Lost/forgotten skills and practices?

[Charlie Harley, #14153]

I don't consider myself "old" at 51, but there are moments when I feel very disconnected to the under-30 crowd, mostly by doing things that are second nature to me and peers, but which seem foreign to the youngsters.

 

While hiking the Shawgunk Mountains last spring, I stopped to check bearings using a map and compass. A hipster couple came down the trail, and the guy asked, "Are you doing this all on paper?"

 

The questions perplexed until he pointed to the paper map and clarified, "No GPS or cell phone?"

 

I chuckled a bit, replied that "these don't run out of batteries", and then shared a short tutorial on basic map skills. He thanked me as if I were Yoda, and headed on down the trail.

 

Then last weekend I was gassing up the car, an '08 Outback. While filling with petrol I popped the hood to check the oil. A 20-something in the car next to me asked his buddy what I was doing.

 

Really? Youngsters don't know how to check oil in their car?

 

I'm sure the gray hair in the Saloon (ACS) has had similar experiences. Curious to know what lost and forgotten skills you still use.

 

BTW, all my four kids know how to read a map and check oil. Whether they do or not is up to them.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Tying shoe laces

[Eyesa Horg]

They wouldn't know how to use a rotary dial phone or even that it was a phone!

[Assassin]

I think it was second grade. They taught us about levers, fulcrum points, inclined planes, pulleys, and simple machines. Pretty basic stuff that I've used everyday for years. My replacement who is 32 and has zero skills at anything can't even use a dictionary because he can't spell. He just asks his phone for information, no clue about a Thesaurus. His mommy is our HR director, how do you think he got the job.

[Rye Miles #13621]

I tune pianos by ear!

[Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438]

• Operate crank-up car windows or manual car door locks;
• Tune the TV stations without a remote;
• Mow the lawn with a push mower (or for that matter, maybe mow the lawn at all);
• Read and follow a highway map;
• Coastal navigation of a small boat with compass and charts;

None of these are actually essentials these days; as long as the batteries hold and the electronics aren't fried, the modern devices are certainly easier; but there is something comforting about knowing that you can do it without external power.

 

I wonder if my grandfather felt the same way about hand crank car starters and wood-burning kitchen stoves?

 

LL

 

LL

[Assassin]

However, now everyone knows how to pump their own gas (except Oregon) because most of us were raised when gas stations were full service. Gasoline smelled better when it contained lead.

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

Learned how to 'read the stars' and plot a course with a Sextant and compass from an 'old-salt.

I can still do it.

You should have seen the expression on my sons face when I did this. LOL

OLG

[Edward R S Canby, SASS#59971]

I can shift gears in a vehicle with a manual transmission. I've had my cell phone hacked while I was on travel. I don't rely on it exclusively.

[Widder, SASS #59054]

Just think..... if it weren't for modern technology, we wouldn't know about Anthony Weiner. And he would probably still have a job.....

 

 

..........Widder

[Assassin]

I was lucky, my best friends dad taught us lots of stuff along with my dad. How about fitting an axe handle by shaving it with a piece of broken window glass. We've been running chain saws since we were 14, wouldn't turn a 30 year loose with a chain saw today. I like it when I'm asked why I use a wood burning stove, don't you have electricity or gas.

 

What are matches?

[Yul Lose]

I think it was second grade. They taught us about levers, fulcrum points, inclined planes, pulleys, and simple machines. Pretty basic stuff that I've used everyday for years. My replacement who is 32 and has zero skills at anything can't even use a dictionary because he can't spell. He just asks his phone for information, no clue about a Thesaurus. His mommy is our HR director, how do you think he got the job.

Had one of those working for me awhile back and when he filled out the job ticket he would draw little caracatures of Lightning hitting a tower because he couldn't spell lightning. It was a real challenge to make sense out of anything he tried to write. He was a high school grad also.

[Yellowhouse Sam # 25171]

First, I ask them if they know what a crescent wrench is and proceed from there.

[July Smith]

At 26 I often feel a disconnect with anyone under 50, especially when it comes to guns and hunting. I like black powder, casting, loading my own ammo, paper patching, blued steel with walnut, and processing my own meat.

 

[Cemetery]

Drive a manual transmission.

Almost anything to do with cowboy guns and black powder.

[Cemetery]

First, I ask them if they know what a crescent wrench is and proceed from there.

 

now there's a term I haven't heard in many moons.......

[Henry T Harrison]

Morse code

[Cemetery]

At 26 I often feel a disconnect with anyone under 50 especially when it comes to guns and hunting. I like black powder, casting, loading my own ammo, paper patching, blued steel with walnut, and processing my own meat.

 

you mean like butchering and preserving after a hunt?

[Yellowhouse Sam # 25171]

How many nowadays can sharpen a pocketknife on a carborundum (how long since ya heard that or know what it really means). Nobody except rural people for the most part! Watch the expressions when you pull out a smoothing plane to adjust a sticking wood door. "Wow thats cool! I hate that word.

 

Nearly everthing we boomers know, especially those raised on farms/ranches, is a foreign language to the now generations.

[Tascosa, SASS# 24838]

Im 79 pushing 80 real hard and my son is around 54. A few years back we were packing in Carson Nat. Forest a horseback and I wanted to bring a can opener besides my P-38, so I told him to get the "church key" out of the glove box before we left base camp. He looked at me like I lost it, and had no idea what a 'church key' was. I reckon with twist off caps on bottles and pop tops on beer cans no one needs a church key. And I can read topographical maps and use a compass. I showed him how to do it and he was amazed. I still think opening a beer with a church key makes the beer taste betterlll

[Cemetery]

Morse code

 

Whoa........old school!!

