Here in Texarkana theres seems to be a quiet movement of undercover GI's. Went back to the usual places this am and found the following:

Wal-mart - All propane is now gone. Bottled water isle is 50% empty/full. Batteries have taken a big hit, new stock of lamp oil is about 60% intact, no lanterns, Coleman Fuel is disappearing, shotgun shells down by about 50%, TP about the same, Tons of spam still on the shelf, couple arguing over the last porto-potty, camping gear diminishing quick. 3 5000w ProGen generators, nothing smaller.

Target - Camping isle is pretty sparse

Albertsons - No matches or coal briquettes, low on lighter fluid, water still in good supply.

Lowe's - No propane

Gasoline prices ranging from $1.12 gal unleaded to $1.22 gal. I saw Premium unleaded as high as $1.43 at Triple J on Summerhill Road. No lines yet.

11 people in front of me at my small bank to get into safety deposit boxes. hmmmmm.

Streets are pretty normal. No signs of NG.

-- LZach (lisa@texasnetworks.com), December 28, 1999

Answers

Lisa, Plano Texas here. THanks for the update! The hubby took our daughter to the Army Navy Store on Harry Hines in Dallas today to buy some camo netting for the already pretty well disguised gas containers out back and they were the ONLY ones in the whole place!

Been to Target and Brookshires (grocery store) today. Target was a- hoppin' with Christmas returns/exchanges and the most crowded regular part of the store was the video game aisle, packed w/kids dying to spend their Christmas money.

At Brookshire's the water shelves were pretty bare. All that was left was the fancy flavored carbonated crap water in individual bottles. Also, they have a big display that says Y2K AWARENESS and it is CASES of bottled water. Not many left. The manager is a big time GI, I know this from previous converstations with him. Tonight, something seemed different. Then I figured it out. He was pacing up and down the outer side of the checkout aisles (the door side) with a two-way radio. Said something in the radio every now and then. He was looking at what people were buying. THAT WAS WEIRD! I waved and smiled at him. Ironically, this was the first time since I don't know when that I wasn't buying $200 worth of non-perishable food. I was buying steaks and shrimp and fresh mushrooms and beer!!! To explain: tonight is our wedding anniversary. We figured might as well have some good surf-n-turf before the rollover and what better day to do it?

Anyway, any news on the Texas forum? Or maybe I should check my original thread below....

-- preparing (preparing@home.com), December 28, 1999.