# just for fun y2k stories



## AR Transplant (Mar 20, 2004)

Another thread made me think of this. 
I'd like to hear some really funny/ironic/ or plain stupid y2k prepping stories.

I will start with this. An aquaintance went full crazy on for y2k. Sold big home in city, bought a farm, someone GAVE him a tractor, well water, and along with lots of other stuff bought a ton of wheat. ( we went in with him to buy it).
Two weeks after January 1, he sold his farm, dumped his wheat in the ditch and moved to an even bigger home that is totally dependant on the grid.

This guy was single minded for sure.

any one else have any stories?


----------



## Horns Bach (Mar 11, 2008)

I'm just glad I was more naive back then. Stocked up the closet with water, bought a few extra propane camp bottles, maybe a bag of rice or two.
I wouldn't have survived very long on that.
I ate a lot before y2k and got a bit overweight, thinking if I put on a few pounds it could hold me over. Really I think it was just an excuse to eat alot, of course after y2k then I had to lose it all.


----------



## cheapskate (May 9, 2006)

Know a fella locally here who was H-U-N-K-E-R-E-D D-O-W-N. Solar everything, enough batteries to power Cincinnati, enough booze and cigarettes stockpiled to supply 3 infantry brigades, pallets of freeze dried food, and the piece de resistance.........100 pairs of male and female hamsters in cages in his basement. His thinking was that they breed, birth and grow so fast, he would have fresh meat for ever.

He was one very disappointed guy when the news from Australia was that Y2K is a dud.


----------



## WanderingOak (Jul 12, 2004)

cheapskate said:


> 100 pairs of male and female hamsters in cages in his basement. His thinking was that they breed, birth and grow so fast, he would have fresh meat for ever.


I came very close to having to deal with a keyboard full of Sam Adams when I read that. What were the hamsters supposed to eat? Guinea pigs, rabbits, or even rats I might understand, but hamsters?!?!? How much meat was each supposed to have once it was cleaned, skinned and boned? Not more than a mouthful per hamster, I would gather...


----------



## Wildwood (Jul 2, 2007)

Even though I was prepping back then, y2k just didn't set off major bells and whistles for me...just kind of a gut feeling. I did up the preps a bit but I was just looking for a possible short term disruption. 

As luck would have it, I had the absolute worst case of the flue I've ever had when new year's eve rolled around and I didn't much care what happened. My sister,on the other hand, was at a new year's eve party and anticipation was high. Sure enough at midnight, all power went out and they all totally freaked out but alas it was just a breaker that got overloaded and life as they knew it went on when they figured out TS hadn't HTF.


----------



## cheapskate (May 9, 2006)

WanderingOak said:


> I came very close to having to deal with a keyboard full of Sam Adams when I read that. What were the hamsters supposed to eat? Guinea pigs, rabbits, or even rats I might understand, but hamsters?!?!? How much meat was each supposed to have once it was cleaned, skinned and boned? Not more than a mouthful per hamster, I would gather...



You'd have to know Odis to even get close to understanding why he thought hamsters were gonna be good chow.

I think he had laid in a whole bunch of bagged up alfalfa pellets to feed his herd of hamsters.

I have never seen an ammo dump like he had in his basement.


----------



## Guest (May 27, 2008)

Wildwood said:


> I did up the preps a bit but I was just looking for a possible short term disruption.


Yeah, we stocked up some extra food, but no MAJOR preps. I figured if anything happened, they'd get it fixed within a couple weeks. Of course that shows how naive I was - that was before Katrina. After Katrina I got smarter about the government's abilities.


----------



## Nana2boys (Mar 8, 2008)

I had approx 200 cans of tomato sauce. I had to throw it out after a couple of years as it ruined. What was I thinking. We only use about 10-12 cans a year.


----------



## booklover (Jan 22, 2007)

I didn't prep at all. I am a computer programmer, although I now stay at home with my dd, and I pretty much sat back and chuckled by the hoopla. I knew there would be no issues with the date... it was all about the media blowing things out of proportion.

