Did I Ever Tell You My Y2K Story?

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It was minutes before midnight on January 1, 2000, when my family gathered around the telephone. Y2K was imminent and we were excited with anticipation of what might happen.

It was in the mid-1990s that we first started hearing about Y2K as a potential impending disaster. Also known as the Millennium Bug, the problem was that, until that time, computer systems notated years as two digits: 80 for 1980, 92 for 1992, etc. The question was, what would happen for the year 2000? Could computers tell the difference between 2000 and 1900? This inability to distinguish dates correctly had the potential to bring down worldwide infrastructures for computer reliant industries.

And so began a lot of speculation and predictions of Doomsday, The Apocalypse, and TEOTWAWKI (The End of The World As We Know It). Prepperdom was in it’s glory and people were encouraged to prepare for the worst. Others pooh-poohed the whole thing as utter nonsense.

Somewhere during that time, one of the local churches was going to show the C-SPAN videos of the congressional hearings on Y2K. Dan and I had some questions; officially, our government was saying that there was no problem and that citizens need do nothing, but there were too many trustworthy sources voicing concerns. We decided to go. After a presentation of the facts, the congressional committee’s conclusion was that Y2K was a real problem which required real answers. At the end of the video, the church’s pastor got up to speak. I assumed he would take the opportunity to preach, but he didn’t. All he said was, “If you want to know what to do next, read the book of Proverbs.”

OK, I thought, I can do that. Proverbs is a book of sayings which contrast wise and foolish living. As I read through it, I thought about what to do in regards to Y2K. The wise, I read, are diligent, hard working, well prepared, self-controlled, generous, not given to get rich quick schemes, but gradually save and store up in preparation for winter. The example was the ant, neither influential nor prestigious, but hardworking and prepared. That made sense to me and I decided to start a serious food storage, including things that we couldn’t grow for ourselves. We only had a few dollars each week to put toward it, but slowly we were able to store up quite a few months worth of food. Gradually, we stocked up on canned and dried goods, water, kerosene lamps, kerosene, firewood, and a tub and laundry plunger for washing clothes. 

At 12:01 a.m. January 1, 2000, Dan picked up the telephone receiver and listened. We had a dial tone! The lights didn’t go out, and life went on as usual.

In the days that followed, I remember quite a few folks were angry because nothing had happened. These were the ones who felt “duped” after investing thousands of dollars in food supply and survival kits. And then there were the I-told-you-so-ers, gleefully crowing because they hadn’t bothered to prepare anything at all.

For myself, it was a valuable experience, and I learned things which made me realize that we always needed to be prepared. This philosophy has served us well. Several times, Dan was out of work and we were able to eat well without worrying about how to pay for groceries. Then there was the time when our area got hit by the remnants of three hurricanes. While we didn’t get the hurricane force winds, we did get torrential rains, flooding, and extensive road and bridge damage. Like many others, our basement was ankle deep in water (and we did not live in a flood zone!) 

Even though we had a some damage, we were fortunate because many in our county had their basements cave in from all the water and ground saturation. Everyone was without electricity for days, and our food storage was a life saver. The grocery store shelves had long since been wiped out by folks buying up whatever they could get their hands on before the storms hit. We fared very well because in addition to food, I had been stocking up on matches, paper plates and napkins, toilet paper, first aid supplies, and water. The biggest problem was because our well water required an electric pump; we had no running (nor flushing) water. We did have a 55 gallon drum filled with water, so by rationing we were alright.

The memory that stands out the most, however, happened several years later. It is of a friend whose husband had been out of work for months. When her kitchen cupboards were bare, I could never have afforded to buy her more than a bagful of groceries. But I could easily give her a whole trunk load of food from our food storage, which I did. I was never more glad than then, to have heeded the advice to prepare.

Now, of course, we are able to grow more of our own food and have learned low-tech ways to accomplish tasks. We’ve learned how to simplify our lifestyle, so that when things like a global pandemic and lockdown take place, our lives pretty much go on as usual. But, hopefully, those stories help explain why I’m so enthusiastic about these resource bundles. 

Did I Ever Tell You My Y2K Story? © July 2023

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com