Of course, the reason most today don’t possess those skills is because there’s no demand.
Making lace? I know several people who do. It’s a hobby now, because the everyday demand isn’t there.
Calligraphy? Again, several hobbyists. It might look beautiful, but it’s painstakingly slow, can be messy, is costly, and there are easier ways to write a letter now.
And that brings up writing a letter to begin with. Now that the Post Office has said that the ~400 bulk/junk mailers they do business with are far more important than your first-class mail, why would anyone bother to use them? There are faster, cleaner, and more-interactive ways to communicate.
There are still PLENTY of people out there who know hunting/fishing, butchering, and field-dressing, at least in the free areas outside the liberal enclaves known as “cities”. And more than a few of those also know enough about bartering and haggling to conduct an exchange of the fruits of their labors with each other. They probably also know a thing or two about lighting fires without matches or a lighter.
And darning socks? Sure, it was useful when socks were actually expensive or hand-made and therefore worthy of preservation. A lot of folks back then knew how to drive a horse-and-buggy too, but I note that particular skill didn’t make the “list”. Likewise using an outhouse, drawing water from a well, walking 5 miles each way to town, or freezing your ass off in the winter because there was only one woodstove in the house to keep it warm.
This article is little more than rose-glasses nostalgic twaddle that conveniently ignores all the inconveniences that these skills masked. Ink-and-pen writing was the *only* means of communication for everyday matters, because there weren’t many telephones. Many folks also did without things like electricity, indoor plumbing, or modern medicines, and few people today would willingly go back to such a standard of living.
Just a brief expansion: around the time the skills in the OP article were in widespread use, Texas was all but unlivable. There’s only one non-manmade lake in Texas. Everything else is the result of damming up streams that don’t even flow year-round. Try living there back then when you didn’t have air-conditioning. I’ve seen enough Texas summers to know I wouldn’t want to try living there back in 1890.
The ‘problem’ is that we have gone on to depend on everything being done for us that we can often not function at all without so many things being done for us.
When I got my first job working ad McDonald’s back in high school we made change not the computer the ‘cashier’ did it. Now most checkout people couldn’t make change for a $5.00 bill for a $4.99 purchase.
I am not saying this skills are essential to live, but the basic skill, the willingness to learn and do and a heavy dose of just plain old common sense is missing from today’s society.
And I pray to God that there will never come a time when we must live even for any more than short while as our grandparents did, because without these ‘conveniences’ we are use to I doubt many could make it very long.
Agree. Each generation has its own set of skills. Those great grandparents wouldn't know how to drive a car, use a cell phone or turn on a light switch. I know how to do all the old skills except make lace although it should be similar to crocheting. I'll take 2014 living.