If you can get copies of old Life magazines, you would realize that packaged food just got to be popular in the 50's, that voice recordings were made on a dictaphone, that long distance operators actually plugged in the circuits to connect calls, passenger airplanes had propellers, that a computer the size of one that we are all now using would take up a small building, radios and televisions had tubes. It is truely mind boggling to think about all the technology that has come into being since the 1950's, and how intricately interconnected it all is, and, most importantly, how everyone under 35, maybe even 40, just takes it for granted....it has always been there for them, and they have no clue as to how to get along without it...most of them.

I don't mean to put down the under 40 set, but when I talk to my daughter and son in law, or even to my peer group I realize that they may have to computer world by its tail, but they literally do not know how to can beans.

So I'm going to teach her. again.

Mary P.

-- Mary P. (CAgdma@home.com), March 13, 1999.

I didn't mean to imply that I was surprised that my ELDERLY neighbor got it...I was just amazed that this particular person was preparing. I think that people with access to a computer get more accurate information on Y2K and therefore have a better understanding of the problem.She has no computer and not many visitors .I had initially put her on my list of people to help and I am relieved that she is preparing.

-- Bonnie (Bonnie@yahoo.com), March 13, 1999.

I work in a large grocery store , meat department. today, I noticed a women who I work with take home three empty sausage casings buckets. she has never said a word about y2k, but actions sometimes speak louder than words.

-- ed (edrider007@aol.com), March 13, 1999.

Many people here have been advocating to remain completely quiet and innocent about Y2K in public. Leave no clue to neighbors that you're preparing, leave no paper trails.

Who knows, maybe some of your neighbors are lurkers and anonymous posters here ;-)

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), March 13, 1999.