The group had once again stopped to rest, after leaving the 'Molly B.'. Kathy used the chance to quiz Bob.

"Alright Bob, I want to know how you have done all of this."

"I told you, Kathy. Bit by bit."

"No, no. I'm not talking about your stuff. I mean how have you learned to do everything you've been doing. It seems like no matter what happens, you have the answer. How is that possible?"

"Oh, that. Kathy, I didn't live a sheltered life. I've got scars I will carry to my grave. Mostly from a foolishly spent youth. During that time, I learned a lot of things. Believe it or not, I learned a lot from the Boy Scouts. As a matter of fact, look at this."

Bob grabbed a well worn book from behind the front seat of the truck.

"This is one of my most important books. A Boy Scout Handbook from the mid sixties. It has so many things to teach a person. Morse code for example."

"Isn't that kind of old fashioned?"

"You tell me. What does three dots followed by three dashes, with three more dots mean?"

"Everyone knows that. It's S.O.S."

"That's right. Now what is the letter A?"

"Um, I don't know."

"You're not alone. Most people don't know Morse code. They don't even have a chart to tell them how to read it. That means I can send messages that most people will be totally clueless about. Another nice thing is that Morse can be sent using lights, noises, like the old telegraph, or even written out. But Morse code isn't all that is in here. Can you take balls of twine and make a rope?"

"No."

"Can you make a rope bridge that is safe?"

"No."

"What about an emergency shelter? Can you make one of those using only things like tree branches and a knife?"

"No."

"See what I mean? The Boy Scouts were teaching young men how to survive in the wilderness, long before I was born. They had it down to a science. The only bad thing was when they were forced to become 'politically correct', a lot of those things went away. That's why this is an older manual.

But that, of course, wasn't my only teacher. I learned a lot from listening to veterans when I was a boy. It's amazing what you can do with your own two hands when you have to. I never could stand it when someone would tell me either, 'I can't do that.' or 'You can't do that.' while I knew it could be done. Those smoke grenades for example. Maybe they weren't all slick and polished, or state of the art, but they worked. And in the end, that was what was important."

"What about food, Bob? I know you've got quite a bit in the 4X4, but that won't last forever."

"Got that covered as well. Take a look."

Bob again reached into the truck and pulled our what looked like a deck of playing cards, and handed them to her. Kathy looked at the box. The end of the box said;

EDIBLE WILD FOOD CARDS
U.S. GAMES SYSTEMS, INC.
Stamford, CT 06902 U.S.A.

"But whatever make you decide to collect all of this stuff, besides being nudged by The Lord?"

"You know the old saying. 'Plan for the worst and hope for the best.' I took that seriously. I once heard of people that died during Katrina in their own attics. The reason why is they didn't plan ahead. When the water rose and forced them up, they didn't think about getting out. They didn't take an ax, or even a hammer to make a hole in the roof. Had they done so, many of them would have lived. When I would hear about such things, I'd think, 'What would I do?' and then do it."


BW, Vietnam Vet