Ask Lemmy

Using a rotary phone. looking up a book in a card catalog. The ability to solve your own problems.

Huh? Who doesn't know how to cook? It is easy and very common in mowt circles. I think you need to readjust your life if you think that is rare. eating out is not only expensive it is also unhealy most of the time.

Pulse dialing (rotary phones)

There were a lot of older ladies sewing when I was growing up. I think nowadays we just throw clothing away and buy new stuff. At least until lately when there was a large middle-class. Typewriter repair was a thing in my town as well.

Critical thinking.

Navigation. You used to remember the way to all these places. Now it's just on the phone.

Threading reel to reel tape.

Learning how to do things yourself because you had to. Now people have an app for getting somone out to hang a picture

Want to say general automotive competency. As in you had to deal with carburetors on cold days so you had to adjust intake, spray starting fluid into it, know about oil pressure and warming it up, etc. Some people are barely able to conceptualize putting gas into the thing now.

Knowing the prices of typical appliances and such. Example, modern The Price is Right compared to the 80s and before. 50 years ago, people were more likely to know the prices for a multitude of reasons, one being there were more home owners in those generations who might be looking at replacements or upgrades. Now, home ownership is less and I couldn't begin to tell you the price of a washing machine being a renter.

Chopping wood, managing a fire.

In the 80s we had to light a wood-fire hot water system. Chopping wood and managing the fire was one of our chores as kids. We had a wood stove in the kitchen too but never cooked with that because we had a gas oven as well.

Photo retouching as a physical trade. Colour photography and instant development killed the art of retouching black and white photos almost from one day to the next, because nobody could retouch colour photos and nobody wanted to pay for retouching black and white photos anymore, when Polaroids were easy to reshoot. My grandparents did it, but had to close the shop in the 1980s. I still have a few of their pens, but most of it ended up in a museum.

50 years ago was in the 1970s. I actually think more skills were lost just in the 20 years prior to that than after. This is due to mass production and plastic, which created the consumer products since the 1960s. Prior to that, you'd actually consider all products (except food) to be a purchase for life.

Uhh.. not that I'm any good at it, but tying knots.

In this thread....many things I know how to do. I guess I'm an old soul, or something.

Good judgement

Getting places using a paper map.