I Survived Lawn Darts; I Can Survive A Grid Down

What happens to our judgment when the feed decides our urgency? Keith takes us from cardboard fort summers and rotary phones to today’s algorithm-driven protests to show how growing up offline hardwired real self-reliance—and why that wiring still matters when the grid blinks. This is a story about quiet as a training ground, patience as a superpower, and the practical skills that turn anxiety into action when convenience disappears.

We revisit a free-range childhood where the streetlights were curfew, neighbors had their own tools, and learning meant skinned knuckles, not autoplay tutorials. Keith walks through the small mechanics of independence—changing a tire, fixing a tube, making plans without a text—and contrasts them with the speed and certainty of modern social media. He digs into how walkouts can scale in minutes, how influencers and celebrity takes manufacture outrage, and why it’s so easy to mistake viral for true when incentives reward heat over clarity. The point isn’t to bash technology; it’s to right-size it, so tools remain tools and we don’t become them.

You’ll hear practical ways to reclaim your attention and build a preparedness mindset: run no-phone drills, cook from pantry staples, navigate without apps, and practice one hands-on repair before you search a video. Keith also makes the case for family rhythms—shared meals, early mornings, focused work—as the quiet engine of grit. If the phone goes dark or systems wobble, the person who can think clearly, fix simply, and wait patiently becomes the anchor others seek.

If this resonates, share it with a friend who could use a nudge toward fewer crutches and more capability. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what’s one unplugged habit you’re committing to this week?

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Transcript

Welcome And Listener Shoutouts

SPEAKER_00 0:02

You are listening to the Common Sense Practical Prepper, sponsored by Duct Tape, the real Duct Tape. It fixes everything except that decision. Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America, from border to border, coast to coast, and all ships at sea. Here is your host, Keith.

