It's time to close the book on the FReepathon.
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Posted on 06/02/2014 3:35:50 AM PDT by kingattax
Our parents and grandparents may shake their heads every time we grab our smart phones to get turn-by-turn directions or calculate the tip.
But when it comes to life skills, our great-grandparents have us all beat. Here are some skills our great-grandparents had 90 years ago that most of us don’t.
1. Courting
While your parents and grandparents didn’t have the option to ask someone out on a date via text message, it’s highly likely that your great-grandparents didn’t have the option of dating at all.
Until well into the 1920s, modern dating didn’t really exist. A gentleman would court a young lady by asking her or her parents for permission to call on the family.
The potential couple would have a formal visit — with at least one parent chaperone present — and the man would leave a calling card. If the parents and young lady were impressed, he’d be invited back again and that would be the start of their romance.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.ancestry.com ...
Not exactly prepping but it is interesting. I’ll let you judge the ping worthiness.
Heck, I’m only 50 and I’ve done 10 of those things as well. I don’t know how to make lace.
Hey this sounds like an episode of 18 and counting.....I love this show by the way. If only the population acted like the Duggars......how wonderful this country would be.
Nope, it’s White Boards, Laptop or a Power Point Presentation these days.
I’ll take life with air conditioning, microwaves, indoor plumbing, and all the rest of the goodies of modern living.
Who wears lace anymore anyway?
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Growing-up in the 50’s & 60’s ,I lived most all these things. .
The authors unfortunately forget to mention one skill, at least, that all moderns have that the Oldsters never did: scamming the taxpayers.
THAT at least, has been elevated to an art form.
I don’t know that they had longer attention spans. It could just be that....hey, is that an ant on the desk?
I recently found out that my great grandfather worked for the railroad in northern Michigan. One tragic day his leg was crushed by a train car and the leg was amputated on his kitchen table...........
Time marches on.
1. Courting
2. Hunting, Fishing, and Foraging
3. Butchering
4. Bartering
5. Haggling
6. Darning and mending
7. Corresponding by mail
8. Making Lace - This is the only one I haven’t done.
9. Lighting a Fire Without Matches
10. Diapering With Cloth
11. Writing With a Fountain Pen
They forgot:
12. Growing your own food
13. Digging a well
14. Making a tool that is not available in the hardware store.
15. Spanking a misbehaving kid
16. Giving your kids chores to do
There’s a lot they didn’t have either including cheap international travel, cheap nationwide travel, access to information, cheap medications, etc.
There’s good and bad with progress. Nothing new.
They had a REAL education. I defy anyone to pass the either grade graduation test they had to complete.
And another major factor missing in todays youth, COMMON SENSE.
They were married, and at least your grandfather and great uncle were brothers, not half brothers, who knew who their father was. There are many today who are not as fortunate.
Exactly many things and skills are forgotten because they are no longer needed.
There are times when I wished that I had lived in the 19th century.
However, going to the dentist in the 19th century or having a serious medical issue in that time period is not something that I personally would have looked forward to.
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