Chances are if a disaster happened once before in the past it may very well happen again. That is why we need to learn everything we can from the past. It's especially important to learn how our grandparents and great-grandparents managed to survive some really harsh times. If we know the skills they had to help them survive, then it might just save our life too!
Survival Skills People Had Fifty Years Ago Include:
1. Learning different knots. While there are entire books on how to make various knots, in order to have a good start on your survival skills, you should learn by making the clove hitch. Go further with a couple of tensioning knots for tarps, the figure eight, bowline, the timber hitch and prusik knot.
2. Drill a hole without electricity. The pump drill was often used to drill holes and this technique has been used for almost everything. Although it can be difficult to master by beginners, once you spend enough time with it, you will be able to use it when there is no electricity.
3. Wilderness first aid. As long as you look after yourself in an unknown environment, you should be able to prevent accidents and medical emergencies from happening. However, the more you are out, the higher the chance of getting injured or ill. Having first aid training should be basic knowledge for today’s generations, but you can take things even further. If you want to become a real survivalists you should attend to a wilderness first aid course. You will be able to learn how to treat various medical emergencies, but most importantly, you will learn how to improvise when resources are scarce.
4. Start a fire in any conditions. The wilderness environment has its own rules and having the ability to start a fire when the odds are against you, meant the difference between life and death. Nature doesn’t play by your rules and it’s neutral to your sufferance or your survival skills. It may provide you with the resources to survive, but you need to carry emergency fire lighting equipment with you and know how to use it.
5. Make a snare. This is one of the survival skills that our grandparents learned to master as it helped them catch small game, but also to get rid of rodents and other pests. Start with Youtube videos and practice every time you get the chance.
6. Navigate using a map and compass. Long before the invention of the GPS, people were teaching their kids how to navigate by using a map and compass. This is the cornerstone of wilderness travel and learning how to follow a compass bearing was one of the survival skills passed on from one generation to another.
7. Learning to use an axe. If you spend a lot of time in the wilderness, an axe is one of the most satisfying tools to have and use. However, it is also a dangerous tool in the wrong hands and it can become lethal. Learning how to use an axe requires proper training and not only from books. Even more you need to learn how to look after it as it may become your main survival tool.
8. How to prepare a fish. Knowing how to fillet a fish and how to use the guts and all the other parts as bait or for other purposes is becoming a forgotten skill. If you catch your fish in the wilderness you need to know how to prepare it and how to make the most of it.
9. Build and understand the right type of fire. Making the right type of fire is more than creating the essential heat source and you must consider the use, the duration and other various particularities of fire making. When it comes to survival skills, you should master how to make more than one type of fire.
10. Make a variety of cordage. This is another one of the survival skills we lost to history and few people know that you can make string from stinging nettle or longer fibers. It’s not a complicated skill once you understand and master the learning curve. This video will show you how easy it is to make rope from grass.
11.Training yourself mentally and physically. Our ancestors had the right type of fitness and a positive mental attitude that is hard to find these days. All because living and working outside makes it tough on you and teaches you to appreciate things more.
12. Building the right shelter for the appropriate environment. People back then didn’t rely on Gore-Tex and all sorts of high-tech materials in order to stay warm and they had to use their knowledge and survival skills. Tents weren’t as complex as they are today and few could afford them. You had to learn about the huge variety of shelters you could make for your environment during the different seasons. They experimented with various designs and their long-term shelters allowed them to cook, eat and sleep inside.
Many things were very different when our grandparents and great grandparents had to survive all types of situations. They also didn't the same items or technology that we have today.
This is why it is vital to our survival if we learn what they had to do in the past in order to survive. We just might find ourselves needing the skills they utilized in the past when SHTF today!
To learn more survival skills people knew fifty years ago, go to Prepper's Will.