I was actually away in the middle east on vacation during Y2K, I had so much confidence that there would not be an issue.


----------



## Guest (May 27, 2008)

cheapskate said:


> 100 pairs of male and female hamsters in cages in his basement. His thinking was that they breed, birth and grow so fast, he would have fresh meat for ever.


That's insane. Did he even realise how MANY babies 100 females would have? Maybe he fancied himself some sort of King Rat, in which he could barter with the zombies hungry for meat.

Rabbits would have been much more sensible.


----------



## Explorer (Dec 2, 2003)

From a Government surveillance system (they are everywhere you know).

Our staff has completed the 18 months of work on time and on budget. We have gone through every line of code in every program in every system. We have analyzed all databases, all data files, including backups and historic archives, and modified all data to reflect the change. 

We are proud to report that we have completed the "Y-to-K" date change mission, and have now implemented all changes to all programs and all data to reflect your new standards: 

Januark, Februark, March, April, Mak, June, Julk, August, September, October, November, December. 

As well as: Sundak, Mondak, Tuesdak, Wednesdak Thursdak, Fridak, Saturdak. 

I trust that this is satisfactory, because to be honest, none of this Y to K problem has made any sense to me. But I understand it is a global problem, and our team is glad to help in any way possible. 

And what does the year 2000 have to do with it? Speaking of which, what do you think we ought to do next year when the two digit year rolls over from 99 to 00? 

We'll await your direction. 

Your Y-to-K Project Manager 

Sheep vell.


----------



## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

I dunno, my cats eat the whole mouse and spit out the stomach...


----------



## davisdj (Feb 14, 2008)

We sold some property just prior to Y2K to an acquaintance who was convinced that he wouldn't have to pay it off (because Y2K would disrupt everything and then Jesus would come back and that would be it.)

We financed the place for him, and made sure he understood that we'd like nothing better than to foreclose. 

He was one disappointed man when Y2K turned out to be nothing, and to add insult to injury, Jesus did not come and rescue him, and he's STILL making those monthly payments - has another 5 or so years left.

To his credit, he's never been a day late on a single one. (Good thing, because we most assuredly would foreclose.)

I also knew a guy who we thought was really intelligent, but he cashed in his IRA that last week in December. Cost him dearly in taxes.

We did absolutely nothing. I did not have the "feeling" about Y2K that I have about the future now.

Sally


----------



## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

I heard about Y2K first at a s/w company international conference. I worked for the company. 
Over that next year the IT guys were upping new versions of s/w, etc. That's when I first started hearing of 'Preppers". I started at TB2K and then the lusenet Countryside forums.

I know I was watching on Dec 31, 1999 to see what happened. And in my current work, I occasionally see what I recognize as a "fix" in the date system. The fix that makes higher two digits go into a funky date.

And Yep, there is just a little bit of me that is let down that nothing visible happened on 1/1/00.

Angie


----------



## Guest (May 27, 2008)

davisdj said:


> I did not have the "feeling" about Y2K that I have about the future now.


Me too!


----------



## Peacock (Apr 12, 2006)

I started reading survivalist forums like TB2K and Frugal Squirrel....

I figured Y2K wouldn't come to much, but it seemed a darn good opportunity to get the DH on a prepping bandwagon. I made him build me a good set of shelves in the basement for a stock-up pantry. (we don't live there anymore...) We bought a few gallons of water and stored a whole bunch more in old 2-liter pop bottles, stocked up things like rice, dry beans, ramen noodles, canned pasta, etc. Bought a bunch of candles, batteries, re-examined our first aid kits and emergency radios, etc. Made sure we had some cash. Really, nothing that we shouldn't have had on hand to prepare for any emergency, anytime. 

I think we're better prepped now than we were back then, just because we've had more time to think about it and accumulate stuff. Still a long way to go.


----------



## Guest (May 27, 2008)

The same old yada yada yada.