 

Last fall, there was a theory on The Walking Dead about Daryl blinking his eyes, via morse code, to Rick to give him directions to where he was being held captive.....some people were worked up like they just learned about beer in a can!

[July Smith]

 

you mean like butchering and preserving after a hunt?

Yes, gutting, butchering, wrapping, grinding, cooking, etc.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Cursive writing.

[J-BAR #18287]

The ability to count back change has surprisingly not been mentioned yet, so I'm honored to include it.

 

Most young'ns have never seen a trout fly being tied; my granddaughter was fascinated and tried her hand at it.

 

My son had no idea what a micrometer was until I demonstrated measuring the diameter of a bullet.

 

But I have my areas of ignorance as well. Shortly after graduating with an engineering degree, my company transferred me to a rural area where a new plant was being built. We supervisors were to hire and train our own start up crews. The advertised pay scale paid more for mechanical maintenance workers than production line employees, so naturally almost every applicant wanted to be a mechanic. I asked one of the more experienced interviewers how to tell if an applicant really knew his way around tools and equipment or was just blowing smoke. Most of the applicants were farmers, so he said, "Ask them how to change the header on a combine." I replied, "I don't know how to do that myself!" He said, "You don't need to; just listen to the amount of detail they give, and how well their reply is organized." It works! We identified some real good mechanical talent from that one question!

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172]

Just think..... if it weren't for modern technology, we wouldn't know about Anthony Weiner. And he would probably still have a job.....

 

 

..........Widder

Now that right there is scary.

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

First, I ask them if they know what a crescent wrench is and proceed from there.

 

I recall a shop teacher lecturing a youngster back in the 8th grade: "This is NOT a Crescent wrench. This is an 'open-end-adjustable wrench.' 'Crescent' is a brand name, and this is NOT a Crescent. This is an Acme Open-End Adjustable Wrench."

 

Kid replies, "Okay, Teach. I was just gonna use it for a hammer anyway."

 

Im 79 pushing 80 real hard and my son is around 54. A few years back we were packing in Carson Nat. Forest a horseback and I wanted to bring a can opener besides my P-38, so I told him to get the "church key" out of the glove box before we left base camp. He looked at me like I lost it, and had no idea what a 'church key' was. I reckon with twist off caps on bottles and pop tops on beer cans no one needs a church key. And I can read topographical maps and use a compass. I showed him how to do it and he was amazed. I still think opening a beer with a church key makes the beer taste betterlll

 

Two or three years ago Sassparilla Kid - at age 22 or 23 - sez one day "Lookit, Dad! I just got a whole box of church keys off Ebay!" He then proceeded to cut the ends off one and weld 'em together so he could have a "shorty" for his key ring.

 

Raised that boy right, I did.

[Texas Bart]

Extract square root using pencil and paper.

[Charlie Harley, #14153]

Extract square root using pencil and paper.

 

 

Yup. I whipped out a pencil and paper to do some long division in the time it took a colleague to fire up his "app". The table gave me an ovation.

[Noz]

The ability to count back change has surprisingly not been mentioned yet, so I'm honored to include it.

 

Most young'ns have never seen a trout fly being tied; my granddaughter was fascinated and tried her hand at it.

 

My son had no idea what a micrometer was until I demonstrated measuring the diameter of a bullet.

 

But I have my areas of ignorance as well. Shortly after graduating with an engineering degree, my company transferred me to a rural area where a new plant was being built. We supervisors were to hire and train our own start up crews. The advertised pay scale paid more for mechanical maintenance workers than production line employees, so naturally almost every applicant wanted to be a mechanic. I asked one of the more experienced interviewers how to tell if an applicant really knew his way around tools and equipment or was just blowing smoke. Most of the applicants were farmers, so he said, "Ask them how to change the header on a combine." I replied, "I don't know how to do that myself!" He said, "You don't need to; just listen to the amount of detail they give, and how well their reply is organized." It works! We identified some real good mechanical talent from that one question!

How many knew what a "header" was?

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Extract square root using pencil and paper.

I used to do cube and fourth roots on paper.

[Diamond S Doug]

 

now there's a term I haven't heard in many moons.......

 

and don't even try to describe a Ford wrench

[Diamond S Doug]

How many knew what a "header" was?

 

We all know that's the guy that gets the front end of the cow....

[Cat Brules]

I was lucky, my best friends dad taught us lots of stuff along with my dad. How about fitting an axe handle by shaving it with a piece of broken window glass. We've been running chain saws since we were 14, wouldn't turn a 30 year loose with a chain saw today. I like it when I'm asked why I use a wood burning stove, don't you have electricity or gas.

 

What are matches?

Yeah....just try to buy some strike-anywhere kitchen matches. If you actually DO have a source, please let me know.

 

While I own and can operate a chainsaw very nicely, I don't like doing it. A good friend's dad was using one to cut up a felled tree, it recoiled, struck him square in the forehead and kept going. I hire that work out.

[Yellowhouse Sam # 25171]

I like that....describe how to change out a header.

 

Grease zerks (I say zirts) anyone? This will bring out the deer in headlight look too.

[Dantankerous]

How about:

 

Holding the door open for a lady?

 

Perhaps on a bus or while waiting to be seated in a restaurant... giving up your seat for either a handicapped person or someone older than you, or a lady?

 

Actually eating a meal as a family with no electronic devices in the room.

 

Seems as the ability to remove one's hat during the national anthem is becoming a difficult thing for some youngsters to do these days as well.

 

Not interrupting someone else while they are speaking.

 

And it seems as if calling AAA is a much easier solution then changing your own flat tire anymore. For those who are healthy/physically capable of changing their own flat tire, is that just lazy or does that skill set not exist anymore in a certain age demographic? Suddenly I find myself working with a whole bunch of guys 30 years old and younger. I don't think a single one of them can spell spare tire let alone change one.