R&r Or What To Do For Fun After You Survive?

R&R or What to do for fun after you survive?

After you survive and things settle down you are going to want and need ways to relax again and start living again. If you have kids this is even more important. SO, what do you do for fun and what did people do in the past?

Before the intrusion of electronic-based entertainment, people found most of their pleasures in various interactions with other people. Our various electronic gods have pretty much replaced “friends” People used to talk and visit, play cards and games, dance sing and make music. They got together and built and made things. They would get together and read and discuss books.

Once the power is gone people are going to be thrown back and a lot of people don’t have a clue about how to get pleasure from being with other people. That is when games and such can be lifesavers. Every one of my BOBs includes 6 dice and a deck of plastic cards. Bigger R&R kits include Chess, Checkers, Backgammon, Dominos, Uno cards, Yahtzee and Farkle score sheets, pencils, paper and a Hoyle's book of game rules. I also have the kid's card games and a couple of board games like Parchisi and Shoots and Ladders. A couple of balls and the woodworking small hand tools that will allow me to make wooden toys for the kids.

I also like to have some of the classic literature along with books on handcrafts and educational books along with fiction books. Often while most people were working on handcrafts someone would also read a book aloud.

I like to have a harmonica, a jaws harp and strings, and tools for making other instruments and flutes. Music in its many different sorts seems to be an almost instinctive need for people. When I was a kid we often sang. My Grandmother taught piano and several of my great aunts and uncles wrote and performed music. Singing is GOOD for you. It is calming and changes the chemistry of your blood. If you will notice, most of the Hymns you sang in church are long and breathy. If you look closer and have studied meditation you will notice that the breathing patterns that a hymn requires are almost exactly like the breathing patterns of deep meditation. Breathe in deep and fast, old for a moment and then slowly let that breath out. Breathing this way calms you and relaxes you.

Both of my Grandmothers hands were never still. One was a knitter and crochet fiend and the other one was a quilter and Tatter. They did these things for pleasure and to make useful things from odds and ends and take wasted time and make it productive.

Believe it or not, if all you are trying to do is put a roof over your head and food on your table that leaves a lot of extra time for pleasures. Some can be productive but there is nothing wrong with just having a little fun.

 

God thread! Play is a vital part of survival. If you don't keep your spirits up you won't survive. I have books, cards, books, dice, books, board games, and books. Just getting out and doing something different can lighten the mood. Keeping the spirits up will make all the difference.

 

Well, Keith must be a brother from another mother...

I love throwing tomahawks, knives, atlatls... shooting blowguns, and bows (bowfishing, too).

I'm just a weird chick...I also like shooting and blowing stuff up. (The know-how to make gunpowder will come in handy for this. We talked about this here: https://mysurvivalforum.com/threads/backwoods-gunpowder-making.4411/#post-44166)

I would also love to make fireworks (the Orientals have been doing it since the 9th century). This is on my research list!

OK, I like lady-like things too. I am an expert tatter (lacemaking), and I love to paint North American wildlife on large sycamore leaves, feathers, and other natural "canvas" materials. (I used to sell my work at Native American powwows for years.)

Paints made from natural minerals, clays, and plant materials are fun to make and use. Paintbrushes can be easily made from animal fur and plant fibers.

I will continue to write. Papermaking is fun to make from natural materials. (I also used to make and sell feather quill pens, along with instructions to make natural ink from pokeberries, so I know how easy that is.)

Basketmaking, weaving...the list is endless!

And hopefully, all or most of my gazillion books will survive as well.

I am a bookaholic... I have thousands of them. 99% are useful-to-know stuff, with post-it notes stuck here and there in almost all of them.