Before the event the _endless_ flame wars between the Pollys and the Doomers. Endless. It didn't take me long to avoid the places that were nothing but debates, arguments, harangues, and insults so that I could focus on pure prepping. Y2K was just anothe scenario, this one with a clear deadline for the folks who don't deal well with vague generalities. "Get ready by this date" and all that.

Then after the event there was months of heehawing by the Pollys "see, I told you it was going to be nothing" and the Doomers saying "we spent hundreds of millions making sure it was going to be nothing." Change the scenario from Y2K to hurricanes, nuclear war, bird flu, earthquakes, whatever and it's all the same.

Y2K never meant much to me UNTIL the Red Cross and FEMA began putting out publications on Y2K preps and our local power companies began talking about it. Then I decided maybe it was time to more closely examine the problem. Did it change anything that we did? Not really. If you're prepped you are prepped. The clear dead line was convenient to help convince my new wife that we needed to get a move on but it was all stuff we were going to do anyway, some sooner, some might have been later. 

The actual night of the rollover I had the worst head cold in many years and I told the wife "anybody starts anything tonight I'm just going to shoot them and deal with the bodies when I get up in the morning." All fifty states and the federal government activated their emergency management centers as well as a lot of major corporations. Plenty of uncertainty going in that soon evaporated. Lots of little glitchy stuff afterwards that slowly revealed itself in the following weeks and months, but so far as the average person was concerned it was a non-event.

The hurricane didn't strike, the nuclear war didn't happen, the flu pandemic didn't occur, and the folks who can't find any reason to prep without a clear and present danger staring them in the face all went back to sleep. Until the next event comes along which it did about two years later which turned out to be a surprise party scenario. It's been steadily rising since.

In a few years things might get better and a lot of them will go back to sleep.

Or not.

.....Alan.


----------



## Guest (May 27, 2008)

A.T. Hagan said:


> Then after the event there was months of heehawing by the Pollys "see, I told you it was going to be nothing" and the Doomers saying "we spent hundreds of millions making sure it was going to be nothing."
> <SNIP>
> Lots of little glitchy stuff afterwards that slowly revealed itself in the following weeks and months, but so far as the average person was concerned it was a non-event.


Yep, I remember all that. 

I also remember seeing in news blurbs in the coming weeks and months how people were dumping the tons of wheat berries and MRE's that they no longer needed. Food banks were turning down a lot of the stuff because it wasn't really usable (what would they do with 5 tons of wheat berries, after all??). So, since it couldn't be donated, it got dumped instead.


----------



## cchapman84 (Jan 29, 2003)

We had a very funny occurrence happen on New Year's Eve, 1999. We'd been having problems with squirrels in our area, and about 2:00 in the afternoon, the power suddenly went out. The whole neighborhood came out and everyone was joking about how Y2K came early. It was just another squirrel getting fried in a transformer, and the power was back on within a couple hours, but it was pretty funny (after all, it was midnight somewhere!).


----------



## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

I was totally clueless before Y2K, but that was my awakening. We were living in Europe at the time, and I suddenly realized we only had a week of food in our house, and no water stored. People who live in towns in Europe go to the store every day for food, plus we were young and clueless so we had no thoughts about the future.

So I bought a couple of water barrels, made a few extra trips to the grocery store for canned foods, and outfitted a medical kit. We had babies at the time so I was worried about formula and diapers too....but I only bought a month or two of each.

Once we got through Y2K without a problem, I decided to make sure we were ready if anything else ever happened. But that was before message boards as I knew them, and I felt like a freak for worrying the way I did. I just kept stocking my pantry with canned goods, and stocked up on clothes for the kids to grow into, and made sure we had a bunch of toiletries and OTC medicines "just in case". We moved all that stuff to two other countries before we settled here in the USA, and each time the movers asked a hundred questions about why we had so much food. I just told them I was a gourmet cook and have lots of kids so we needed lots of supplies, hee hee.

