My wilderness preparedness bug started when I was young, with stories of Daniel Boone, the Swiss Family Robinson and Jack London. A local propane train derailment when I was 8 or 9, in which my mom had to go to work to evac a nursing home and my dad had to evac with my brother and I, just fueled those fantesies.

I grew up with parents and grandparents who seemed to always be prepared. They wouldn't call themselves preppers or survivalists though. They were just always stocked and skilled for just in case, always travelled to "survive not just arrive" and always had first aid training and supplies, subsistence gardens, etc. With grandprents who lived through the great depression, both in rural Ontario and on the Canadian praries, and a family tradition of nursing and farming, these were things we did out of the habit of generations.

9/11 scared me but the East Coast blackout of 2003 was the turning point for me when it all became very visceral. I was in our 24th floor apartment with our 1 month old on the outskirts of Toronto, and my husband was working downtown. The walk home took him hours, then he climbed up the 24 flights, only to have to go back down because we ran out of water to make forumla for our son. We've always been avid campers so had our camping gear and bbq to be able to boil water but not a drop to drink.

Not being able to feed our son was scarey. I vowed then never to be caught unprepared again.

I somehow grew into it. As a child I spent a lot of time outdoors. As a young adult I joined an emergency response unit. There I learned some skills and even more important situational awareness. From that time I continued to acquire skills and hone those I already have.
Preparedness certainly has an impact on the mindset. If you do not go overboard with it, it means a lot less stress. I started to automatically scan the surroundings, got better at judging situations, remembering things, judging potential consequences. That will not only help to get out of trouble, it will - and I consider that more important - also help to avoid that trouble in the first place.

Like Chaosmagnet, I don't really know when I started or why, but as a kid I endured two major earthquakes, several hurricanes/typhoons, evacuations for wild fires, three tornadoes and 1 major riot. That was all before I turned 17. My father was Air Force and we moved a lot, seemingly to the wrong places. It has always been there as far as I can remember. Spending 24 years in the Army, 21 in Special Forces, attending multiple survival schools, enduring more natural disasters, participating in rescue efforts, and numerous wars, riots, and other man made disasters did not alleviate my need to prepare. Now I am a scoutmaster and teaching the kids (and parents). I am too far gone to stop now.

I was an army brat--was in a different school, with different classmates, almost every year until high school. Made me very independent. High school (a boarding school with a total of 176 students) never seemed to serve enough food. Independent wilderness survival study, and the opportunity to take school-sponsored wilderness survival classes, gave me the skills to find the food I needed to supplement what I was getting from the diningroom and was able to catch, fishing on my own. I also learned to build shelters that allowed me to get away from the place for an overnight, when I needed some space. The US Army also provided much early training during grade school, via my father, GreatUncleGoo...

I went thru the UK's Winter of Discontent as a child. Power cut's, food rationing, the whole works. My brother, sister and myself were Shielded from the worst of it by our parents.
My parents grew up during the second world war and it's aftermath. I think that experience made many people natural preppers. Even if they do not think of it in those terms. You could say that the views of the parents are reflected in the child.

I've never really thought of myself as a "prepper", though I suppose I fit the general definition. Like hikermor and others I mostly come to it from a wilderness perspective. I started hiking, climbing, and whatnot as a young lad growing up in Oregon. Being prepared for the unexpected in the mountains just seemed like the logical thing to do.

Back in those days we never thought of Oregon as earthquake country (that was something they worried about down in California), but we did have the Columbus Day windstorm in 1962, and the Christmas floods in 1964, so I also had some sense of being ready for major disasters. These days of course we know the Pacific NW is definately earthquake country.

I've lived in Alaska since 1984. I'm getting a bit old for serious technical climbing, but I still spend a lot of time out in the mountains skiing and hiking, and on the water kayaking. I also participate (to the extent I'm able) with a volunteer SAR team. Alaska is definately earthquake country. And our climate can be severe at times. All of this tends to incline me to being ready and able to take care of myself and familly in unexpected circumstances.

Just this last week we had a severe windstorm in Anchorage. Lots of trees knocked down and most of the city was without power for at least a few hours. At my house, we lost power for about 48 hours. No big deal. We have lots of flashlights, headlamps, and spare batteries around the house. Cranked up my small generator now and then to keep the freezer and frig cold. Also ran my generator to help my next door neighbor keep his stuff frozen. No big deal.

I still don't think of myself as a prepper. I just like to be ready for the unexpected.

I am not a prepper by the most common definition, but rather try to be prepared for both urban and wilderness environments.

