Exactly. It’s all about one’s interests, location, and upbringing as well. We’re a family of foodies and my kids come from a long line of good cooks so it’s not a huge surprise that they know their way around the kitchen. Yet, there are plenty of things they don’t know how to do due to lack of interest and need.
Foodies here, too. D1 often recommends restaurants, is quick to explore and has a range of tastes. But during their hs and college years, the repertory of what my girls could cook consisted of boxed mac n cheese, boxed stuffing, and canned cinnamon buns.
If you listen to young adults today, they can be fascinating, well capable of picking up new skills as needed. That’s the thing, as needed. No, not canning tomatoes. I asked D2 how she learned to bake desserts and she said, “The Great British Baking Show.” She wants me to teach her how to bake bread (a big family tradition.) She could figure this on her own, but the idea is, together.
People regularly post memes on Facebook asking who remembers this event,or song, or who knows what this (object) is? And I always know or remember every one of them.
I am not judging the younger generation at all. I realize that they have skills in different
areas. I grew up reading about pioneers and recently finished a book on a couple who
homesteaded in the 60’s. I like information for information’s sake. Things like–if you eat your buttered
toast upside down you will taste more flavor. This came in handy during WW11 (British trick).
I LOL at the telephone stories! and filling out envelopes.
My kids have never experienced a party line on a phone. Or have even see a coal
burning furnace much less had their father get up to shovel coal into it on a cold night.
No, they don’t need to either and I would not want to go back to those times.
Really, just interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Drive stick shift? I taught both my girls to drive on a stick shift. That was fun!
Is the s or the c in scent silent?
But @oregon101 have you guys figured out how to pump your own gas yet 
?
Do they make noodle-type pasta by extrusion, folding, or slicing?
You guys sound like old fuddy-duddies.
I wonder what OUR parents said about us way back when?
“Young people today don’t even know what the title yellow packet in Oleomargarine is for” or “I remember when all movies were in black and white!” or “We used to use our imaginations and listen to the radio because we didn’t have TV!”
@surfcity Way back when? My parents (ages 75 and 76) and H’s dad (90 - his mom has severe Alzheimers so doesn’t count) still remind us of things from their day - everything from killing pigs and cattle to college traditions and food and a lot in between (party lines and getting television included). They like reminiscing. We like hearing stories. Win-win.
“Do they make noodle-type pasta by extrusion, folding, or slicing?”
@ucbalumnus Marcato Atlas pasta machine (the old school hand crank kind of machine) for pasta sheets and sometimes cutting. Sometimes cutting by hand. One kid’s specialty is filled pasta shapes - homemade ravioli, tortellini, etc.
We are only going to need some of these things if the apocalypse occurs – which certainly could happen. And we won’t be able to Google how to do them if that happens, I guess.
I remember our first color TV and seeing the NBC peacock “in living color”. You had to change channels manually. I also remember phones with rotary dials. Kiddo can’t imagine leaving your phone at home.
This made me remember the first time I saw the Wizard of Oz on television - in black and white. Had no idea what the big deal was in Oz - and the Horse of a Different Color was mainly shades of gray. It was so exciting when we got a color tv.
OH! yes, got up with my Italian G’ma and went to the chicken coop and she used and ax and hung it to bleed.
Ate it for a late lunch.
washugrad, I lived in other states and hope to never smell gas on my hands again! That said I was so so confused when in Vermont during a snow storm and had to have help.
Kids don’t remember full service gas stations!
Boys kneeling on rulers for punishment in school.
Babysitting for .25 and hour for three kids all day in the neighborhood.
Libraries where you whispered. (this is a good change)
The trucks driving past with DTE spray to kill the mosquitoes and the kids dancing in the fog.
(another good change)
Bats flying down the chimney and covering your hair with a towel and trying to get them out the
front door because your parents were never home when this happened. 5 kids shrieking.
“Kids don’t remember full service gas stations!”
Well, if you’ve ever needed to fill up in NJ, too…
I had a friend from NJ who had to ask me (in CT) how to pump gas. She was coming to CT for a day or two and needed to know. She was really nervous about doing it. This is only about six or so years ago.
I wonder more about what it is going to be like 20 years from now.
“I’ve had to tell my daughter more than once how to address an envelope”
An friend of my mom’s once asked my then high school age kids if they knew how to fill out an envelope and where to put the stamp. They looked at her like she was crazy. (Like if someone asked “Do you know how to turn on a light?”)
They went to overnight camp. They probably addressed and stamped hundreds of envelopes over their many years away.
I too think it’s intersting as to whether there will be profound changes in the next 20 years that we can’t imagine today. In my lifetime I think the Internet and smart phones changed things in the most fundamental ways that were almost impossible to imagine.