What is the most random thing you grabbed when you evacuated?

In the heat of the moment, people grabbed the oddest things. A cat tree. A hole punch. An eraser. Homework.

Yesterday, Shana Berger Van Cleave‎ a pediatric dentist at The Children's Dental Health Center, in Santa Rosa, posted a question to a Facebook group, Santa Rosa Firestorm Update

She asked the group: What is the most random thing you grabbed when you evacuated?

The Facebook post took off like, er, wildfire. Shana got more than 2000 hits on her question in less than 24 hours. Most people's responses were hilarious. I was laughing hysterically well into the night as I read the posts, and decided to pull a few. But soon I had hundreds. Single shoes, inappropriate clothing, sex toys, electronics. These are a few of my favorite things in no particular order. (It's been shared 1.2k times, just about breaking the internet) thus proving that laughter is the best medicine.

Some of my favorites:

"The FIRST things I grabbed were my bow and a sword. Then I was like, "First aid!!" So all the medicines and healing modalities were next, then food and camping stuff. THEN I realized I had packed no clothes!!! I guess I was planning on being the naked healing warrior!

• Ran out of the house, with embers the size of golf balls falling from the sky, with my golf clubs. 

• The disco ball. 

• My husband grabbed 2 tvs and both ps3 and ps4. (Quite a few hubbies did this).

• Overdue library book. 

• I took 3 pairs of slippers and 2 pairs of underwear...hum? 

• A bunch of dress shirts and no pants. 

• A LIL BLACK DRESS THAT DOSENT FIT ME ANYMORE. 

• A pair of jeans I love but don't fit into anymore.

• I packed two pair of panties, my critters and what they needed...but remember thinking, ah hell! Let my bras burn. 

• I took a single sock, All 3 snow boards. 

• Saddle.  • wrong saddle. • Tack.

• All my boots, none of my undies. COMMANDO! 

• When the Neighbors came I ran out as is; snapped out of it when they all said "grab a blanket or pants?" Then instead of grabbing clean clothes I got on my dirty jeans from camping and a bag with all my dirty camping stuff from the day before... 

• Kelsey grabbed one boot..... just one. • One black loafer and one brown sandal.

• All my clothes and no clothes for the hubby or kids.

• Grabbed the thumb drive, left the laptop. It was a LAPTOP

• An old cuban cigar box of my mother's filled with small mementos, jewelry, cards, and as it turns out, sequined pasties I bought at an artsy burlesque show in SF 10 years ago. We showed up at our friend's house in Petaluma and I had no clean underwear, but dammit I had my pink tasseled pasties! 

• Seriously Natalie, a typewriter? 

• I went back to get our roomba. It felt like forgetting a pet. I know that's ridiculous, but I couldn't bear the thought of our adorable robot vacuum trying to outrun the flames, cleaning our floors as it went. 

• Both my husband and I looked up at each other as we discovered we each had a roll of TP in our hands! Good to know what's important to ya. 

• Cash, guns, ammo, and kids. In that order.

• I asked my kids to pack their own bags (bad mistake!) My eight year old packed ALL her underwear and 3 small white pumpkins.. my fiver year old packed like she was going to the French Riviera, sun dresses and a bathing suit. 

• I grabbed one shoe. I forgot to pack socks. 

• I had the dog in one hand and vodka in the other. • i put my turtle in my bra, grabbed my dog and cat, meds and dabs. 

• my 7 year old filled our car with stuffed animals! My accordion (had it for years and never played it). 

• My tuning fork.• Harp. • The accordion! Figured i would have nothing to do for a few days, so i would finally learn how to play lol. 

• My dog's tooth brush and forgot my own!! (He can share). 

Rubber duckies that remind me of my friend i lost at the beginning of the summer. 

• Sons baby teeth. 

• The negatives from my wedding of a man I am divorcing. 

• Tickets to Spamalot. 

• Underwear, guns, prosciutto and beer. That's all I grabbed. A very humbling way to learn those were all of my assets. 

• We evacuated a life-size velociraptor for a friend. 

• When we got to the hotel everyone asked what I had brought and I pulled a loaf of bread and a big box of goldfish out of our emergency bucket. Everyone stayed silent. 

• Ukulele! Also some extra birth control packs yet managed to lose my current one! 

• His car is packed with literally no clothes to evac, just his magic cards and his guitar. 

• I don't even wear makeup and I grabbed my makeup bag. I had been trying to get back into the habit and I had just purchased brand new makeup I didn't want to lose. 

• My bowl of vegetables! • Dog bowl. • Cat bowl. 

• My husband grabbed my wand I got this summer from Universal Studios. I'm a Harry Potter nerd. 

• my husband was the weirdo! He had to pack his prized ninja fighting stick! I think it’s called a kendo. I gave him so much shit! It’s this expensive ass stick that was custom made for him (I call it his $800 closet pole) That said he also uses it at a walking stick when we hike and our 2 favorite places to hike are sugarloaf and hood, once the fires started there, I too got a little more sentimental about it so I guess the jokes on me! 

• My mom grabbed my collectible barbies. I’m 27 years old, mind you. 

• My oldest broken laptop. 

• My ukulele. It’s not even worth much, and totally replaceable, but it gives me joy and I need every little bit of that joy. 

• The grass-fed butter! Couldn't leave it behind. 

• Toilet paper and mac and cheese. 

