I don't have any actual connections to the Holacaust but I've had that feeling all my life. I always have a bag ready to go and escape routes, just in case.

My feelings strengthed after the train derailment in Laurel, Ms on 14Feb1968. That occurred several blocks from my home. That was the first time I had to leave home in a big hurry (an explosion every minute) and it was my first experience with martial law being laid down (for a couple of days).

My grandmother escaped from what became East Germany by the skin of her teeth; everyone else in her family was murdered in the Holocaust. My grandfather on that side had a similar experience escaping Russia (although obviously it wasn't the Nazis murdering his family).

I didn't know to call it a "Bug Out Bag" until much later in life but I've had one since I was about ten years old. Including things like cash and passport.

However to bws48's original questions, I've never felt all that insecure or unaccepted in larger society due to my heritage.

The other component of it for me relates to my screen name. Ever since I can remember, odd and awful things happen around me. Not (usually) because of me, but around me nevertheless. So I learned how to handle crises out of self-defense. Preparing for them now is second nature.

The other component of it for me relates to my screen name. Ever since I can remember, odd and awful things happen around me. Not (usually) because of me, but around me nevertheless. So I learned how to handle crises out of self-defense. Preparing for them now is second nature.

My shipmates used to refer to the area around me as the "Bo Zone". The " Bo Zone " is a circle more than 50ft from me and less than a 1/2 mile from me. In the Bo Zone, cars collide and go flying through the air and land on pedestrians, a person has blown himself up in a small truck (both in NOLA), fire fights break out, and all kinds of other things go wrong. No wonder I had an interesting and unusual USCG career for a Quartermaster!

I wonder if the airedales I have flown many missions with were aware of the Bo Zone. Of course, aircraft are small so the air crew and aircraft were all within the 50ft radius.

I used to be called a bullet magnet in the Army. Wherever I went, things happened, but like you, I just happened to be present.

I have been in an unusually high number of natural disasters.

IT personnel used to tell me I had some sort of electrical field around me that harmed computers and caused them to do strange things. They would tell me that I did not do anything wrong, there was just a weakness in the system somewhere and I always seemed to find it. One even offered to do all of my computer work for me. He said it would be less work for him than fixing them for me all the time.

Maybe it is all in my head, but it has caused me to prepare for the unexpected and worst case scenarios.

For different reasons, my DW and I are on the same page.
She lost much of her family in the holocaust; her Mom "went to the forest" (partisans) and survived. That and growing up in the USSR (with unpredictable supplies of anything and everything) produced a strong tendency to "stock up" and not throw anything out that "we might need."

For me, I've been in enough situations where everything was OK, then it seriously wasn't, and I got through it mostly by dumb luck that one day I really woke up and started to get ready. And that includes bugging out, which I had to do in Washington DC in 1968 due to the riots that caused my university to totally shut down-- could not stay in Dorm and the cafeteria closed. We always consider having to leave a possibility.

My entry to prepping was SAR in Arizona for more than twenty years. Basically you needed to keep a back pack equipped for two days or so and adjusted for the prevailing conditions on the surrounding desert or the adjacent mountains 7000 feet higher. That and I periodically undertook field work in fairly isolated conditions where food and medical support were not handy. Prepping was and is just prudent behavior.

chaosmagnet > odd and awful things happen around me

wildman800 > odd and awful things happen around me

montanero > I used to be called a bullet magnet in the Army. Wherever I went, things happened, but like you, I just happened to be present.
I have been in an unusually high number of natural disasters.

bws48 > I've been in enough situations where everything was OK, then it seriously wasn't, and I got through it mostly by dumb luck

hmmmm... think i'm spotting a pattern in this forums members. I'm a Jonah too.
tip for those of you who didn't burn the wrong witch in a past life: if we have a forum party where you can be with all of us in one place. Don't turn up!
qjs

I'll turn up. Just stay within 50 ft of me.

I am the King of the weird, strange, and unusual! If it can happen on a watch, it will happen on my watch!