Community Chat

[Mominohio]

As time marches on, many skills that are considered essential or universal, are lost due to advancements.

Here we talk about how things like cursive and reading maps (or dialing a rotary phone!!Ha!) are going by the wayside.

Do you carry on any skills that are disappearing due to the rapid changes in our society? Anything from basket weaving to spinning wool and beyond?

Please share.

[deepwaterdotter]

Vocal interaction and cursive handwriting.  Hit a target at 50 yards with a bow and arrow.

[Preds]

I can use a rotary phone.  I can use a typewriter.  I can walk and talk without being on a phone.  Oh,  and I can write on notepads and calenders instead of putting it on my phone.  I think I read a map last week.  Do you know that they are hard to come by?  

[cosmic1]

I can still use a 10 key by touch and a typewriter. I started working before the days of voicemail or computers. Remember those pink message slips? Companies had to employ people just to answer the phone and take messages. Lol.

Now I work in IT and use remote deposit from my phone. It is kind of mind boggling that these changes have happened so fast.

We used to marvel at my great grandparents who lived before cars and electricity existed and then got to see a man walk on the moon.

[Venezia]

I can write and read cursive (with both hands!).  I can do math without a calculator.  I can navigate my way to a new destination without a GPS.

Do any of those count as "ancient"?  I can also sew my own clothes and do a multitude of other things.

I'm not against modern technology.  I spent 25 years as a computer analyst/programmer.  But I think we need to remember how to do the basics without a machine, too.

Interesting question.

[Venezia]

@Preds - That's so funny!  I was going to say I could use a typewriter, but I thought people would say it's the same as a keyboard.  (And, of course, it isn't.)

Do you know there was something on the TV a few nights ago about people asking kids to use a rotary phone and they had no idea what it was or how to use it?  I hope they never end up in a situation where it's the only lifeline they have.

[Snowpuppy]

I can bake breads & pies with crust from scratch. I know what good lard is.

I can sew, mend and even darned some socks this past winter. Knitting & crocheting, while I no longer own needles I could begin again without much help.

I have a co-worker who is younger than me, she can do all of the above + she makes goats milk soap, she can card wool and she's looking for a spinning wheel.

People think we're nuts 😊

[hckynut]

@Mominohio

I'll have to mull this one over, "ancient skill"?

hnj

[Mary Bailey]

I hang laundry outside to dry. I was swinging today on the swing in our huge maple tree in back yard.

....not skills but ancient, yes.

[VanSleepy]

Stenography.