I'm *glad* nothing serious has ever happened, but I'm grateful for Y2K for making me aware of how easily it *could* happen. And now that I've found this board and have met some other people who prep, there's no going back.

This is a good opportunity for me to thank all of you. Not only have you made me realize I'm not a freak, and that actually it's very smart to plan ahead, but you've also taught me so much about food storage and ways to survive without electricity or a functioning grocery store. I now know about places to buy Rx meds online, and which bulk food websites are the best, and even what wheat berries are. The combined knowledge in this forum is amazing!


----------



## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

These stories would be funny except for the tragedy they entail.

A slight acquaintance, well ecucated, a highly placed city official in a mid-sized city, was convinced that y2k was going to be a disaster. 

He cashed in his retirement (took it all in bills), quit his job, bought (on credit) a place in the New Mexico high desert, and built a barn-type building there to live in. Buried his money in the desert, stockpiled weapons and ammo. 

Y2k came and went; he was alone in the desert in a barn. When he decided it was all over and he was tired of living in the desert he dug up his money only to find it had been shredded by packrats, most of it carried off. No recovery. No job, could not make payments on his land so lost it. 

Back now working for a living. He will not live long enough to recover. 
Ox


----------



## Guest (May 27, 2008)

Oxankle said:


> he dug up his money only to find it had been shredded by packrats, most of it carried off. No recovery. No job, could not make payments on his land so lost it.


Oh no!

Every now and again you hear about some little old lady (or man) who had all their money stuffed in a mattress and a fire burns it all up.


----------



## Guest (May 27, 2008)

Oxankle said:


> These stories would be funny except for the tragedy they entail.
> 
> A slight acquaintance, well ecucated, a highly placed city official in a mid-sized city, was convinced that y2k was going to be a disaster.
> 
> ...


 It is the occasional stories such as this one that has prompted me to remind newcomers that while prepping for disaster is important it is equally important not to prep so much for a given disaster that its failure to occur becomes a disaster in itself. I've read of folks who did much the same thing back in the nineteen eighties when they were so convinced we were about to have a nuclear war they moved off to 'safe areas' where they had no way to make a living. No war occurred and they were eventually forced to move to where they could make a living. Often finding themselves obligated to accept a major loss.

On the other hand however with every disaster that we read about or see on the television there is nearly always hundreds to tens of thousands of follks who were not prepared for the loss of their central utilities for even a couple of days. A hurricane passes through and there will be hundreds standing in line waiting for handouts of food, water, and ice even when they had no damage to their homes. 

One who overprepped to the point of meeting disaster when the disaster they were prepping for didn't occur and a thousand who couldn't be bothered to prep at all who met disaster that many others who did make prudent preparations saw as only an annoyance.

.....Alan.


----------



## JGex (Dec 27, 2005)

cheapskate said:


> 100 pairs of male and female hamsters in cages in his basement. His thinking was that they breed, birth and grow so fast, he would have fresh meat for ever.


 I am picturing little hamsters skewered on bamboo shish kebob skewers.... with their little hands and feets stretched out and tiny crabapples in their mouths. 

How the heck does one skin a hamster?

Oh well, guess it's a good thing I don't have any stored back.... seems like a lot of hassle as a food source.

lmao....


----------



## fretti (Jun 30, 2007)

AR Transplant said:


> Another thread made me think of this.
> I'd like to hear some really funny/ironic/ or plain stupid y2k prepping stories.


Like this  one? 

:rotfl:


----------



## Wildwood (Jul 2, 2007)

Wildwood said:


> Even though I was prepping back then, y2k just didn't set off major bells and whistles for me...just kind of a gut feeling. I did up the preps a bit but I was just looking for a possible short term disruption.


I will say this....y2k may not have set off the bells and whistles back then but given the state of the world today and all that we've experienced since then, if we were facing y2k this year it would be a different story. At this point I wouldn't trust the powers that be not to use it their advantage if you know what I mean. It's a far different world we live in now than the one we thought we lived in eight years ago IMHO. I guess ignorance was bliss.


