Just wanted to relate this- went to Meijer yesterday to buy water it has been on sale 57 cents a gallon. We have a cistern but wifey thought we should start buying water for purity. Anyway the Red Cross says 1 gallon a day for each member of your family. So I fill up a buggy and its 30 gallons (2 adults,children 10,7,3) I figure this is close to a week, good start buggies full.

On the way to the check out another customer asks " why are you buying so much water?" I say "because of y2k and we don't want to take any chances with our kids."

Then close to the checkout a lady asks the same thing I say the same!

Then the lady in front of me in line asks. Now I admit this looks like alot of water but the recomendation is 1 gallon per person per day. Even if I was ONLY preparing for a "winter storm" it shouldn't be a big deal, right?

Then the checker asks me "Good God, man why are you buying so much water?"

I said "We have twins. We mix their formula and don't trust city water"

She said "oh thats smart"

What do you say?

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), September 06, 1999

Answers

You say, "my cow has to drink only purified water so we can drink purified milk," or "I have lice and I heard if you wash your hair with purified water, it keeps them from coming back," (scratch your head at this point), or "I have hemorrhoids, and the doctor told me to sit in a bath of purified water," or "it's good for intestinal worms," or just be blunt and say "it's none of your business," but that wouldn't be much fun now would it?

-- big gulp (biggulp@biggulpp.com), September 06, 1999.

Johnny:

Stupidity flourishes in America.

I ignore DGI queries when shopping for provisions.

If they can't read the writing on the wall by now, they're blind.

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), September 06, 1999.

Just say "in case I get thirsty" and go on about your business.

-- cody (cody@y2ksurvive.com), September 06, 1999.

Here's a few possibles:

Tell them it's not for you, but to stock up the mayor's bunker.

The little green people who visit you said to do this.

Tell them you're one of them "2ky nutcases" and start giggling uncontrollably.

Say its for the 3-month snowstorm you heard about in the paper.

Best one: You're sure everyone is out to get you, and demand to know who put them up to ask you. Well who is it?

Just don't tell them the truth, it might wake up more of the sheeple and a lot of us aren't done preparing yet. Don't want to fight with old ladies for the last 36 pack of TP do ya?

-- Bill (bill@tinfoil.com), September 06, 1999.

IMHO it might be a good thing for those people you told the truth to, to see that someone "normal seeming" is buying some bottled water for his family, just in case ... perhaps just one of them might begin to have this nagging idea that they might want to do the same thing, and you'll have planted the seed that got another person to do some prepping. If Ed hadn't written his book, and shared his sensible, concerned point of view, I wouldn't be making any contingency plans, and I think that's true for many others as well. Most of us heard about Y2K because of information others shared with us, and maybe we need to be willing to pass it along when the opportunity presents itself.

I was in Dick's Sporting Goods today, and while waiting for the clerk to assist another family, I overheard them expressing the desire to buy a particular lantern (out of stock) for Y2k, and not wanting to wait until/if more came in to make a purchase, so they were negotiating for a price cut on a similar model that wasn't on sale.

It was my turn next, and my discussion with the clerk was about the lantern I have for camping, versus one I could use indoors for Y2k, and ventilation concerns. I was also enquiring if Coleman made a solar powered lantern, etc. That was 2 customers in a row that clerk had who were purchasing for Y2K, and it's only September. I wonder how many more Y2K shoppers it will take for the clerk to think he should consider doing something(if he isn't already). He might end up telling his family members what he is seeing at work, and suggest that they too should pick up some of these supplies , etc. Perhaps because of "encounters" like this, the tide might yet be turned a bit, with more people supplying themselves with some basic necessities.

People with preps should be praying that alot more folks decide to do the same. I don't want to be the only Little Red Hen in my community, and face the repercussions of that, if there's any way to mitigate the possibility.

-- Kristi (KsaintA@aol.com), September 06, 1999.

This actually happen to me too. I had all the jugs of water that would fit in the cart and everyone was eyeing me and asking about my purchase. I just said my well was getting low and I needed to prime it. For other purchases such as cases of canned goods or loads of pasta I say I am in charge of a family reunion. But most of the time noone really notices or cares one way or the other.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), September 06, 1999.

Personally, I get tired of trying to explain something to others that they just can't see. Just so that I wouldn't end up wasting my time in useless conversations, I would simply say:

"I'm getting ready for the end of the world"

... or how about:

"I heard that it is really hot in hell"

(make sure you have a very demented look on your face when you say it)

-- @ (@@@.@), September 06, 1999.

