I'm indenting my remarks below each item. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Sally Rolls Pavia via Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2015 10:30 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [BUNKER] 11 Skills Your Great-Grandparents Had That You Don’t 11 Skills Your Great-Grandparents Had That You Don’t [Posted by Ancestry Team on May 13, 2014, reprinted with prior permission] My comments will be in CAPS, not yelling, so you can see which are the Ancestry items and which are mine. 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. However, 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. 2. Hunting, Fishing, and Foraging - Even city dwellers in your great-grandparents’ generation had experience hunting, fishing, and foraging for food. If your great-grandparents never lived in a rural area or lived off the land, their parents probably did. Being able to kill, catch, or find your own food was considered an essential life skill no matter where one lived, especially during the Great Depression. A small town in California's Central Valley had little opportunity for foraging. There was probably fishing in the river, but it was several miles away; my grandparents used to take trips and carry a picnic for river visits. Our hunting was largely duck hunting - we were on the Pacific Flyway and were even a sort of tourist attraction because of it. I miss tremendously being able to eat wild duck. 3. Butchering - In this age of the boneless, skinless chicken breast, it’s unusual to have to chop up a whole chicken at home, let alone a whole cow. Despite the availability of professionally butchered and packaged meats, knowing how to cut up a side of beef or butcher a rabbit from her husband’s hunting trip was an ordinary part of a housewife’s skill set in the early 20th century. This didn’t leave the men off the hook, though. After all, they were most likely the ones who would field dress any animals they killed We had a poultry farm; lots of experience in cleaning and butchering a chicken. The hunters did clean their own ducks. We did have a few cows when I was young, but the butchering was done in town by a professional. 4. Bartering - Before the era of shopping malls and convenience stores, it was more common to trade goods and services with neighbors and shop owners. Home-canned foods, hand-made furniture, and other DIY goods were currency your great-grandparents could use in lieu of cash. I don't remember any bartering, although it's possible my parents (and grandparents who also lived on the farm) did so without my knowledge. 5. Haggling - Though it’d be futile for you to argue with the barista at Starbucks about the price of a cup of coffee, your great-grandparents were expert hagglers. Back when corporate chains weren’t as ubiquitous; it was a lot easier to bargain with local shop owners and tradesmen. Chances are your great-grandparents bought very few things from a store anyway. My father loved to haggle, and usually would come out ahead. I do remember a number of politically incorrect comments being made after agreements were reached. 6. Darning and mending - Nowadays if a sock gets a hole in it, you buy a new pair. However, your great-grandparents didn’t let anything go to waste, not even a beat-up, old sock. This went for every other article of clothing as well. Darning socks and mending clothes was just par for the course. WHEN I WAS LITTLE, I CAN REMEMBER MY MOTHER SITTING IN FRONT OF THE TV MENDING SOCKS. I NEVER DID, EASIER TO BUY NEW ONES; LAZY I GUESS. I still have my mother's darning "egg"; I think she got it from her mother. In the country, we didn't have a way of disposing of junk like we do today; we had to be careful where we disposed of things, and so tried to reuse as much as possible. Speaking of disposing, we had several Ford Model T's that couldn't be put to any more use (we also had a couple we did use to power the grain mill belts). The unusable ones were dragged to a ditch on the farm's border. I remember in later years dealers would come by and buy them, which was good in the Great Depression. 7. Corresponding by mail - Obviously, your great-grandparents didn’t text or email. However, even though the telephone existed, it wasn’t the preferred method of staying in touch either, especially long-distance. Hand-written letters were the way they communicated with loved ones and took care of business. I have letters from my grandparents' generation (including some from my grand-aunt who was riding out Alaska's gold rush). My mother, however, did not date her letters - just wrote the day of the week. Makes it hard to reconstruct when she was traveling - or anytime else. In the 4th and 5th grades I used to help out once a week at the doctor's visit, but in the second year they "fired" me because I did not enter the year on the records I was keeping. 8. Making Lace - Tatting, the art of making lace, was a widely popular activity for young women in your great-grandparents’ generation. Elaborate lace collars, doilies, and other decorative touches were signs of sophistication. However, fashion changed and technology made lace an easy and inexpensive to buy, so their children probably didn’t pick up the skill. MY GGRANDMOTHER MADE LACE, HAVE SOME OF IT FRAMED AND IT’S HANGING IN MY LIVING ROOM. 9. Lighting a Fire Without Matches - Sure, matches have been around since the 1600s. But they were dangerous and toxic — sparking wildly out of control and emitting hazardous fumes. A more controllable, non-poisonous match wasn’t invented until 1910. So Great-grandma and Great-grandpa had to know a thing or two about lighting a fire without matches. 10. Diapering With Cloth - Disposable diapers weren’t commonly available until the 1930s. Until then, cloth diapers held with safety pins were where babies did their business. Great-grandma had a lot of unpleasant laundry on her hands. CLOTH DIAPERS ARE WHAT I USED FOR MY THREE BOYS. I WALKED AROUND WITH A STRING OF DIAPER PINS CLIPPED TO MY SHIRT ALL THE TIME. THERE WOULD BE A STRING OF 4-5 PINS, NEVER KNEW WHEN YOU WOULD NEED ONE. In 1971 I had the option of diaper "liners". In other words, there were cloth diapers but inserted with a soft paperlike lining that could just be tossed into the toilet. Much easier than bad laundry. There was also the option of a diaper service. Disposable diapers were just becoming popular, but in my opinion they are no good for the environment. 11. Writing With a Fountain Pen - While it’s true that your grandparents were skilled in the lost art of writing in cursive, your grandparents probably were, too. However, the invention of the ballpoint pen in the late 1930s and other advances in pen technology mean that your great-grandparents were the last generation who had to refill their pens with ink. LOVED WRITING WITH A FOUNTAIN PEN. I LIVED IN CALIFORNIA AND WOULD GO DOWN TO A SPECIFIC STORE IN LONG BEACH TO BUY MY PAPER AND WOULD GET BROWN INK TO GO WITH THE PAPER. MY LETTERS LOOKED QUITE ELEGANT. I was certainly a user of fountain pens and I'm so glad I was "trained" in cursive (my mother made me practice every summer). I still have some of the ruled papers that you used to properly form your letters. I was glad when my grandchild told me he could read cursive. I think it's so much more efficient writing than printing, although it's true that if the handwriting is a scrawl it is much easier to read printing. 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