Banks: Can't live with the, can't live without them....or can you?

Well, to all my faithful readers, although the FED has opened back up and my account shows the money, I still can't buy a money order to pay for rent.  Ugh!  Will try to after banks open.  But what did I mean by live without them?  I asked my dad, before my parent's went to Europe, where should I put my hard earned savings.  He basically told me that with interest rates so low that it would be about as effective to put your savings in your mattress then a bank.  Now, I'm a little smarter then to put it into a mattress since those are not fire proof.  But instead of giving the banks my money to keep "safe" for me, I may find an alternative.