Nasty Newt # 7365 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Several years back I took my 1969 Datsun Fairlady roadster in to a local car shop to get some work done. ( I had given most of my tools to my son so he could save some money working on his own car.) I told the kid... about forty years old... at the counter that I wanted the plugs, points, and condenser replaced, set the carbs, and tune it all to my specs. He carefully wrote in all down then called on the intercom: "Jimmy, we have another old guy here that you need to talk to." Jim is my age. He came up, read what the kid had written then grinned and asked me if I wanted the framis calibrated and the hypernuciating valves cleaned. I thought the kid was going to have a stroke. Now that right there is funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nasty Newt # 7365 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 My dad used the expression, "Got a good scald on that." It meant that you had done something properly, and the outcome was good. I had no idea where the expression came from until I was grown. I now know you dip a hog carcass in boiling water to scald off the hair. If you do it right the hair is gone, but the skin isn't damaged, and you got a good scald on it. Not too many people scald hogs in the back yard these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Assassin Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 We use to raise a couple hundred chickens every year. The neighbors and my folks would get together and butcher the chickens. I remember chopping off their heads, dipping them in hot water, plucking feathers, then they would get cut up and everyone would get their share for the freezer. My first memory of going to my grandfathers house someone was churning butter on the porch with an old churn. Don't see that any more. I'm only 57, I missed out on a lot of the stuff they used to do on the farm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 First, I ask them if they know what a crescent wrench is and proceed from there. Better question is do they know the difference between a Crescent wrench and a Monkey wrench Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 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! I have run into a few under 30 that can count change. Usually make it a point to complement them on their skill. I learned to count change in either kindergarten or first grade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yul Lose Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Mrs. Lose took me out for Taco Tuesday at our only Italian restaurant in town tonight and we have a rule that the cell phones stay in the car. Out of four couples in the restaurant we were the only couple sitting there visiting with each other while we were waiting on our order. All of the rest were busily texting and whatever else they do in their phones now days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Anyone here know how to skin a beaver? I have two great Granddaughters that can sow you how to trap, skin and dry the pelt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bad Bascomb, SASS # 47,494 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 ACCURATELY felling a tree where you want it to go, without cheating and using a wedge..... Then using the wedge and sledge to split up into proper firewood, and rick it up into accurate cords. Rototill and plant a garden; harvest at proper time.... preserve said harvest successfully. Start a one-match fire; start a NO-match fire. Comfortably spend the night camping in the snow, without a tent. BTW, Cat B.-- I sell strike-anywhere matches in my store.... If you find yourself in Ridgecrest sometime, stop by Todd's Outdoor Supply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forty Rod SASS 3935 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 That Datsun is now a collectible car.....bet you wish you still had it! LL Couldn't get it to run and sold it a man at my church for his son. He took it to a place in Orange County, California and had a Mazda 4 banger put in it. The kid is married and has a couple of kids of his own and still drives the old Datsun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowCatcher Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Boy, I'll tell! This thread is so right on! Kids these days don't know how to fix a frayed buggy whip. They're useless at repacking the grease on the ol' Conestoga, and forget knowing how to skin a dinosaur to the bone!! None of them seem to remember how to knapp a flint properly, nor to tan a hide using the brains. I struggle to find anyone who knows how to adjust a thresher when it goes out of adjustment, and almost none of them know how to set breaker points or adjust a set of four carbs using a vacuum gauge. On the other hand I have to ask help in setting the clock on my VCR, getting help to post pictures on SASS wire, find a guy with a computer in his shop to fix my car, or a lot of other post-1980 technology. /sarc There are a lot of old time skills I have that I take some pleasure in having mastered, and I recall that a lot of them were hard earned and painful in acquiring. Today's world requires a lot of other skills, and our replacements are doing a generally good job of learning them. I remember seeing those "high school tests" from 1899 and the like, and I know there were a lot of things that were essential knowledge a 100 years ago that no one cared about by 1970, and I'm sure in 2020 there are a lot of things from 1970 that will be equally archaic. Time marches on, and I'm glad that I can keep learning what is relevant now, it's a lot more useful than any memory of what we used to do back in our glory days https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vQpW9XRiyM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Once they become 16, most of them don't know how to walk to the street to get the mail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Riot Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 I think with every new generation there is an older generation that thinks that the world is doomed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 I think with every new generation there is an older generation that thinks that the world is doomed. Pliny the Elder wrote about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haweater Hal SASS# 55287 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 They wouldn't know how to use a rotary dial phone or even that it was a phone! Try a crank phone. When I left home to joined the RCAF our home phone number was 2 long cranks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowhouse Sam # 25171 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 I see everyone is still avoiding my challenge back on page 1 or maybe 2 it was and that was how to fix a mad woman! