Who has a post-apocolyptic skill-set?

Every now and then my mind wanders to what it might be like in a post-apocolyptic world. Am I the only one? Just like in science fiction, I imagine the whole system we rely on for food, clothing and shelter has collapsed; infrastructure is destroyed; shops are looted; travel is only possible on foot; food is scarce. I know it's a horrendous thought, and I only entertain it to, well, to entertain myself. Like watching '28 days' or 'The Road'.

The way the thought experiment goes in my mind is, if we were to find ourselves living in post-apocalyptic world, what would we do? Say we woke up and our house was crumbling around us, buildings everywhere were destroyed, and only a few people had survived. What then? Would we seek out other survivors and band together? How would we be if there were more people than resources? Would we turn on one another? And then, would we have the skills to find food, clothing and deal with illnesses. These days we all have skillsets that pre-suppose infrastructure and a functioning economic and health system, so how would we go if we had to shift to survival mode?

Recently I've come to realise how little I know about my own environment (even with a zoology degree). I don't know which plants can be eaten and used for medicines. Is there a natural asthma treatment? I really don't know how to go about hunting and butchering a roo or a deer. Some people would find this easy (my husband included), me not so much. I hope my husband survives (for more reasons than your skills with dead things, honey).

The only skill I can claim to have that could possibly be useful (besides knowing how to use a mortar and pestle) is spinning yarn and knitting. I learnt to spin wool on a peddle-driven spinning wheel a few years ago, whilst living in darkest, coldest Alaska. I used the soft, warm under-fur of pre-historic looking, ice-age-surviving muskoxen (quiviot) and learnt to spin it into a heavenly soft brown, multi-ply yarn. I then knitted the yarn into the warmest scarves I have ever known. Even though I won't be harvesting quiviot, I imagine I could learn to spin any type of wool and I could be the town yarn-maker.

I also imagine the apocalypse survivors would start again with an economic system of exchange - once the dust had settled.  I hope the surviviors might include friendly folk who know how to make electricity, build a functioning fridge, melt down all the metal that can be scavanged and turn it into useful things. I know some pretty enterprising folk. I reckon the surviving women of my town would quickly set up an exchange arrangement: I can see a roster for child minding so a hunting party could bring back a carcass; I can see communal meal-cooking (hopefully the some of our local Megabatch women would be apocalypse survivors). I can barter my yarn for that all important asthma treatment.

So I'm not advocating preparing yourself for the apocalypse; I don't think we should be stock-piling canned food and building bunkers. And I especially don't think we should live in fear of such an unlikely event (or even live in fear of a likely event, but that's a whole 'nother story). That said, I think a little sharing and swapping within our communities never goes astray.