Generations And A Boomer’s Lens

Free-Range Childhood And Resilience

DIY Skills Before The Internet

Tech Convenience Versus Independence

Social Media, Protests, And Herd Thinking

Influencers, Celebrities, And Manufactured Outrage

Why Self-Reliance Still Wins

Family Time, Discipline, And Focus

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Hey all, this is Keith, and welcome back to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast, February the 8th, 2026. Give a shout out to some new listeners. We have some folks from Parsons, Tennessee, Sayville, New York, Beacon, New York, and Nace, County Kildare, Ireland. So this is what I want to talk about today. And it goes a little bit into Gen X and Gen Z and Gen Alpha. I can't keep track of all these generations. How do you see these memes on Facebook and TikTok and X, the ones where they have kids jumping flaming dirt piles with their go-karts and their big wheels and drinking out of hoses and that sort of stuff? So I looked up what I was, but apparently, depending on how they classify this, I'm like the last of the boomers, I guess. So I guess I'm a boomer. No idea until recently, I had no idea what that was. So I guess I'm a boomer. So I think about all the things, my childhood, no technology as opposed to what we have going on today. And I think the way I grew up in the era, the times that I grew up, I think has lended itself to me being resilient and self-reliant. So stick with me and see if I can make this make sense. So you know the old line, again, coming from my generation-ish. We went out and played in the morning, and we were told to come home when the street lights came on. And I know you've seen that in memes and all that stuff, but that's really how it worked with my generation. It wasn't something my parents just said. That was the law. That was the law according to my mom and my dad. Obviously, no cell phones, no calls, no texts. Me and my friends, we just roamed. We roamed the neighborhood, the woods, the creek, and we're on our bikes, or we were just walking. We just went everywhere. We played ball. We built forts out of pallets, out of cardboard boxes. We'd ask someone, let's say someone just got like a new refrigerator or a large appliance, a stove. We would ask if we could have their box because that's what we made forts out of. If you got hurt, you just limped home, bleeding, big old goose egg from getting hit with a rock or a stick, whatever it happened to be. And short of a broken bone or a compound fracture of your lower leg, mama throw a band-aid on it, wash it out with warm soap and water, macuricomb, methylade, stuff that has been taken off the market for a long, long time because apparently somebody said it's poison. No macuricomb and no methiolade on wounds. I'm not sure when those were removed from the market, but I actually found a bottle of macuricomb in the very back of my, I guess, my linen closet here at the house. How it made it from Indiana back in the day all the way here, I have absolutely no idea, but I got a kick out of that. Probably the EPA or the DEA have probably come swooping down and confiscate it because it's probably banned like the lawn darts that I have in my garage that I bought at a yard sale several years ago. And lawn darts are actually outlawed. You can't even import them, manufacture them. And again, if you guys know what I'm talking about, the lawn darts are those metal darts with little plastic fins on them. And you had a plastic ring and you played a game like at a barbecue. So you'd put this little plastic ring, and then you'd walk, I don't know, 30 or 40 feet, I forget how far. And there was like red ones and green ones. So everybody had, I think you played in pairs. So we had four red and four yellow, and you threw them up in the air, and the object is to get your lawn dart to land in your circle, and that gave you points. So if you needed to call home, you just went to a buddy's house, called home, and checked in. Hey, mom or dad, I'm going to Jimmy's house. Because I always had to tell my parents roughly where I was going to be. So if I was going to Scott's house, I'd go to Scott's house, and then everybody said, Oh, let's go to Dave's house. I had to call my parents and say, hey, we're going to Dave's house now. Only if I was going to a house. If we were out roaming the neighborhood, we just roamed. So no text messages. I didn't even think there was a payphone. The closest payphone was the little corner market that was a good 30, 45 minute walk. Now parents track their kids via apps, air tags. So for entertainment, no cable. There was AMFM radio, maybe three channels on your TV, no serious satellite radio, no YouTube, no Netflix, no streaming. Had no idea what streaming was. There was no internet. But I remember sitting on the floor in 1981 watching the television, watching static, waiting for MTV to come on the air. It was like magic. And of course, they played Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles. So we made our own fun. Bike races, forts, dirt clod fights, Roman candle fights, going to the library. So quiet was the normal at home. The silence, it gave you time to think and it built patience. Now kids can't stand five minutes being away from their phone or being away from a screen. We did this for hours on end. Just sitting, talking, reading, listening to the radio. We did that for hours on end. So when it came to DIY and you needed to fix something, there was no YouTube. There was your mom and your dad. And my dad was very handy in the garage, showed me all the tools wrench, hammer, crescent, open-ended wrench, closed-end wrench, how to change a tire, how to change battery, how to change the oil in the car, how to patch a flat tire, how to fix the tube if you had a tube tire on your bike. Neighbors came over every once in a while and maybe borrowed a tool, but for the most part, everybody had their own set of tools. No Google, how do I fix a? Or what's the replacement battery for a 1982 Ford Mustang, how to fix a lawnmower, change the oil filter, air filter. As I think about it, self-reliance wasn't cool. It wasn't a thing. It was just how we live. It's just the world that we were in. You needed to do things for yourself because there was no other outside influence to help you. If something needed fixed, you fixed it, or you went to a buddy's house, or you asked your friend to come over and help you if he knew how to do it, or you asked your friend, hey, ask your dad if we can borrow his tools, or ask your dad if he knows how to fix X, Y, and Z. We eventually did get an answering machine, but that was much later. And that was a cassette. You actually had to record your message, and it was very, very complicated. At the time, it was very complicated. But when you picked up the phone, the rotary phone, or we did have a touch tone phone, there was no answering machine. If somebody picked up, hey, can I talk to Scott? Hey, can I talk to Dave? Oh, they're not here. Oh, can you just tell them I called? They'd probably write a note on a piece of paper. There were no sticky notes, there were no dry erase markers. It was just, oh, Keith called. Give him a call back. So here's the