A Pot of Tea - and a Stamp!

Savvy_Sue

I learned another 'wrinkle' from DH this morning. I had a screw to unscrew to change a battery, only the screw was b*ggered and the screwdriver just turned without engaging. "Have you got a bit of blu-tak?" he asked.

I won't say it was an easy task, and I don't know how much the blu-tak helped, but I'd never heard of that, although it makes sense!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Brambling wrote: »

I taught my nephews the 'proper' way to hang washing hang tops from the bottom and bottoms from the top and my sister puts her washing on the line :rotfl:

Reading a washing label on clothes a couple of us were teaching the young guys in the office last week that those weird symbols meant something

changing a electric plug, although to be honest I'm not sure the last time i did one.

Reading a map

i told a kid who was baffled by the symbols that they were a sort of emoji for what to do.

Instant comprehension.

Haven't needed to change a plug for years, as they're mostly premoulded ones these days.

But reading a map - and trusting somebody to read a map for you - that's rarer now, as so many have been convinced that only Sat Nav can do it properly. Yeah, OK. Except for when you know it's near to milking time, that the stable marked a quarter of a mile down is probably taking kids out because it's half past 9 on a Saturday morning, that the street full of pubs on the day of an England match probably isn't a good idea to drive down - or when the mobile signal dies...

Sayschezza

I love it when non knitters pick up a knitting pattern I am using and try to decipher it.

Hopeless_Case

THIRZAH wrote: »

I was born in 1955 and the only jelly available was the cube sort. My mother cooked most things from scratch but I doubt if she could have bought gelatine in our local shops. On the rare occasions we had soup it came from a tin and later from a packet. I don't remember any of my friends mothers making soup from scratch

I don't know when cubed jelly came in to be fair - my grandmother was born in 1914.

I guess soup was one of the things like bread which made life hugely easier when you could buy them ready made, and blenders have now made them easier again. We didn't have soup very often either, enough tins for 5 people would have been pricey! Home made soup for lunch, batch cooked and frozen makes my life so much easier but I do rely on my blender and freezer

THIRZAH

I did wonder if not making soup was a kind of reaction to the years of rationing when people had to stretch their rations and perhaps made a lot of soup and stews? I know we were almost encouraged to put butter on vegetables such as cabbage-something that would have been impossible a few years earlier.


We didn't have soup very often either. My family ran a nursery garden and small farm so we had our main meal at lunch time then a high tea in the early evening usually something like sausages, beans on toast or salad in the summer with lots of bread and butter then cake.

pollypenny

Woodsider55 wrote: »

I was watching a young girl trying to use the Search option on a duke box. She knew the band name but couldn't seem to find the letters.

Then I realised that the letters were in alphabetical order, she obviously could use a qwerty keyboard and was totally puzzled when as she said , the letters are wrong!

What the heck is a 'duke box'?

vulpix

I agree Thirzah. My parents had been children during the war and after rationing embraced new time saving food preparation.I was brought up on Smash,Vesta chowmein,tinned soup and the like. I also had as many sweets as I wanted.My Mum still chooses not to cook. I once an adult have completed the circle and gone back to food preparation.My children who are young adults also cook.There is no comparison in taste.

I also agree that some skills are redundant in todays world but many are transferable. I think technology can make people lazy thinkers. If it's not instantaneous it's too hard.We called it bridge building at the school I worked at,where one experience is similar and can give you an insight to how a problem can be solved.Children seem to not be encouraged to think or experience things because of the perceived risk,the mess or getting dirty.Not just at school but also at home.

Prinzessilein

I was born in the early 60s.

Soup and stew was a staple part of our diet - and almost always home made.

The soups were always of the thick-and-hearty variety...pea soup made with a ham bone if Mum could get one (or with some spam cut up into it if no bone was available)...the most awesome chicken soup, made with the bones and giblets of the Sunday roast, and thickened with rice...and a potato, onion and minced beef concoction that was50% soup, 50 % stew and 100% delicious.

On very rare occasions we would have a tin of Heinz soup ...and it was nowhere near as satisfying and filling as homemade soup...Mum's soup made a main meal...a tin of Heinz was a lunch!

There was always cake at home - again home baked....Bread would be a mix of home baked and shop bought (With up to 5 children at home at one time, we got through a LOT of bread!)

I still love home made soup, bread and cakes...but have to admit that modern gadgets are now in use!..I love my soup maker...and have a bread maker....cakes are still baked in an oven (mostly)!!!8230;.I have a number of disabilities and modern tech means I can still enjoy home cooking.

As far as knitting/crochet goes...I sometimes go with Mum to a crafting coffee morning...I am one of the youngest there most of the time....however there have been a number of younger people turning up and asking for help in learning toknit/use a sewing machine...and a few young girls from a local school are booked to come during the holidays to learn how to do some basics (aged between 9 and 12....summer workshop will include choices such as knitting a simple bag, knitting a basic teddy, making a dress for a doll, making cards, and cross-stitching book marks)...so some younger people are at least keen to learn the 'old' skills!

happyandcontented

Re telling the time using only digital means rather than analogue, during GCSE exams recently we had to put up a digital clock on a screen in each room This was because a good number of students could not work out timings for exam questions using the clock on the wall as they couldn't tell the time with it! That came to light after mocks when they complained that they had no idea how long they had spent on specific questions!

Out,_Vile_Jelly

To be fair, I was in my 30s when I discovered you could "make" rice pudding. I just thought it came from tins.

I'm always surprised by the number of otherwise well educated and intelligent adults who think an oven is broken, when the clock just needs setting.