And they don't much like reporters, especially after all the recent media attention. After a few days in Grants Pass, though, I did manage to get a fascinating interview with a woman I would consider a fairly typical survivalist-on the condition, of course, that I not print her real name. Alice Johnston runs her own real estate company out of her home and has "a lot of income property" in Grants Pass. The 66-year-old Minnesota native says she always believed in natural foods because she grew up on a farm. "Once you've been on a farm, you never really get it out of your system." Alice was married in 1941. She and her husband chose to move to Grants Pass 35 years,ago because it was considered one of the safest places to live in regard to atomic fallout..They'd gone through the war, he'd survived the German bombing of England thanks to fallout shelters, and so they "were conscious of that sort of thing." A few years ago Alice bought, or "fell into," as she puts it, 5 acres of land outside of Grants Pass. Her latest project now is to drill a second well on the property to provide water "in the event that the irrigation water becomes limited, which I think it will." Recently she bought a rototiller and is currently buying two cows and two heifers. The land has hay on it, and when the hay is cut she'll put the cows on. Eventually she plans to get goats-they'll eat the blackberries that abound on the property. Alice thinks it is a good idea to be prepared for either a national or local disaster, so she has about 1000 lbs. of dried food put away in plastic containers. Taken together, the containers of grains, beans, lentils, and so on occupy a relatively small space, roughly S' x 21/z' x 4', small enough to fit under a table. White-haired Alice is a "soft-core" Survivalist. Her stockpile includes food, water, and liquid soap ("for cleanliness and to preFrom A Better Pla,ce to Live October 1981 RAIN Page 5 I vent disease") but no guns. When I asked her if she could foresee a need for firearms, she said she thought that was going too far. "If it gets to that point, you've had it-it's too late. Why would you want to last up in the hills? What good would it do? Let's say armed guards took over Grants Pass-how long could you survive?" (Quite a while if you're prepared, according to Bruce Clayton-see access.) When Alice and her husband first came to Grants Pass they were thinking, like many others ·at the time, about fallout shelters. But everyone here seems to have forgotten about them. "The Russians haven't forgotten about fallout shelters. They, I understand, have "Let's say armed guards took over Grants Pass -how long could you survive?" all kinds of underground shelters prepared for their people." Alice thinks that we in the U.S. should be similarly prepared. "It's propaganda that has caused us not to do it, I mean the lack of being military-minded. For the last 20 years it seems like our government has gotten away from thinking about mqitary things, and I think we've made a terrible mistake, not to keep that in mind. Those underground facilities could be used for other things during normal tirnes. You could have schools underground ... you're building plants above ground all the time. Why not build them underground, and use them on an emergency basis? Subways could be built. Eugene could have subways, Portland could have subways, then utilize them for emergencies. I think it'd be an excellent idea! I think the government has been very lax in thinking about the safety of our people." As far as Pentagon-style militarism goes, says Alice, "The best defense is a strong offense-that pretty well speaks what I feel." She has no political affiliations other than being a Republican, and thinks the Reagan administration is a great and long overdue step in the right direction. "I think he's done a fantastic job in his short term of office.'' When asked what kinds of tl\ings she reads, Alice replies that she gets much of her information from what she laughingly calls "gloom and doom" newsletters, including Howard Ruff's $145/yr. Ruff Times (see review of Ruff's How To Prosper During the Coming Bad Years-access). Alice doesn't think the Survivalists have had a big effect on ' Grants Pass. Many of her real estate customers are simply looking for "privacy." "I think it's a good influence, whatever they might be doing. We need more people to be down-to-earth, working the soil. The more that we can provide for ourselves, whichever way it might be, I think is good." What lies ahead? Alice thinks her past experience has given her a good eye to see what's around the bend. "I understand what survival really and truly means, because I lived in the '20s and '30s when banks went under and everyone was forced to ... well, the problems that we encountered were very severe, and they probably will be that way again. Maybe. We hope not, but maybe they will." ' New Age Chicken Littles ? Ever since the Great Moral Question of the early '60s became whether you'd shoot your neighbor if he tried to get into your fallout shelter, survivalism and guns have seemed related topics. - David Sarasohn, Oregon Magazine, December 1980. Survival gear has become big business. Standard merchandise
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