When Everyday Incidents Become Survival Lessons

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When a car crashed into the loading dock of a restaurant while I was having lunch, it sparked an important realization—I'd forgotten to check the exits when I walked in. This simple oversight highlights how easily we neglect situational awareness in our daily routines.

Preparedness isn't just about stockpiling supplies; it's about developing habits that keep you safe in any environment. Whether entering a restaurant, grocery store, or public space, take a moment to observe who's there, what they're doing, where the exits are, and what resources might be available. Are people behaving normally? Is security unusually tight? These environmental cues provide valuable information about potential risks and should influence your decisions.

The grocery store landscape has changed dramatically in recent months—emptier shelves, modified hours, items locked behind cases, and increased security presence. These shifts reflect our changing society and underscore the importance of having both supplies and skills. Do you know how to cook rice from scratch? Can you bake bread without a recipe? Many younger people lack these fundamental survival skills, leaving them vulnerable during extended emergencies. The time to develop these abilities is now, when resources are available and you have time to practice, not during a crisis when internet tutorials are inaccessible.

Your homework is twofold: evaluate your situational awareness practices and assess your emergency preparedness, both in supplies and knowledge. Include your entire family in this process—everyone needs basic skills and understanding. Whether you're a seasoned prepper or just starting out, remember that awareness and preparation are ongoing practices, not one-time events. Want to enhance your preparedness skills? Come check out our range classes covering everything from non-ballistic self-defense to advanced tactical training. Your future self will thank you for the time invested today.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Simple things that happen in everyday life can
prove to have a valuable lessonwhen it comes to being prepared.
Come on in and let's talk aboutit.
Well, hi everybody.

(00:21):
I'm Bill Bateman, part of theteam at Refuse to be a Victim
Personal Protection Training,located in the Medford-White
City area of Southern Oregon,and this is Survival Beyond the
Bug-Out Bag, and I want to usethis time this week to talk
about how simple things thathappen in day-to-day life can

(00:44):
spur thoughts, can be useful andcan guide you down some good
paths, and I'm going to give youa perfect example.
I was out having lunch, I was ina restaurant and I heard a
really loud, odd, banging,crashing noise.
It was more than somebodydropping a rack of dishes.
It sounded like somebody hadrun into the rear of the

(01:06):
restaurant.
Well, that's exactly what hadhappened.
Somebody had smashed into theloading dock.
Everybody came about three feetout of their seats and only
then and I'm remiss, I'm tellinga story on myself I was looking
for the exits.
I was looking for the exits.
Being prepared, beingsituationally aware, has

(01:27):
multiple facets and multiplelevels.
Now there is full alert whereyou think you may be in a
dangerous situation, and you'reon full alert, scanning for
exits, you're scanning forpossible cover as well as
concealment.
There's a lot of things thathappen when you're at full alert
, but most of us in fact, veryfew of us move at full alert all

(01:51):
the time.
So if you're out having asandwich, having your club
sandwich and rearranging thebacon for optimum flavor when
something happens, you shouldhave, as you come in the door,
taken a read of the room.
And this is what I want to talkabout this week, because I see

(02:12):
a lot of folks that spend toomuch time on their phone and
actually are not spending anytime checking things out, and I
was guilty of that.
I tended to get involved in aproject I was working on and
normally when I come into anyplace to eat, I kind of read the

(02:33):
room who's there, what are theywearing?
How many people are there?
What does it look like?
Is it mom and pop and the kids?
Or is a bunch of folks who looklike they're driving through?
They may have the vacation vibegoing on, maybe a group of
locals?
It could be a group ofpotentially problem people, and

(02:55):
this is where you got to becareful not to judge people too
strongly, but you do have to getan idea.
How are they acting?
How are the people in the roomacting?
How are they acting?
How are the people in the roomacting?
How are they dressed, how arethey moving, what is their voice
like and is there any eyecontact?
Eye contact gives you a lot ofgood information.