I could easily create a small community library because of the wide range of topics in my book collection:


anything and everything that can be done on a homestead: cheesemaking, soapmaking, etc.

organic gardening / permaculture

gunsmithing

every conceivable survival skill you can think of and then some, lol

Primitive living skills

Native American history and skills

American pioneer history and skills

natural healing (mostly with herbs and nutrition)

conventional medicine

foraging for wild edibles and medicinals

hunting and tracking (I like to study and observe animal behavior)

fishing

animal husbandry

dozens and dozens of old-time skills (you could drop me into 1855 and I would be happy as an alligator in a bayou fulla tourists)

hundreds of sustainable gardening/agriculture books

craftworking

jewelry making

woodworking

sewing/quilting/tatting/crocheting/hardanger and other old-time needle skills

art instruction

graphic arts

business (law, marketing, sales, etc)

anything and everything to do with construction (home/barns/outbuildings)

and much, much more... (No hysterical romance novels, or other people's drama here!)

Oh! I almost forgot my COOKBOOKS (hundreds!). I read cookbooks like some people read trashy novels, lol. I love to experiment with and improve on the recipes that strike my fancy.


A friend took pity on me and built gorgeous ceiling-to-floor bookshelves (with doors!) in several rooms of my house (they are wall-to-wall in my studio ). So most of my book "problem" is concealed.

I hoard books because I find it hard to part with anything useful. I am into self-sufficiency big-time. If the biblical Moses had me along during the 40-year trek in the wilderness, I think he would have left me behind for fear that the Israelites would camp with me instead of him, lol.

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I’ve always enjoyed staying busy. Give me a project and a hammer and I’m pretty good to go. During the long winter months my projects aren’t as many, so I like to read.

 

Good morning TexDan,

Until recently, circa the 1970s, one type of recovery phase was the "hurricane party". Area folks...we knew each other...would contribute their perishable but still good-quality foods from their original hurricane stockpile. Other goodies also contributed. A typical ron-day-voo location was someone's barn or large shed. After assembly, a meal, some updated news, "storm" souvenirs for the kids, future plans discussed, lessons learned discussed. Brew and liquor present in abundance.

When living overseas, we had both the "American Club" and the industry organization. Whether the recovery was from a natural event or human-made, the recovery's relaxation aspects were like a hurricane party.

Today, in the US, ... at least areas I'm familiar with ... much is different because of the changed family structure in a changed socio-economic environment. My rule is to minimize human contact (unless activated in my emergency responder role) because of the disease issue. The "germs matter" is so neglected it's no longer scary to many. Walking through that flooded road mimics breathing inside an infectious disease laboratory. Post 1970s, we are living in a socialist-mercantile society. When someone goes to the public sector's distribution center - typically a big box store's parking lot - to get 2 "free" blankets and "free" hygiene kits, the person graciously handing out the items harbors more germs than ... Returning to one's dwelling is a major project if concerned about one's physical safety.

Fortunately, until the Fates change the situation, there's shortwave radio. Both Bloomberg Business Reports and BBC, with or without the chimes, puts me to sleep.

 

I am also an avid reader. There is plenty in my library to keep me occupied for some time.

Music has also been a big part of my life. It would be hard to imagine a world without music. I don't know if I would fare very well with a stringed instrument, but I have always wanted to learn how to play the harmonica. This could be a blessing and a curse. I might get banished from the group or shot while I was learning. IMHO small, portable instruments would be popular.

This is a true story, and speaks volumes. My father took a few of the grandkids to tour an old neighborhood quite close to his house (where I grew up). This is Southern Arizona, and the neighborhood has been around for nearly 150 years. I don't know anybody, but they say some of the families have been there for several generations. Lots of adobe. When you drive by you have no idea it is so old. 150 year old adobe huts mixed in, and many hidden by an adobe wall. At one point the tour guide picked up a rock. She asked the children " What do you think this is? " They all said " it is a rock." She said " This is anything you want it to be. It could be a ball. It could be a doll. You just have to use your imagination. Pioneer kids didn't have any toys. You used your imagination, and made things up. " Also, you also never went outside in the dark. There were bad things out there, including Apaches, that would take you away.

If it ever comes to that everybody will have to use their imagination to amuse themselves, and their children.