I also had to read that book in 9th grade.
I actually got it out and reread it around the time of the Y2K hysteria - lol. It got me thinking. What WOULD we do if we lost our power grid permanently? We (general we, our society) don't know how to preserve meat without refrigeration, how to survive on the land alone, etc. We (Dh and I) know how to grow foods organically, but I wouldn't have a clue how to grow cotton and make cloth from it for new clothes, and we wouldn't have any water source besides the rain. My parents' house, an hour away now, would be several days travel, each way!

We couldn't pop up to visit them whenever we wanted, or even call.
And yeah, my parents had a bomb shelter in their house. All my friends growing up did too. I think in the 60's, houses were just built that way. Ours wasn't stocked with anything, though. It was just used as a storage room. There were always spiders in there because it was a dark room in the basement. I told my parents I'd rather die of radiation poisoning than go live in there!