(03:16):
This helps me determine actionsto take up to and including
turning around and walking out,because avoiding a problem is
the best way to deal with it.
When you go into any restaurant,when you go into any store,

(03:36):
when you go into any largepublic area, keep your eyes out
of your phone and keep your eyeson the people around you.
That doesn't mean you'reeyeballing everybody like you're
ready to throw down that'sexactly the worst thing to do
but that does mean learning toread the room and being aware of

(03:58):
the situations around you.
Now this goes beyond simplegoing out.
In a social situation.
I have found that not onlypeople can be read, but physical
situations like going into thegrocery store, and I talked a
little bit about this last week.
Going into the grocery storenow is much different than it

(04:21):
was six months ago.
The shelves are becoming vacant, the stores are becoming less
crowded, especially if you go inlate and the store employees
are definitely throwing adifferent vibe.
It used to be they werewandering around putting the
peaches on the shelves andrestocking and doing all the

(04:43):
things store employees do.
Now they're all huddled aroundthe self-checkout.
This is kind of an interestingsituation.
Read into it what you will, butI know that our store the place
we have been shopping since wemoved to the area here one of
the entrances is closed andblocked after it gets dark, and

(05:08):
this was during began when itgot dark earlier, before
daylight stavings time.
You would find that storeemployees, as I mentioned, were
huddled around the front.
More and more things are lockedup.
I wanted to get batteries and Ihad to get someone to unlock
the battery section so I couldbuy a set of alkali batteries.

(05:31):
I noticed that there more andwe will call them shoppers or
store security.
These are people who make JackReacher look bulimic, walking
around with a box of Triscuitsin their shopping bag, and
they're watching people.
I personally have been followedaround the store and I don't

(05:52):
fit many profiles, except oldguy shopping with his wife.
But be that as it may, theylike to follow people around.
Now make sure you're notsticking a bag of Cheetos or
something down your pants andthis is a read when you are in a
situation, be it the people inthe area, consider the facility

(06:17):
in the area.
I'm not faulting the grocerystores because I know they get a
lot of theft and they actuallyhave people coming in grabbing
things and running out and Iknow employees have been
attacked or assaulted or gotteninto fights with folks over
theft and shoplifting.
So I'm not putting the grocerystore down.
I am putting down the way it'sbeing handled.

(06:38):
It becomes almostconfrontational and we, quite
frankly, have stopped going intothat store after dark, which
has got to be great for business, for everybody.
Look at when you're stayingaware.
It's more than just high alertsituational awareness.
Evaluate what you are doing.

(07:00):
That's your homework for thisweek.
Evaluate what you are doing tostay alert and stay focused on
the events happening around you,both the people.
How are they dressed?
How are they acting?
Where there's a spatialawareness, when I get somebody
who's moving in real close to me, my alarm goes off and I move

(07:25):
from regular mode to high alert.
If somebody I don't know andwho looks a little sketchy is
moving in, they may be going toask me for a dollar.
They may be going to try andclub me and take my wallet.
Be alert, make good choicesbased on good situational
awareness and use theinformation around you to make

(07:50):
those choices.
Another thing we talked about,since we're in the grocery store
and I did this, I believe, lastweek or the week before talking
about 37 foods you should hangon to, you should stock up on
when things get a little strange.
Yeah, I reiterate that.
I think it's a good idea, and Ihad a really interesting

(08:13):
conversation with a friend ofmine talking about things you
need versus things you want, andthis is really important.
When you're talking long-termgrocery shopping prepping for
emergencies, prepping forlong-term survival Look at
things that have a durable shelflife.
Obviously.
Look at things that you aregoing to eat.

(08:36):
A huge package of quinoa is notgoing to be used at my house
until we're considering that, oreating the dog.
I mean, let's quite.
There are some certain thingsthat I don't eat, period, and
that's one of them, so a big boxof that is not going to be much
value to me.

(08:56):
Then you have to get into thingsthat you want to have.
You'd ideally want to havecanned meat and you'd want to
have the kind of liquids thatyou like, the fruit juices, the
clear waters, the things likethat and the things you need,
because I have to face the factthat someday I may be faced with

(09:19):
nothing else but a big bag ofquinoa.
Things you need are always,most certainly going to be
different than things you want.
Things you want are candyYou're going to want to have
meat, potatoes, carrots, gravy,that kind of stuff.

(09:40):
Things you need are protein, andit could be as simple as a
protein bar or beans or rice,and you have to know how to cook
that.
I was stunned talking to ayounger person earlier this week
and I said when you cook riceand the conversation kind of
fell apart right there theydidn't know how to cook raw rice

(10:02):
.
If it wasn't Uncle Ben's, theycouldn't do it.
Cooking beans can be a littlechallenging.
If you've never done it before,I can't believe that, but
apparently that is true.
So if you need protein andyou're going to use beans and

(10:22):
rice, have the facility, thepans, the cookers, the items and
make sure you can do it over anopen fire or just at least on
an electric stove.
You don't have to have a fancyrice cooker.
You should know how to do thaton your own.
Your homework was to evaluatehow you keep aware in different

(10:47):
situations.
Your second assignment is adouble assignment.
I haven't given homework in awhile and things are kind of
getting to the point.
We really need to do this.
So evaluate your securityawareness and how you evaluate a
room, how you evaluate afacility when you go into it,
finding the exits, looking forpotential problem spots.

