<p>Guess I am pretty old-fashioned. I still sew…even occasionally “make curtains out of bed sheets”…bake bread, love to do those creative things (just don’t wait around for me to hem or mend anything…ask my DH about that one!).</p>
<p>Here are some things I no longer do:
–write letters…I write e-mails instead. or hang out on CC</p>
<p>–Watch commercials on TV, thanks to TiVo</p>
<p>–worry about long-distance phone charges thanks to cell-phones and “free” nights and weekends…</p>
<p>–take film to be developed…usually just print digital photos out at home.</p>
<p>I had a roomate these many years ago who worked at the local supermarket hand keying the price of every item–.39, 1.04, 3.79, etc. She could key those prices in as fast as they can scan them now.</p>
<br>
An aside - my son, a freshman at Caltech, packed a slide rule and actually spent quite a bit of time trying to decide which slide rule to bring - the small one in a cool leather case or the larger one that is easier to use. I really don’t know why he decided to bring one, but he did. Of course, he also brought his TI calculator and “Mathematica” on his laptop. </p>
<p>Back to the thread - did anyone here every have to use a telex machine? Back before faxs and email, when I first started working I had to type contracts on a telex machine - very tedious: typing punched holes into a small yellow tape that was then fed through the machine and the words were sent across a telex wire. (Oh, am I really that old?)</p>
<p>Fixing the car. Changing the plugs. Changing the brake shoes. </p>
<p>Fixing an appliance. Just try to get a part. They conveniently cost about 50% of the cost of the whole appliance, if you can find them. This holds for the simplest iron to the most complex washer. Honest. And forget even opening most of them, with thermosealed plastic cases and spotwelded metal frames.</p>
<p>Darning socks. That ended with my grandmother, who actually did so. Anyone remember the bulb like wood thing used for this?</p>
<p>“Cutting and pasting” with actual scissors, glue and tape. Carefully lining up so that your <em>insert</em> was straight. Trying to soften the edges of the “cut” portion so that lines wouldn’t show up on the xerox machine.</p>
<p>newmassdad - yeah I remember, but we were too poor to actually own one, I used an egg instead…I stopped darning socks when the socks actually disintegrated around my excellent darning and I was left with doileys for dolls.</p>
<p>I remember using a telephone with a crank and there were no phone #'s (“ring down 3-2” was our signal and the operator would ring ), also used an old corded switchboard for one of my first jobs (four boards/one person) it was like an ‘I Love Lucy’ episode, in black and white of course…</p>
<p>Ah yes, the phones. Remember party lines? Remember operator assistance for Long distance?</p>
<p>OK, a few more:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the test pattern on TV, or purple people on early color sets. Bonus points if anyone remembes TVs with mirrors.</p></li>
<li><p>fountain pens for grade school</p></li>
<li><p>real chalkboards, going fast.</p></li>
<li><p>cars with real bumpers.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I actually have told my children about the research of the “olden days” when information required multiple trips to the library, when drafts had to be cut 'n pasted, and then retyped, usually multiple times. There was a reason we had to pay a typist for the big papers, or, G-d forbid…a thesis :)…how many times could you type that puppy?</p>
<p>They just have no idea how easy Google and edit features make today’s term papers, essays or theses. No idea!!!</p>
<p>m&sdad–this is the “skills” thread, not the “things that make me feel like a dinosaur” thread!</p>
<p>Ha–when we run out of oil and go back to doing things by hand, then they’ll appreciate us! Of course, we’ll be too old to see to thread a needle by then…</p>
How about those microfiche readers that made you feel like you needed to take dramamine to do research? And the original “copy” machines that produced white letters on a black background and reeked of some chemical that probably is carcinogenic?</p>
<p>My kids have missed so many joys of “library research” including the fact that you could tell your parents you needed to “go to the library to work on a report” and this justified hours out of the house with friends at the library in the periodicals stacks…</p>