I find it much easier to talk to strangers about y2k than some of my own family. Last time I was in Sam's doing some stockpiling, a fellow asked me if I was in the resturant business, and I told him no and then exactly what I was doing. Then he says, "well I've heard they are going to have the systems fixed by Dec.. Then I asked him if in his own dealings with telecoms, govt agencies, and big corporatiions in general whether he would say they were truthful helpful and caring or a bunch of damn greedy liars. He busted out laughing, and I think I made my point.

-- doktorbob (downsouth@dixie.com), September 06, 1999.

A month or so back, I rolled up to the cash register at Costco with some food. It was stacked neatly in boxes (about 2' wide, 5' high, and 4' long). A lot of people started at the stack in awe. One guy looked at me and asked, "You feeding a Hockey team?" I told him I was stocking up just in case things got bad due to failures caused by the Y2K technology problem. He turned around and told people that I was feeding a hockey team. On the way out of the store, he again proceeded to let everyone know that I was feeding a hockey team. It was odd.

The moral of the story: You don't have to pay SOME people to spin Y2K.

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), September 06, 1999.

Yeah, and all that bottled water was to fill the ice skating rink!

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), September 06, 1999.

Stan,

Wow! That sounds like the guy saying hockey team was experiencing a textbook Freudian denial reaction. Most people in denial just immediately change the subject, but this guy had to reject the reality by creating a fantasy and repeating it. It is going to be very strange indeed when the reality hits millions of people who have been going into a protective denial.

-- @ (@@@.@), September 06, 1999.

Randolph,

ROFL! So that's what the water was for. That really makes sense now that you mention it. [grin]

@,

Got hockey pucks?

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), September 06, 1999.

Dear John,

I've got nothin'...I just always wanted to see what it was like to start a letter with "Dear John".

PS...After alienating friends and family over the past three years because of my Y2K lectures, any excuse other than Y2K is sometimes best.

Good luck,

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@Y2KOK.ORG), September 07, 1999.

I've never been asked, I would be shocked if somebody asked me anything like this. I've bought some huge purchases and all I can say Johnny is you must live in a nosey part of the world.

-- Will (sibola@hotmail.com), September 07, 1999.

I hate to start a thred and run but I volunteer with the local FD and right after starting this we got called out.

What I'm really trying to say is I'm getting worried about being labeled a zealot. When there are shortages I don't want people to remember I told them about y2k in September and was buying a load of water and now in December there is none left to buy. I'm sure the message out of Kosky and the White House will be blame the doomers!

While I felt the responsability to share the possibility of failures due to y2k in April, May, June personally now I'm feeling a shift to go underground and keep my mouth shut.

These people didn't GI when the getting was good now they are on their own. Know what I mean?

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), September 07, 1999.

"A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest"

It's not your fault.

-- Amy Leone (leoneamy@aol.com), September 07, 1999.

Johnny,

A low profile on preps seems like a very good idea, especially, as you suggest, as we get nearer to the rollover.

FWIW, my way of avoiding questions is to buy a little extra on each trip to the grocery store.

Jerry

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), September 07, 1999.

Johnny,

That's why you have to buy a gun and lots of ammo in addition to all of the water and food.

-- nothere nothere (notherethere@hotmail.com), September 07, 1999.

Johnny:

I don't think it matters much NOW when you point out to DGIs that there are literally thousands of cheaply priced items available on store shelves.

When the panic hits and the JIT distribution system causes shortages, they won't want to think of the good times when they had opportunities to stockpile, because that would brand them as idiots.

Instead, they will remember YOU and possibly blame you for causing the shortages.

Remember, they won't be thinking logically; panic gridlocks reasoning abilities.

Expect to have DGIs angry at you.

Some people dump moral values when they're desperate to survive.

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), September 07, 1999.

nothere nothere-- believe me I have plenty of ammo

Randolph- that's my point

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), September 07, 1999.

When nosey people ask me why the flatbed cart is full of rice, sugar, etc, I just tell them it's to feed hungry familes. It's God's honest truth. No one has EVER asked what families, or if they could help.

So what if it's OUR hungry families?

You know, people avoid you like the plague if they think you will ask them for a donation. Even so called church folks run like hell rather than hear a pitch.

-- Art (artw@lancnews.infi.net), September 07, 1999.

Art,

LOL!

Johnny,

I suppose this is one advantage to being in a big city, or at least on the outskirts of one. We do our bulk prepping at Biggs and Sam's Club, neither of which are in my neighborhood. I feel free to talk my head off, if someone asks (which they have yet to do), since they have no idea where I live.

On the other hand, I have been asked, at my local grocery store, when buying ten cans of canned chicken. I just said, in a conspiratorial tone, "You never know....". The check out person just nodded knowingly and said, "Ain't it the truth. Ain't it the truth". Nobody likes to look like they're out of the loop.

-- Bokonon (bok0non@my-Deja.com), September 07, 1999.