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rootin Tootin Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 using a slide rule, changing spark plugs, checking anti-freeze freeze point, how much time needed to travel 100 miles at 55 miles per hour, the list goes on and on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dantankerous Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 I showed my Grandson how to use a slide rule over Christmas. He was amazed... Curiosity got the better of me so I YouTubed how to use a slide rule. I just spent 25 minutes watching tutorial videos of this ancient torture device. Now I have a headache. Thank God for calculators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Riot Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Curiosity got the better of me so I YouTubed how to use a slide rule. I just spent 25 minutes watching tutorial videos of this ancient torture device. Now I have a headache. Thank God for calculators. Thanks for the laugh...and I agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Grass Range #51406 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 A crescent wrench was called an Oklahoma socket set Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smuteye John SASS#24774 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 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. The local Piggly Wiggly has them. I bought a 3 pack of boxes of kitchen sized strike anywhere matches a couple weeks ago there. Throw in hand sharpening a knife to the list of things they are amazed to see. Had my youngest niece's boyfriend (good kid) helping me with a project back before Christmas and he needed to cut some rope. He commented on how well it cut the rope and I told him it was because of the effort I put in putting the edge on it. Next thing I know, I'm explaining how to sharpen a knife and why it works. Poor young'un had never even seen it done without a belt grinder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-BAR #18287 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 A crescent wrench was called an Oklahoma socket set And before we became politically correct, slip-joint pliers were called Mexican crescent wrenches. Of course I never used that terminology. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maddog McCoy SASS #5672 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Back in High school, I did most of the pictures for our yearbook. We had a full dark room at the school, So I had to open film rolls in complete darkness, and load them in the developing canisters, and then develop the film using the different chemicals and a timer and then hang them to dry in the dark room. Once they were dry, I would load the into the enlarger and focus the picture and expose the print paper. Then it would be developed and hung to dry. The dark room had dim red lights in and I printed 100's of pictures over time. I was cleaning around the house the other day and I still have an enlarger that I had bought back then in a box and was trying to decide what to do with it. I put it back on the shelf and it will probably be the for another 10 years. I also have 2 Textronics oscilloscopes ( vacuum tube units) from the late 1950/ early 60's on the same shelf. I used them for troubleshooting computers in the 80's. Any suggestion on what to do with these items? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augustus Goodnight Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 I've seen a teenager (15-16) brought to tears by a can of refried black beans without an easy open top and a manual can opener. No, sadly I'm not kidding. I've also seen far too many kids in their 20-30's that are lacking any form of basic mechanical skills or even how basic physics of the world works. They've spent so much time in the virtual world that the real one is a rude shock to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Hombre Sin Nombre Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Mrs. Lose took me out for Taco Tuesday at our only Italian restaurant in town tonight and we have a rule that the cell phones stay in the car. Out of four couples in the restaurant we were the only couple sitting there visiting with each other while we were waiting on our order. All of the rest were busily texting and whatever else they do in their phones now days. Wait a minute. Did I read that right? You went to the only Italian restaurant in town for Taco Tuesday? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Shadowcatcher has sumpin' called a VCR...? Whazzat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yul Lose Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Wait a minute. Did I read that right? You went to the only Italian restaurant in town for Taco Tuesday? Yep!! A Mexican family just bought the place because the old owners retired. They make pretty good tacos too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stump Water Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 String Beans. Dig taters. ----------- Don't have a microwave oven in the house. I'll wager that's in the bottom .000001 percentile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stump Water Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 I see everyone is still avoiding my challenge back on page 1 or maybe 2 it was and that was how to fix a mad woman! Might as well as us how to fix night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 Sam, He77 hath no fury like a scorned woman. Or did ja ferget that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nasty Newt # 7365 Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 Try a crank phone. When I left home to joined the RCAF our home phone number was 2 long cranks. I can't top that, but when I was a kid we had a party line. Ours was three long rings, and you heard everybody's ring, even the one that had four long. Somebody tried to call them several times one night, and finally my uncle picked up the phone and said, "They're not home, idiot." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forty Rod SASS 3935 Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 1) an actual typewriter 2) film camera I still have an Asahi / Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic II. Hard to find an equivalent to Ektachrome High Speed film for it, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 I can't top that, but when I was a kid we had a party line. Ours was three long rings, and you heard everybody's ring, even the one that had four long. Somebody tried to call them several times one night, and finally my uncle picked up the phone and said, "They're not home, idiot." We had a 8 person party line well into the mid 70's. Finally divided it into two 4 person party lines. I think it was about 78 or 79 when we finally had the option to have a private line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.D. Daily Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 How about replacing a starter drive or Bendix. Why do that today when a reman starter is cheaper than the bendix if you got a core? How about filing the starter solenoid copper contacts & disc as well as polishing the commutator of a Lucas starter because replacements were almost impossible to find after 1980 when British Leland stop selling cars in US. Fortunately that problem was solved when my 1976 MG was totaled in 2000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.D. Daily Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 Sometimes I assemble an M422 8 inch projectile in my sleep, but I wouldn't expect many to know anything about it. Do you mean your nightmares? It would have been "Bend Over and Kiss Your Ass Goodbye" time if one had ever been fired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 Do you mean your nightmares? It would have been "Bend Over and Kiss Your Ass Goodbye" time if one had ever been fired. range was much longer than the blast radius and we were upwind most of the time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.