thing. So again, looking back, we weren't more prepared. We just had no choice. And that was just life as we lived it. So I tell my buddy I was coming over at 5:30. If he was close, I would walk. A little bit farther, I would ride my bike. And then later on, when I got my license, if it was even further, I would just drive. So when I got over there, if he wasn't home, hey, I'm here to see Scott. Oh, he had to take his sister to church, or he had to run some errands with his dad. It wasn't like Scott could text me. Oh man, I'm sorry. I gotta run errands with my dad. I'll catch up with you later, or I'll text you when I'm back home. Again, you just I just told the mom or the sister, hey, just tell him I'd stop by. Maybe Scott would swing by later. Maybe he would call. Probably not. I would just see him the next day at school and we'd figure something out. We were independent because technology was not there to hold our hand. Technology was not there to make it easier. Technology was not there to make it more convenient. So technology versus independence today. So speaking how we lived, no tech, no instant anything. And look what's happening now. High school kids across the country are ditching class, sometimes with permission from administration, sometimes without permission from administration, and they're walking out and protesting ice. It's been spreading very fast all over the country. This is being organized via TikTok, Instagram, probably some other messenger apps. You add a few friends, you share a clip, and then instantly hundreds of people can show up. A lot of these are student-led, but some school districts have sanctioned these walkouts or demonstrations, or let's say they're not prohibiting the kids from leaving class, walking up and down the block, walking around the school. Different schools are doing different things. Some schools are marking these children absent. Unexcused absence, you miss third and fourth period, and they get written up, a note gets sent home, or an email or a text to the parents. I'm not even going to get into the pushback that some of these parents are giving these schools, or giving the school administration a hard time for trying to keep these kids accountable. You're in school to learn, you're not in school to protest. I know First Amendment rights, but that's not how it works in school. You're there to read and write and learn. You're not there to exercise your First Amendment rights. You're there to do your schoolwork and get an education. So here's the tie-in. When I was growing up, I had to think for myself. There were no news feeds, no social media feeds that were pushing a narrative that I read. If I wanted to protest, not that I ever did as a kid, I would then talk to my friends at school or after school, and then we would decide on our own what we were going to do. Again, this is a hypothetical. Today, the information that's passed along, either real or not, it's endless. It's right in your pocket. I know to young adults, it could feel empowering, but it can make people follow the crowd without even questioning what's going on. You look at an Instagram feed, you look at an X feed, and somebody shows you a video or a story, and you lock on to that, and all of a sudden, five, ten, fifteen, a hundred different students are now going out to protest because of what one person said via social media. Well, everybody's doing it. Why shouldn't I do it? No time to pause, no time to think, no time to dig up the truth, assuming the information you're getting is misinformation. Now there's no time to look at other sources. It's just like a mob mentality. You see it, peer pressure, and you go. And honestly, I see kids and adults, and we all see it every day. Everybody walking around, I see it at work, people with their heads stuck to the screens, not even watching where they are walking. It's a constant pull of information. It kills the quiet that I had as a child, as a young adult, even in college. Again, no cell phones, no internet. I can't imagine being in college these days. The amount of information that just gets flooded in when you're there to get an education. Not saying social media is all bad, but I think it's taking away our obligation to find out what's real and what's not. Because trust you me, there are plenty of folks, entities, folks left, right, center. Regardless of your political affiliation, there are people out there pushing their narrative. And some people are very good at pushing a false narrative just to get people wound up. In many cases, this has led to calls for violence. We have people that are impressionable, we have people that want to fit in, we have people that want to do the right thing, and they end up doing the wrong thing, many, many times leading to their arrest, and now they have a criminal record. The influx of all this information in social media does not give people the time to think and to figure things out on their own for them to make a decision. It's so easy to get caught up at all this information, this avalanche, this cavalcade of information. That's right, I used the word cavalcade. I'm not even sure if that's the right word to use, but I like that. I like the word cavalcade. Someone fact-checked me on cavalcade. I'll have to do it when I'm done. That's my nickel word for the day. And don't get me started. Actually, I just did. So I just got myself started on these self-proclaimed influencers. People just give themselves the title of influencer, and all of a sudden, people are drawn to these influencers. Well, I'm an influencer, I'm a fashion influencer, I'm a music influencer, I'm a social media influencer. Well, what the heck does that mean? Now, do these quote influencers provide good information? I'm sure some do. But most of these influencers are after clicks. They'll say whatever they need to say to get public opinion going their way. A lot of these social influencers, you really have to wonder who's backing them. Now, some people probably just do it, their accounts are monetized, and maybe the information that they provide, maybe it's fashion, maybe somebody's talking about shoes or shirts or hats. Maybe it's legit. But if I had a dollar to bet, a lot of these social influencers probably have backing, financial backing, from some folks that are probably a little nefarious. And again, they're providing financial compensation, and you throw enough money at anybody, and they'll probably say whatever you want them to say. Along the lines of these influencers are actors. Actors are people that get paid to pretend to be someone that they're not. Take Tom Hanks, great actor, loved almost every one of the movies, great actor. I have no idea what Tom Hanks is off-camera, off-screen, in private, nor do I really care. So if Tom Hanks comes on the screen, or if Tom Hanks is given some political commentary on a talk show or whatever, I could really care less. When I want to watch Tom Hanks, George Clooney, whomever, I pull up their movies, I pull up their shows. I want actors to play the part and then just be done. I don't follow Tom Hanks or Ellen DeGeneres or anybody on social media to know what they think about world events. Same with