On the wilderness side of things. At an early age (mid 1970's), every week, we would gather around the TV to watch Wild Kingdom, Untamed World (Canadian Series), Marty Stouffer's Wild America (before we were aware of the animal cruelty charges that eventually came to light.)

It was watching these TV shows and along with the influence of family members who were outdoors men/women all their lives, that my outdoor passion grew from but did not hit full stride until my late teen years that friends and I began to spend days at a time out in the bush hiking, camping, fishing, hunting etc. During these years, the concept of being ETS was a completely foreign concept as now in retrospect, we would head out with minimal supplies, inadequate clothing, gear etc. Through the years, maybe it was just plain luck that we never had any serious life threatening situations and it was not until the early 1990's that I really began to look at outdoor adventure from a more practical...and much safer point of view and started being much more prepared as a result.

On the aspects of being be prepared for traveling of which we do a lot of and 95% is by vehicle. In the late 90's I met my SO on a hiking trip with mutual friends. From her, the lessons of being fully prepared hit closer to home. As I mentioned in previous posts, she spent some years as working for NGO groups in some of the most miserable places on earth. The worst being caught in the refugee situation from the Rwandan Genocide where millions of refugees fled that country and flooded into the neighboring countries, including Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo.) My SO's aide group was based in Zaire, very close to the Rwanda border until the situation became so dangerous and desperate that her group along with many other every NGO's pulled out. When her group started the pullout, they fled with precious little food, water and other supplies. Upon her group finally getting away from the Zaire/Rwanda border region and eventually to Europe then home almost 2 weeks later, my SO vowed that no matter the circumstance or where she traveled whether domestically or internationally, she would always have her own emergency kit.
Skip forward to today, my area of the country provides some of the best outdoor experiences anywhere and we take full advantage of this. To that end when we travel, our vehicle is stocked accordingly with right gear and supplies that we will need...without going overboard. Postscript to this. My SO is going back to Africa in December for another (and probably last) 6-8 month stint with an NGO. It also goes with saying that she will have her own extensive kit with her when she leaves.

On the home front and prep wise, no real one event or thing to influence us. However we are stocked up on food and other supplies more than the average person, however space limitations plays a factor in having a bit more supplies that would make us more comfortable. Then again, we live in an area that is free from hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, snow storms etc. In fact, the only major natural disaster (and unlikely) is a major earthquake which according to experts is a 1 in 500 year chance. However being just a few years south of 50 years old, I will in all likelihood, live the rest of my life without this occurrence. As for being prepared for a man made disaster, no major industries, plants, factories, rail lines, major highways etc close by so these scenarios are low priority but still something that we keep in mind and prepare for.

Like a lot of previous posters, I'm not sure I'd go so far as to call myself a "prepper" but I do try to be ready for instances of Murphy's law and I started thinking this way as a kid. I am fortunate to live in an area where we aren't prone to as many natural disasters as some other places, but we do get snowstorms regularly in the winter, some areas have occasional flooding, and tornadoes are pretty unusual but possible. To me it's just common sense to be prepared for things like a winter storm that knocks out power or prevents travel for a couple of days, or a car breakdown while driving somewhere (my sister's comment upon learning what I keep in the trunk: "if I ever get stuck on the side of the road, I hope I'm in your car!"). Besides, I like to hike, camp and canoe so I'm used to thinking about what I need to have with me on those trips in case I run into a problem.

Now there is a blast from the past!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0y0r3I0kAI

I found that the imported ruinous monetary economics policy shortly after were a little tougher than the Winter of Discontent. But that depended more on what part of the UK you lived in.

I made that mistake,thinking Nukes not an issue.About the only thing we dont prepare for is war/nuclear/bio war.I cant afford a bio/nuke bunker.No nukes in my area,only one is south and wind usually blows east,NO PROBLEM,right? WRONG!!

If that happens,good luck,all I can come up with is run/avoid,and even that wont work in that scenario.Hard to run from invisible things in the atmosphere.

So when Fukushima happened,who was completely unprepared for that? ME! Dang it,Japan is WEST of me,and gee,that stuff travels the jet stream,BUMMER!

Our answer was load up on kelp and seaweed,and so did the other wise guys in the community,we got the end of the seaweed and only got kelp because a customer at the store saw us looking and showed me where it was also in an obscure supplements section of store.Few bags left there.

They had no Potassium Iodide at all,nor did they expect any more,or seaweeds for that matter.In fact,it was MONTHS before they were able to get any in.

Point is,something from the other side of the world can nail you.

As for bio attack,sure,we can treat anthrax,but really,I see a threat more along the lines of Ebola,a designer version. IMO the next sneak attack of World War will be bio,cheap and easy to disperse,innoculate your guys with the vaccine and set it loose.Thats my guess.