----------



## no1g8r (May 1, 2008)

We had big ideas for Y2K, having set up a cabin in a remote part of the state and gotten a couple of months of food, fuel, etc ready to go. Then my wife got pregnant, with her due date set for January 9th, 2000. Our daughter came early, on Christmas eve. There was no way we were going to be bugging out to a primitive cabin in the sticks at that point, so we resigned ourselves to hoping for the best and staying in place. Things worked out fine.

After Y2k, LOTs of people were dumping their LTS food on ebay. I picked up a $4k batch of food for a little over $1k, even though I had to drive 14 hours round trip to get it. I picked up smaller amounts from a few other folks along the way for pennies on the original dollar. It turned out pretty nicely. I still have that "30-year" food, though the bulk of my stores now are basic staples in mylar packs.


----------



## AR Transplant (Mar 20, 2004)

I think that dumping food is what ticks me off the most. Surely with all the time one took to prepare for y2k for themselves, couldn't they have taken a little time and trouble to try to pass it on?

Actually, the dumping of the wheat in the ditch was one of the last straws for me to end the friendship with the self centered person. He knew that I used the wheat that we went in on together, and that I used a lot of it to grind for others to teach them how to bake. It was just too much trouble for him to give me a call. Human nature, some people care and some people don't.

ar


----------



## Kari (Mar 24, 2008)

My girlfriend at the time worked for a small software company. On New Years eve 1999, all the employees, programmers and company executives were gathered in the "war room" waiting for the sky to fall. They had spent a small fortune to bring their software up to date and made expensive contingency plans for the worst case scenario.

Needless to say at 12:00 midnight, nothing happened much to their relief. 

A couple of junior guys now bored decided to liven up the event. They sneaked off about 5-7 minutes later and threw the main electrical breaker in the building just for fun. My girlfriend said that the "war room" went dead quiet except for a few choice words and she swore that the distinct odor of poo was in the air! 

The guys who had turned off the breaker, reset it after a couple of minutes. They would of gotten away with their prank, however they failed to remember the surveillance cameras were recording them in the hallways. Although they did not get fired, they each were suspended without pay for 3 days.


----------



## jim/se kansas (May 10, 2002)

I am glad that we bought into the y2k scare. Yes we did some foolish things but,
one ice storm and one major flood later we were still prepared. In our small town there were only two families that had electric we were one of them. It has also showed us how to store better. Funny story, I don't think so. I think God that my family is more prepared today because of y2k. Blessings, Pastor Jim


----------



## halfpint (Jan 24, 2005)

I was already well stocked before I ever heard of Y2K. I did increase my stock a good bit in late 98 and early 99 though. But towards the end of 99, I figured not much was going to happen. We went out of town to visit family (who were totally unprepared) for New Years - although my husband who works for the power company had to get special permission to leave the state. 

While most of the public was not aware of the few glitches caused by Y2K, there were a few. The Hershey's plant was knocked out, and you couldn't get certain types of their valentines candy in 2000 (my brother lives near there and several of his neighbors worked there - I think the kisses were the main candy problem). There were three nuclear plants across the country that went down at the stroke of midnight. I used to work in Nuclear and have several friends who worked at one of the plants who said it was instrumentation affected by Y2K.

I don't know of anyone who dumped wheat, but I had several buckets given to me by friends who only wanted several loaves of bread in return for each bucket. It worked out for all of us.

Dawn


----------



## AR Transplant (Mar 20, 2004)

my dh was in banking and he was not allowed to go out of town that week either. His bank was not really sure that their problem was fixed. Guess it was.

I had a bunch of people over for the new year and we thanked God that there was no major mess up.

This year I plan to use up the rest of my y2k supplies. Meaning the #10 cans of dehydrated fruits and vegetables and -----powdered butter. This is because I am replacing them, not because I have stopped stocking up.

thanks ,


----------

