My grandmother survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. She took 69 photographs, two I've included here, with her Brownie box camera of the areas around her home and neighborhood.
Along with the pictures, I have a letter written to my grandmother from a boyfriend across town, expressing his concern for her. It took two weeks for the letter to reach her.
Times were simpler then. . .
They didn’t have many ways to contact one another, and when that information was needed, they usually had it written in one little note book which they usually carried with them. I have one of those--- my great grandfather's--- in my possession.
Today we also carry our contact information around with us, and usually in a compact form.
But what if . . . the power grids, or whatever the things that keep our electronic world afloat are called, suddenly went down. There are probably any number of reasons that could happen. And then the batteries that power our electronic brains?
This is a very scary what if ...... and this is coming from someone who relies very little on electronics for anything. Someone who still prefers a hard copy address book. How much more scary for those who are electronically dependent—or addicted?
We used to memorize the phone numbers of family and friends. Now, for the most part, we know them by the order in which we punch them in, or by scrolling down a list---and then punching "go get 'em." How many are safely tucked away in our physical brains?
Insurance is something we all have and all hope we never need.
For our “insurance” I made wallet-size lists of all of our family members with all of their contact numbers and addresses---home, work, college, etc. We even listed our doctor and our medicines, including strengths and dosages.
Then, for our emergency get-up and go bags, I made additional sets, laminated them, and attached them to the go-bags so they would not get misplaced. But that’s another story for next time.
Until then, please give thought to, and take steps toward, making preparations for an emergency so you will be able to sleep when the wind blows.
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