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Letter Re: Ladies Supplies for TEOTWAWKI
Mrs. Rawles:
In the event of long-term TEOTWAWKI,
a few questions come to mind - how did women deal with menstruation? I know this
subject may be distasteful;
but,
reality check! Can a survival group stock up on enough toilet paper and "sanitary
napkins"? Maybe telephone books will suffice for toilet paper, but what
about "tampons" etc? In my experience, most "primitive" societies
just let Nature take its course. Are our women (and men) prepared to do the
same? What are your ideas? It's coming!
The Memsahib Replies: We stock up on them just like we stock
up on the other necessities of life. We had the opportunity to stock
up on
tampons almost ten years ago at near wholesale prices. Since they have an
indefinite shelf life we have saved an incredible amount of money as I have
been rotating our supply . See John Pugsley's book The Alpha Strategy for
more on this stockpiling approach. I think that tampons will be a highly
desirable item for barter in the event of TEOTWAWKI .
To answer your other question, what did our ancestors do? They used rags which
they washed and reused. Here are links to Norwegian
knitted pads and Italian
washable
pads,
probably from the 19th century which will give you some ideas on pads that women
can make for themselves. Some modern women are using rewashable pads. Here
is a source for one company
that sells them.
