Make Do and Mend

foxgloves

I would hazard a guess that my generation at school (I'm a forty-something) was probably the last generation to learn any constructive lifeskills such as sewing, knitting, cooking proper meals. It was quite equal too between the genders, as boys at our school had to do needlework & cookery in their first year & the girls did woodwork & metalwork. This was compulsory to give everyone a 'go'. I think I could manage in a rationed household because I was taught to cook by an old fashioned teacher who made us aware of what we could make with leftovers, because I have a sufficiently big garden to grow a fair amount and because, while not good at needlework, I do know how to repair clothes. Also, spending lots of money on tat I don't really need no longer makes me happy like it once would have done. Agree totally we've all been spoiled by today's 'throw it away' culture & the constant message that we should upgrade to newer & 'better' versions of stuff. Since the credit crunch, I've been feeling there's more people out there like me, but before, I sometimes felt that I was seen as a bit of an old hippy for all my cooking, preserving, growing, knitting, etc. I feel a bit more 'normal' now, whatever that is!!

zara*elise

Thanks for those links. The rationing was only a small part of it, I was wondering more about the 'making do', whether us, all of us, would be able to handle the pressures and strictness of tight times, and the 'mending' side of things, where everything was used, then reused, then reworked and reused.

it's something that's always interested me, for example my grandma had a rayburn, it would literally have perform twenty tasks, like cooking bread, and dinner, and drying clothes and heating the house to even consider turning it on!

xxxx

zara*elise

foxgloves wrote: »

I would hazard a guess that my generation at school (I'm a forty-something) was probably the last generation to learn any constructive lifeskills such as sewing, knitting, cooking proper meals. It was quite equal too between the genders, as boys at our school had to do needlework & cookery in their first year & the girls did woodwork & metalwork.

You'd be right. Out 'home economics' was preparing food according to COSHH standards! I really wish we'd been taught sewing, my other grandma made all her own clothes and she looked stunning. Some of the suits she made would cost hundreds if they were store bought.

xxxxx

Pink.

zara*elise wrote: »

The rationing was only a small part of it, I was wondering more about the 'making do', whether us, all of us, would be able to handle the pressures and strictness of tight times, and the 'mending' side of things, where everything was used, then reused, then reworked and reused.

This thread should interest you:

Make Do and Mend

Pink

Actiongirl_2

foxgloves wrote: »

I would hazard a guess that my generation at school (I'm a forty-something) was probably the last generation to learn any constructive lifeskills such as sewing, knitting, cooking proper meals.

Nope, I am 31 and was at school until 1994 and I had to do 'craft design and technology' and equally the boys did home economics. I also learnt to sew with the boys at primary school. Mind you, the thought now of all the boys I was at school with doing cross stitch butterflies makes me chuckle!

I can put up a curtain rail, chop wood, and do other assorted DIY like the boys can.

I think that the OP has a point though, but it is less to do with the skills we may or may not have and more to do with the way society communicates and works together. Technology means we are closer but further away in our relationships and I think it is this that would hinder the co-operation and 'survival' that the OP refers to.

Anyway, another war wouldn't be fought in the same way - we'd all be dead before we needed to survive on an egg a week! (Ps. I don't even buy eggs ).

tandraig

I'm mid fifties so didnt go through the war - but people who did talked endlessly about it and every ruddy film on tv during the late fifties early sixties seemed to be about the war - so i feel as if i did!!!! we lived with my nan until I was ten and she tought me so much about cooking and mending and cleaning - not consciously - but by example and because i loved to be with her. in school boys did woodwork and metalwork while girls did cookery and needlework. except for one boy who wanted to be a chef and he did cookery with us girls - and no - the other boys didnt give him any stick after he demonstrated his karate skills! it was proper cookery class too - we actually made edible (for the most part) basic dishes............none of this food technology nonsense my daughter had. in two years she didnt make one dish!!! oh and i learned later to use hammers drills screwdrivers etc.

CCP

Actiongirl wrote: »

Anyway, another war wouldn't be fought in the same way - we'd all be dead before we needed to survive on an egg a week! (Ps. I don't even buy eggs ).

Now there's a depressing thought for a rainy afternoon - particularly as I suspect you're probably right!:(

Personally I think people would survive - as a species we're very good at surviving (there speaks someone who's doing a history degree...:o). Whether we'd do it graciously is a different matter, of course!

I think the number of new people joining this board recently is a good indication that the 'throw it away' culture that Foxgloves mentions isn't a permanent fixture (thank goodness) and people can and will move away from it when they have to (and increasingly because they / we choose to, I think). I know we're only a small band in comparison to the number of people in the country, but we're an ever-growing band!

That's enough seriousness from me: I'm the same age group as you, Zara-Elise, and I'm not sure I agree that school home economics lessons were useless. In five years I learnt to cook one thing - cheese scones - and I am still under orders from my sister to make them for her as a birthday present every year. The lessons DO come in useful, you see!

tandraig

I'm back from that wander down memory lane - what was it you asked? about survival skills - well the twenty-somethings would have us to fall back on and i could envisage a lot of websites night classes to pass on these skills. just had horrible thought - what would happen if attack only affected over thirtys??????????? would twenty-somethings survive - probably- humans are adaptable arent they? so they would learn through trial and error.

notjustlaura

What an interesting thread!

I'm a 30-something with an interest in the Home Front during WWII.

I think, yes, we would survive if we had to go through it again. But I don't think we would do it gracefully. I think we'd moan and weep and wail and complain - as we do about so many little things today. But I think our latent Dunkirk Spirit would get us through.

Actually, a return to WWII living (without the bombing and the killing and all the actual *war* stuff) might not be a bad thing! People's values would have to change (for the better, IMO). We'd have a better chance of saving the environment and it might actually be better for the economy than rampant consumerism.

WRT Home Economics: I had to do Food & Nutrition, Fashion & Fabric, Metalwork, Woodwork and Technical Drawing in First and Second Years of High School (as did the boys). I didn't learn anything useful (like how to plan and cook a meal or how to wire a plug or sew on a button). I think this was a Big Mistake on the part of educators. The pool of people who have these skills seems to get smaller with each passing generation and I find that very sad.

Laura

tandraig

its sad isnt it how education has become about passing exams with (in many cases) totally useless knowledge. my education would be classed as severely substandard by modern standards. yet, I can cook, clean, add up (now my number dyslexia has been identified) write a decent letter, spell in english (not american spell checker version), do simple home maintenance - wire a plug, sort out blocked drains, fix toilet cistern. my schooling was remarkably similar to my mums , my daughters schooling totally different to mine! food for thought here? a new thread may be appropriate. lol