Quote:
Originally Posted by Daxdog
Kinda sad you need “survival skills” to live anywhere. When you say a better place to live, do you mean the way you lived up north?
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We all have "survival" skills developed as a result of where we live or have lived, whether we realize it or not. Living in Minnesota for most of my life developed skills that I pretty much took for granted, and more or less assumed that others had them too. Which was true--most of the time, and for most Minnesotans. But there are exceptions, and sometimes glaring ones.
Example: I was out for a walk on a rather warm January day (about 30 degrees or so) just after a moderate snowfall. Sidewalks were plowed but the streets were not: they had about an inch of slush on them and as anyone knows who lives in such a climate, warm weather and slush-covered roads = slippery on steroids. I saw a car trying to go up a slight hill but had stopped about halfway, just sitting, rear tires spinning. I went over to see if I could help; the driver was a young woman actually in tears! She had called the police (who hadn't arrived yet) for help in getting up the hill. Her comment: "I'm from Florida! I don't know how to drive in this!" I told her to back down the hill and she looked at me sort of oddly, saying "but I want to go UP the hill". I explained that spinning the tires doesn't work: backing down, then working up some speed in a flat area and easing the car up the hill was the way to do it. She followed my advice and got up the hill with no problem. I hung around and explained it to the cops when they arrived. They got a good chuckle out of it.
I can totally understand how people from crime-ridden areas develop survival skills to cope: expertise in hand-to-hand fighting, for example. Maybe getting a permit and carrying a pistol, hopefully after thoroughly learning how to use it. Areas of cities to avoid because of increased danger. How to deal with people in an assertive manner when those people are seen as possible predators or con artists. Things like that. Maybe some are useful here, maybe not. And we develop the skills needed here, whether or we realize it or not.