<p>Setting the clock on the VCR</p>
<p>
I don’t think that skill is obsolete, goaliedad. For that skill, I think you can charge the big bucks. :D</p>
<p>I am so glad some people mentioned cutting and pasting, and using Liquid Paper. I was VERY skilled at those things, and very proud of my skill. And there’s another one, still in use in some quarters, but that seems to be a dying art: proofreading.</p>
<p>(There are a few other skills I once took pride in that, if not fully obsolete, might just as well be as far as my life is concerned: driving home from bars, especially in winter; rolling your own; opening non-twist-off beer bottles without an opener; reducing my sister to a sobbing, shreiking mess; changing diapers; doing dishes while holding a baby; singing toddlers to sleep . . . )</p>
<p>Shrieking…but yes, I identify with all of those lost arts, from proofreading through singing toddlers to sleep. 
Looking forward to grandchildren so that I can brush up on that last one (but not the two preceding ones…been there, done that, it’s someone else’s turn).</p>
<p>JHS, you reminded me of another one</p>
<p>Nursing while… (name almost any activity)</p>
<p>Gud speling.
Grammar
Knowing how to use apostrophes
(see <a href=“http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk%5B/url%5D”>www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk</a>)</p>
<p>I still use Liquid Paper(R).</p>
<p>Liquid Paper? ™</p>
<p>Liquid Paper(R) is a registered trademark of Gillette for correction fluid.</p>
<p>JHS: today there’s an activity known as profreading.</p>
<p>I was a big consumer of Liquid paper, but was just showing off my ™ Sam’s dad. I can’t do hearts and musical notes on my Mac, but I can do a good ™.</p>
<p>How about canning fruits and vegetables? I’ll freeze sliced peaches but used to put up tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, peaches, rhubarb, jams and jellies. Once I even tried my hand at pickles.</p>
<p>One old fashioned skill I have learned recently is mending books. I am the designated mender at our library and rebind and fix the books. They sure don’t bind them like they used to.</p>
<p>I’ve made ketchup from scratch. Heinz is better!</p>
<p>we used to make hard cider, well, until it blew up in the laundry room</p>
<p>I can fill bullets with gun powder, used to do it for my dad, who hunted- used a very cool contraption</p>
<p>We also cleaned bear skulls on our deck with acid</p>
<p>We also made yogurt-blech</p>
<p>I’ve made mayonaise from scratch–very perishable & doesn’t last nearly as long as Best Foods, with all its stabilizers & preservatives. Just remember it sure has a lot of oil in it.
I’ve also made yogurt (I liked it), home baked bread & bagels, grew our own sprouts, & even made croissants once.</p>
<p>Making Russian Tea for college…I used to make it and put it in jars with bows for all my college GFs as if I was presenting them with something rare that exhibited my talent and exotic taste. Two parts TANG ha, Add Powdered Lipton, white sugar and probably a dash of cloves and cinnamon. For some reason this was a fad in college dorms…only in the South? </p>
<p>so chic</p>
<p>Splicing film</p>
<p>Interpolating logarithms (or even looking up logarithms)</p>
<p>Making potholders on a loom</p>
<p>Doing geometric constructions using a compass</p>
<p>Embroidery</p>
<p>Hemming pants</p>
<p>Reading a mercury thermometer</p>
<p>Developing your own film and printing pictures</p>
<p>Using a ditto machine</p>
<p>Replacing the cartridge in a fountain pen</p>
<p>Washing blackboards</p>
<p>No one has mentioned defrosting the freezer compartment in the old refrigerators. Now that was a fun job.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I’ve got one of those manual defrost freezers in my garage very badly in need of getting rid of 2 inches of frost.</p>
<p>kathiep,</p>
<p>you don’t do spagetti sauce any more? Too bad. We moved to another state in August. The first weekend after the packers delivered, bought 25 lbs of plum tomatoes and made sauce for the winter. Priorities, of course. Then. I got back to unpacking.</p>
<p>I made butter in my bread machine. Used heavy whipping cream, processed it twice, drained and rinsed it, and carefully added the correct amount of salt. I ended up with wonderful butter that tasted exactly the same as what I buy at the grocery store! So, that was the end of my butter-making activity. ;)</p>