(11:10):
Do you see an AED?
Do you see a fire extinguisher?
You don't have to run aroundand do a safety check, although
if I'm going to be in a room forany amount of time, I do kind
of like to do that kind of stuff.
Where are the other exits, bothemergency exits and getting out
through the back?
These are all important.

(11:31):
And then let's look at ourpantries.
Let's look at what we've gotright now, and this always goes
back to the question I haveevery week what would you do if
an emergency happened right now?
How are you for supplies?
Do you have water?
Do you have enough sustainablefood?
What do you have that's goingto last only a day or two if the

(11:54):
power goes out?
What do you have that's goingto last a week or two, if the
power is continuing, what do yougot in the freezer?
And then, what have you got?
Long term Things you can add tothe rice or the beans that you
can cut up and you can cook.
Keep in mind you're going toneed to have supplies that are
going to last beyond ashort-term interruption, and

(12:17):
that could be a couple daysshipping slowdown.
It's going to be inconvenient,but it's not the end of the
world.
When you run out of the stuffin the freezer and you have to
start eating your emergencyfoods, what do you have in the
pantry?
How long is it going to last?
I was amazed to hear about thebeans and rice issue, people not
being certain how to cook it.

(12:38):
Another thing is do you know howto make bread?
Bread's kind of an importantstaple.
It's a carbohydrate you'regoing to want to have with your
meals.
Now you're not going to bemaking fancy loaves of artisan
bread, but making a basic loafof bread.
I can do it.
It's not that hard.
There are some skills involved.

(12:58):
There is some practice involved.
Do you have flour?
Do you have yeast?
Do you have salt?
Okay, do you know how to do it?
Do you know how to let a breadproof or rise.
These are all things noteverybody in the house is going
to need to do, but it's reallynice to have at least two people
who know how to put a mealtogether.

(13:22):
Also, it gets to the point whereyou're going to have to track
down something.
If you get a rabbit, do youknow how to tell if that rabbit
is edible, if it's got rabies orif it's got some sort of
disease?
What is the source of game inthis area?
These are all the little things.
You start at one point and youstart moving down.

(13:44):
So your homework is to get anidea of where you are on the
preparedness chain.
Could you cook something youcaught and killed?
Would you have the knowledge?
If you don't, that's okay, butyou might want to find somebody
who does, or start learning.
You've got time now and folks, Ican't stress this enough when

(14:07):
do you have time to prepare?
When you have time to learn?
When you have time to research,when you have time to stock up.
You are going to bless the timeyou spent doing that when a bad
thing happens, versus trying tolearn on the fly.
Internet's probably going to bedown.

(14:28):
You're not going to YouTube andthat fancy how to bake bread
video.
The time to learn this, thetime to write down your
instructions, the time to getthe books you need is today.
After you're done listening, goon Amazon or go down to your
local bookstore and get thebooks you're going to need, or

(14:49):
open a cookbook and find outwhat you're going to need to
bake your bread or other thingsyou're going to need to be
cooking.
I know a lot of people now.
I was blessed.
I was raised in the restaurantbusiness.
From the time I was 10.
I was in a kitchen, so I haveno problem at all rattling the
pots and pans and cooking a meal.

(15:10):
Not everybody is so gifted.
There's a lot of people whodon't cook or who can't cook or
who don't want to cook, and thedeli is going to be closed.
So what are you going to do?
These are the questions I wantyou.
That's your homework for thisweek a good overall evaluation

(15:34):
of both your situationalawareness and your personal
preparedness.
Where are you on theprep-o-meter?
Because things are moving rightnow as we sit here.
Things are happening.
You need to be prepared.
I urge you to do it.
I also urge you to come on byand check into our classes out

(15:55):
here at the range.
We've got a lot of good thingshappening, everything from
non-ballistic self-defense allthe way up to and including
advanced tactical training.
So make preparedness a part ofyour life and include your
family in it.
That would include yoursignificant other, your husband,
your wife, and if there's youngones in the family, or

(16:18):
especially teens, theydefinitely need to be a part of
the prepping program, becauseit's a team effort.
The whole family has to be ableto work together.
So, with that said, thank youvery much.
Have a good week.
I will be back shortly and wewill have more thoughts, and I'm
going to check your homework.
There will be detention signedif you don't.

(16:42):
So have a good week and takecare.
The preceding program was apresentation of Retired Guy
Productions.