• For some reason I put two rolls of TP in the catfood bag. 

• Hotsauce. • ground cumin! • A case of wine.

• Lol My 10x magnifying mirror in case I wanted to put makeup on at some point!!! 

• My friend grabbed her glasses and chopstick that was it lol. 

• My husband packed the rice pot. 

• My Vitamix and KitchenAid mixer! 

• Nail polish and canned tuna. No opener. • Set of 6 antique whiskey glasses. 

• My husband grabbed a OLD Star Trek book.I looked at him like he was crazy. 

• I grabbed my back scratcher. my engagement ring and all his guns! 

• My dirty clothes - they were still packed in a suitcase. • I took a suitcase full of my wife's heels from Vegas. 

• The Christmas presents I ordered online that were all delivered the day before we evacuated! I was NOT shopping again!! Hahaha. 

 • My fricken rain boots. Not hiking boots or sneakers. My floppy doppy rain boots lol. 

• My moms remote to her air conditioner. I needed to mail it to her in Idaho! 

• my neighbor laughed at the ping pong paddles he grabbed. 

• Wine I packed everything for my 3 dogs, bird and turtle and almost nothing for my husband and myself. 

• A three pack of chapstick, you know, dry air and all! 

• My wife packed an entire backpack full of sex toys. 

• My hairbrush, BUT NO other toiletries, underwear, bra or socks (I grabbed everything for the hubby and the munchkin, and hairbrush!!!!) LOL. 

• I took 6 pairs of socks...but I left with only flip flops. 

• A friend told me her friend grabbed the bottle of Patron. Mom grabbed led light bulbs. 

• An acorn squash from my garden because I'd nurtured them all summer and hadn't eaten one yet. (it was delicious). 

• Garage door opener. 

• Cats, important paperwork, some clothes, but forgot the hamster. Luckily my house is still here.

• My vintage Turkish rug. It hangs on my wall, rolls up into a small bundle in seconds and is one of a kind irreplaceable. I picked it out of thousands in the Grand Bazaar and it's my favorite piece of art. Oh also my 5 string banjo. The rug and the banjo are still snuggling together in my trunk. 

• Elmer’s white glue. • Tweezers

• My blow dryer with out a roller comb. And my hair is curly asf when puffed, I looked like a fluf bichonefraise. 

• I made sure I had a jar of coconut oil. • A box of rice milk

• My swimsuit. It's October, for crying out loud. 

• My co-worker told me he grabbed 2 umbrellas. One for each of his cars. And Reese’s Puffs. (He was laughing at himself when he told me this.) 

• I grabbed a random manilla folder while I was in our important drawer because it was very thick and seemed like it might be important. Hours later I checked and discovered love letters and cards. 

• 1 Croc flip flop. My favorite shoes. I couldn't find the other in the dark. We only had 5 minutes. I wish now I'd not spent the 2 minutes on looking for that and grabbed something of value... 

• One of my guns, I didn't even think why or what for. Too many zombie apocalypse movies I guess haha. • I took the lock-box (sane decision) and the label- maker (questionable decision).

• My wedding shoes! Amongst all the practical items sat my sparkly, jelly wedges. My thoughts were my dress was measured to those shoes, if I don't have them, the dress won't fit right!  

• I grabbed my dog's flea medicine... never mind the family photos. 

• my nine year old son's stuffed giant octopus from his bed. 

• My 5 year old insisted on bringing a pool noodle from The Dollar Store. 

• Jacobsen sea salt and Spanish saffron. 

• I brought my teaching bag to the Vets bldg for my 9am class. Oh & no change of clothes, for any of us. 

• My brother-in-law came to help us pack & I handed him my coffee beans and creamer, that’s it. 

• I love how many people grabbed a change of underwear. Does that mean we all have our mothers ringing in our heads that we should all wear clean underwear in case we ever get in an accident?"

What would you grab In the heat of the moment?

Press Democrat turned it into a funny article. Which has spurred another spate of hilarious stories. Someone commented that it was a wonderful side road off such a sad highway.  

One of my favorite comments was  from Nicole Dunham who said: Hey, kudos to those who packed their cat's climbing trees!!! I've been stuck in a Motel 6 with 5 cats, a rabbit, a parrot, 3 chickens, and a rooster since 3am last Monday. My cats are bored and stressed in a weird place and I'm kicking myself that I DIDN'T bring a cat tree of theirs! Granted, I had no time and only could pack critters and pet food. (no clothes, no make up... it's been a stinky week. But my pets are safe.)
They're ok with the small space. We have a small home to begin with so they're used to it, plus we've been incorporating some environmental enrichment for them to make it better. When we got here, we walked up the stairs with a cage full of chickens (3 hens and a silkie rooster) past the cleaning lady. We gave her an exhausted smile and she smiled and nodded. They get it. Nobody has complained about my rooster crowing every morning either.

Brad Davis Grabbed a bottle of wine worth maybe $5, while 5 feet away in my wine fridge I had THE bottle I was saving for a special occasion...and to boot I opened the drawer and took a picture of it "just in case I lost everything." Why didn't I just grab it and go? Not a clue...
 

Shana Berger Van Cleave said: My favorite on the thread was a pregnant lady who grabbed an apple out of a fruit bowl in case she got hungry and, when they lost the home with the apple tree from which it grew, they decided to use one of seeds to plant wherever they go.