I was a girl in the seventies so couldn't join Scouts no matter how badly I wanted to!

My parents weren't preppers but they were campers who grew up in the country with parents that survived the depression and WW2. My mom was the last in a long line of nurses, and my dad once survived a cave-in in a mine. I have a very vivid childhood memory of bugging-out during a train detrailment and subsequent propane spill. My mom took her own BOB and went to work while Dad bugged-out with us to my grandparents. I was just little, and I know they had very short notice, but it seemed to me that those bags were already packed and pulled out from under the bed.

We always had first aid supplies on-hand and a full panty and deep freeze. The camping stuff was always packed and ready to go, and there were always kits and blankets in the cars. Mom always made us take an extra sweater or jacket for "just in case", and Dad always made us keep our snowsuits on in the car in the winter because we had to "dress to survive not just to arrive." He gave me my first SAK when I took my first solo camping trip at the end of high school. He told me to always keep it in my pocket. I thought he only meant while I was camping.

I've always been a gadget girl but I never took these lessons to heart until the East Coast blackout of 2003. I was home in our 24th floor apartment with our newborn. He wasn't breast-feeding and I didn't have any water to make formula. I wasn't physically able to make it down the stairs to go look for some. My husband walked for hours to get home, wearing dress shoes and without water. He then had to climb those stairs three times to find out we didn't have water and then to go get some.

I couldn't take care of my child. That did it for me! 9/11 spooked me but this time I had someone else to take care of. I started google-ing, found ETS and never looked back.