What can YOU do that would make you useful in a post-apocalyptic situation (posit any one you like - i.e. all traces of human civilisation are gone vs only the people are gone, etc).
I like to think I have a fairly broad range of useful skills, including:
-A fairly good working knowledge of wild foods in the Northern Temperate Zone
-I know how to make things from wood and metal - ranging from tools and weapons, to shelters and containers (assuming there are tools and materials left behind by the vanished world population)
-If tools aren’t available, I know how to make fire, and I know how to make charcoal; I know where I might find iron ore and I have a fairly good idea of how to smelt and work iron - never actually tried it, but I think I would be able to rediscover the art, eventually.
-I can make strong cords and rope from natural fibres
-I can make clay pots and baskets
-I know how to spin wool and I can knit. I also know how to make thick water-resistant felt.
-I would be able to construct animal traps
-I know how to cultivate plants
-I am familiar with several methods of food preservation.
My mum said I was good at knitting provided you wanted stuff with lots of holes in it. I could knit fishing nets! Yay! I have a post-apocalyptic purpose!
I can spin and weave. I know how to set up basic looms. I can sew, and cook over a campfire. I have ground my own flour, and could figure out a quern.
I also know several hours’ worth of poetry by heart, which may be either useful or get me killed. It depends on whether you like Dylan Thomas and T. S. Eliot.
Military basic training, proficiency as a marksman, wise enough to know that someone younger would probably be in charge. Once you’ve validated your worth as the leader, you’d have my unswerving loyalty. If I survive the catastrophe with my rifle, ammo and hunting knife intact, I can help provide game, assuming there’s any to be had. I’m not squeamish about killing, gutting and skinning mammals and fish for food.
I’m a pretty good woodworker and fair carpenter – built my own garage/woodshop, and I know the fundamentals of how to build weather-tight shelter. If we can scrounge some decent tools, I can help in that area.
I can design and build solar-heated buildings out of scavenged wood, glass, tires, dirt, straw, roofing tar, and concrete. These buildings need no furnace or stove to stay warm in the winter, and shade themselves to stay cool in the summer. (A stove is, of course, useful for cooking.)
I also have an extensive background in literature and communication. Maybe I can help Lissla restore the humanities, keep us from being just another tribe scratching out a living.
Sorry, I would have edited to add this, but the 5-minute limit expired on me.
In all honesty, it’s pretty unlikely I’d emerge as leader in an extreme situation like that; Although I do consider myself diplomatic and reasonably calm and useful under pressure, I suspect power and control would be seized by someone more aggressive and assertive than me.
Well, I’m heavily armed and borderline psychotic. Doesn’t that help?
I’m a generalist. I have some skills are wilderness survival, life-saving, hunting, fishing, trapping, light mechanics, sewing, general carpentry, cooking, etc. You name it, I can hum along.
All post apocalyptic peoples would need a philosopher. We have a tendency to make the unreal real - and that would be a useful trait. Plus - I’ve recently inherited a green nuclear fallout, psychotic north american badger. It is a hermaphrodite, and extremely loyal to me, plus they can be very useful in games of chance.
I work for a nuclear safety agency. Although I am not an engineer, I do read a lot of documents about nuclear and rad safety. So, depending on the kind of holocaust we are post-, that could be useful.
I have a govt security passcard, should we need access to certain facilities after the collapse of civilization.
This will sound like I’m bragging – but it’s true, and I can’t explain it. I have a peculiar talent for hitting what I aim at with a variety of projectiles without practice. I’ve hit the target on the first try ever: skeet shooting, throwing scissors, using different weights of rented paintball equipment, using homemade arrows and K-mart fiberglass bows, using pistols, using throwing knives, including one made from a leaf spring by a metalsmith. As a one-time walk-in at pistol team practice, I was asked to try out for the team – that was the first time I ever fired a handgun. I won an archery contest, at long range, using a weak 35 pound bow, with the first shot – no one else wanted to shoot first because of the untried air currents coming off the hill, so I shot one arrow and hit the target. In the unpredictable air, at the limit of my bow’s range. No one else was able to hit it directly. I’ve hit a bullseye in a target with my eyeglasses off, by aiming at the colored blur. My first day of paintball, I hit 12 people before I was hit at all, using a crappy rented gun that a friend’s 15-year-olds sneered at, and that pellet didn’t break open on me. The 15-year-olds later alleged that I was “all right for an old guy.” I once killed a mouse with a thrown snowball, while running flat-out, throwing sidearm. (It was chasing our German Shepherd, biting her on the nose – I only wanted to scare it off).
So if we have to scrounge for makeshift weaponry, I’m you’re guy.
I have some experience as a counselor/social worker. I know by heart a number of choral pieces and can teach the 4-part harmony and lead a choir without the benefit of musical instruments (I don’t know how useful this would be.) I also know how to knit and sew.
Well, I’ve got some knowledge in the area of fishing, thanks to many an exciting summer trip to the Fishing Hall of Fame, I’m fairly knowledgable when it comes to plant identification, and I’ve done quite a bit of food preservation. Heck, I’ve made beef jerky without even so much as a fire. I’m also very territorial and like firearms so you know I can keep our post-apocalyptic base safe.
Beyond this, though, there is my most useful skill, which shall give me great power when the supplies start to dwindle:
I know how to make booze! Wine, beer, questionable fermented stuff that might kill you…you need it, I’ve probably made it. You won’t have to suffer through the post-apocalyptic world sober, that’s for sure.
