11 Skills Your Great-Grandparents Had That You Don’t
From Ancestry.com
Our parents and grandparents may
shake their heads every time we grab our smart phones to get turn-by-turn
directions or calculate the tip. But when it comes to life skills, our great-grandparents
have us all beat. Here are some skills our great-grandparents had 90 years ago
that most of us don’t.
1. Courting
While your parents and grandparents
didn’t have the option to ask someone out on a date via text message, it’s
highly likely that your great-grandparents didn’t have the option of dating at
all. Until well into the 1920s, modern dating didn’t really exist. A gentleman
would court a young lady by asking her or her parents for permission to call on
the family. The potential couple would have a formal visit — with at least one
parent chaperone present — and the man would leave a calling card. If the
parents and young lady were impressed, he’d be invited back again and that
would be the start of their romance.
2. Hunting, Fishing, and Foraging
Even city dwellers in your
great-grandparents’ generation had experience hunting, fishing, and foraging
for food. If your great-grandparents never lived in a rural area or lived off
the land, their parents probably did. Being able to kill, catch, or find your
own food was considered an essential life skill no matter where one lived,
especially during the Great Depression.
3. Butchering
In this age of the boneless,
skinless chicken breast, it’s unusual to have to chop up a whole chicken at
home, let alone a whole cow. Despite the availability of professionally
butchered and packaged meats, knowing how to cut up a side of beef or butcher a
rabbit from her husband’s hunting trip was an ordinary part of a housewife’s
skill set in the early 20th century. This didn’t leave the men off the hook,
though. After all, they were most likely the ones who would field dress any
animals they killed.
4. Bartering
Before the era of shopping malls and
convenience stores, it was more common to trade goods and services with
neighbors and shop owners. Home-canned foods, hand-made furniture, and other
DIY goods were currency your great-grandparents could use in lieu of cash.
5. Haggling
Though it’d be futile for you to
argue with the barista at Starbucks about the price of a cup of coffee, your
great-grandparents were expert hagglers. Back when corporate chains weren’t as
ubiquitous, it was a lot easier to bargain with local shop owners and
tradesmen. Chances are your great-grandparents bought very few things from a store
anyway.
6. Darning and mending
Nowadays if a sock gets a hole in
it, you buy a new pair. But your great-grandparents didn’t let anything go to
waste, not even a beat-up, old sock. This went for every other article of
clothing as well. Darning socks and mending clothes was just par for the
course.
7. Corresponding by mail
Obviously, your great-grandparents
didn’t text or email. However, even though the telephone existed, it wasn’t the
preferred method of staying in touch either, especially long-distance. Hand-written
letters were the way they communicated with loved ones and took care of
business.
8. Making Lace
Tatting, the art of making lace, was
a widely popular activity for young women in your great-grandparents’
generation. Elaborate lace collars, doilies, and other decorative touches were
signs of sophistication. However, fashion changed and technology made lace an
easy and inexpensive to buy, so their children probably didn’t pick up the
skill.
9. Lighting a Fire Without Matches
Sure, matches have been around since
the 1600s. But they were dangerous and toxic — sparking wildly out of control
and emitting hazardous fumes. A more controllable, non-poisonous match wasn’t
invented until 1910. So Great-grandma and Great-grandpa had to know a thing or
two about lighting a fire without matches.
10. Diapering With Cloth
Disposable diapers weren’t commonly
available until the 1930s. Until then, cloth diapers held with safety pins were
where babies did their business. Great-grandma had a lot of unpleasant laundry
on her hands.
11. Writing With a Fountain Pen
While it’s true that your
grandparents were skilled in the lost art of writing in cursive, your
grandparents probably were, too. However, the invention of the ballpoint pen in
the late 1930s and other advances in pen technology mean that your
great-grandparents were the last generation who had to refill their pens with
ink.
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