musicians, singers. When I go to a concert, when I watch something on YouTube, listen to them streaming on Amazon Music or Sirius XM. I want the band to sing really well, play really well. When I go to a concert like Rat or Poison, back in the days of Van Halen, Rush, I want them to sing their hearts out, play their hearts out, people screaming and yelling, big encore. Good night, Cleveland, you're the best. Thank you so much. Drummer stands up, whizzes the drumsticks out into the audience, people go bananas, the lights go out, maybe there's an encore, everybody goes crazy again. Guitar picks, more drumsticks, lights go out and everybody goes home. I don't care what Rush thinks about Canadian politics. I don't care what Poison, Van Halen, Motley Crue, I don't care what any of them think about politics or any relevant geopolitical issue, the war in Ukraine. I want you to sing your song. I want you to jump up and down, and I want you to say that Richmond, Virginia, you're the best audience we've ever had. Because when you go to Charlotte, the next night you're going to say, Charlotte, you're the best audience we've ever had. Good night. Sing your song. Say we're the best audience you've ever had. Then once you get back on the tour bus and go to your next town. I don't want to hear about your politics. I didn't pay way too much money to hear you bitch and moan about Ukraine or ICE or Trump or anything like this. Sing your songs and just get on down the road. That's what I paid for. About these social influencers. So many people are stuck on what they say. They're like, waiting for them, like a call to action. Let's say, let's say a particular social influencer, I don't follow any of them, but let's say Joe Schmoe, social influencer, is upset about ICE in Minneapolis. There's people that follow these social influencers, that follow these politicians or musicians or actors, and they say something derogatory about ICE or Trump, regardless. And people just get so worked up, like foaming at the mouth, a call to action out into the streets, causing problems, stopping traffic, assaulting people that don't believe in what they believe in, all at the behest of the social influencer or this actor. It's something they just don't understand. So why this all matters? This isn't nostalgia growing up, self-reliance. It's a skill. And knowing what I know now, and as I grew up, if there is a significant SHTF situation, a grid down situation, cell phones down, I mean, major poop hits the fan, I think, and I'm fairly sure that I will be able to survive and thrive a little better than let's say my son's generation. Not a knock on my son, not necessarily a knock on his generation, not because I'm tougher, but because I grew up untethered. Try to leave your phone off for a day, and I'll be the first one to admit, I do, and I'll be the first one to admit, I do try to leave my phone in the kitchen when I leave the other room. I try not to have it in my pocket. I try not to have it on my hip 24-7. Several years ago, I wasn't like that. I think we need to get away from there's nothing that's so important that we can't be away from our electronic leash for more than 10 or 15 minutes before we start having some anxiety attacks. Now, there's certainly exceptions. Need it for work, you're on call, sick friend, sick relative. Get that 100%. So I try not to have my phone on me 24-7. Now, if you ask some young adults, especially kids in their early teens or early 20s, they've never grown up not having a phone attached to their hip since they were, whenever kids get phones, I don't know, 12, 14, 16. For all, I know kids are getting phones at six, eight, and ten years old. Helicopter parents, whatever the term is today. But I think being so tied to technology, again, don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing technology. It makes things very convenient. But because it makes things very convenient, when that technology crashes or a portion of that technology crashes, it's not just inconvenient at that point, it's tragic. You don't have instant access to your family that's five minutes or 5,000 miles away. It's weird to think about it now, but back when I was growing up, all we had was a landline. All I had was a phone, rotary dial, and then a touchstone at one point. That's how we communicated. You said goodbye to your friends at school on the bus. When I drove, I gave a bunch of friends rides home. Hey, see you later, see you tomorrow. I don't remember really being on the phone at night, talking to my friends, because everything I needed to say to them, I said to them in school, at lunch, in class, football practice, whatever. Didn't really have a need to call them at night. Because when I got home, I did my homework, waited for my parents to get home from work, then dinner time, then after dinner time, finish what homework, which in my case was probably algebra and trig until God only knows what hours of the morning. Went to bed. I swam in high school, so I was up at 4 or 4:30 swim practice from 4.30 to 6.30, and then dry off and head to first period smelling like chlorine. Then any free time during the evening I spent with my family, either watching TV or just talking. I have a feeling that a lot of that is not happening. I have a feeling that not many families have dinner all together at the table. Sunday dinner, whatever the situation is. I have a feeling that's not being done anymore. And I guess that's a whole nother story. That's a whole nother podcast. But I think I'm a much better person, much more self-reliant, much more independent because I grew up without the technology, without being so dependent on having cell service or Wi Fi. And again, if the poop ever hits the fan, if I have to go without a cell phone for a day or a week, I'm gonna be okay. Because up until 1992. I think 1992 is when I got my first cell phone. It was a bag phone. Folks in my generation, my age group know what bag phones are. But I'm going to be okay. And I think if I'm in a situation where there's other people that are much younger than me, I think I'll be able to provide that safety net or that context, I guess, that we're going to be okay without our phones. We're going to prepare. And in the event something like this happens, we're going to survive and we're going to thrive. Because the cell phone isn't everything. Alright, folks, thanks again for stopping by. I really do appreciate it. I just checked my email. I've got a lot of emails I need to read. I really need to do another mailbag episode, so I will certainly try to get one of those done this week. You want to reach out? Practicalprep podcast at gmail.com. Don't forget the Augustin Farms affiliate link at the top of the show notes. Using that affiliate link, you go to Augustin Farms. If you place an order with that link, there's a chance that I will get a small commission from that sale. When you're checking out, use podcast prep as like a coupon to check out coupon and get an additional 10% off your order. All right, folks, as always, take care of one another, be safe out there, and until next time.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

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