Saturday, June 4, 2011

Lost Skills to the Twenty-First Century

I've noticed over the last decade or so that technology has been taking over our lives.  Take this post for example; twenty years ago, I would never have been able to do this on a computer as there wasn't the access to the internet that I have now; especially in my own home.
So, I got to thinking just this afternoon, while talking to a friend of mine on Facebook, what skills kids don't know today that I was taught when I was young.  I'm heading towards forty years of age - very quickly - and feel as though sometimes I'm getting left behind a little with all the Foxtel, X-Box360 and other things out on the market which are taking over the lives of kids today. Now, don't get me wrong.  I do love how some technology has advanced.  For example, the way medicine has come forward is amazing.  The most brilliant things have been invented to prevent heart attack, stroke and other health problems from happening whereas in other fields of medicine, we're in our infancy still.  The way we look at space and the galaxies and universe around us is just simply breath-taking.  Not in my life-time would I have thought we could see to far back into the lifeline of where our universe's existence began - right back to the Big Bang.  Television had advanced quickly as well from that small box in the shop window where people crowded around it to watch the news on street corners.  Now, there's one - sometimes a small collection of them - in every home.  The way we watch movies has dramatically changed as well.  From the drive-ins to cinemas with the sway-back canvas seats (and yes, I remember sitting in some at Brunswick Heads in one of the last old cinemas on the North Coast of New South Wales before it closed down.  This happened because the old woman who owned the cinema passed away) to the massive, dynamic, 3D experiences we have today when we go out to the movies.
Yes, our future is racing towards us in a dramatic and fast pace!  And sometimes it can be scary.  It used to bother me that things were changing so fast around me when it bumbled along at a cool little pace when I was in high school and computers were new, laptops were around ten centimetres thick and VCR's were the hip thing to have in your home (so long you didn't have a BETA, you were cool).  
Now, I feel as though when I look at a teenager today, I get a brooding contempt from them.  They have speakers stuffed in their ears with music blaring out of them - deafening them before their old enough to vote - and yet, they don't wish to communicate with anyone.  Teenagers have this 'I know everything' attitude; and it makes me feel as though we're losing them, as though we have failed to reach them soon enough to teach them anything our grandparents taught us.  When I was younger, I'd visit my Grandma and Grandpa during school holidays.  It was fun and my brother and I learned a lot of things from them; like how to play pool.  I learned to knit one wet day from Grandma; and more often than not, I'd stare at all the books in the side verandah wanting to read 'Fanny Hill' but Grandma would have put it on the very top shelf telling me I was 'too young to read that yet'.  
When I hit high school, I impressed my Home Ec teacher when she asked the class if anyone could knit; and I put my hand up.  She handed me knitting needles and a ball of hideous pink wool and told me to cast on 10 stitches and then to make a square.  I did and she thought it was good - even though I dropped a few stitches.  When it came to cooking, I picked out a wooden spoon to stir my savoury mince in the pot so that my meal didn't get a metallic smell to it; whereas the other kids picked on me for using that spoon.  The end result was that my savoury mince tasted more flavoursome and theirs tasted average; all because of a spoon.
I learned other things from my Grandparents as well; like when it was going to rain.  Grandma was brought up out at Allora on the Darling Downs.  She always told me that if I was to hear a Kookaburra, rain was coming... we just didn't know when.  However, if we saw one, it was coming within the day or so; and how true this was!  Spiders, lizard and cockroaches coming inside your home speak the same way too; no matter how big they are, if they come in, it's going to rain.  It's just the old-fashioned way of knowing. 
So, what things have you learned from your elders and parents that has stuck with you through your life?  Did you learn something major, or was a minor thing that made its truth known to you when you were younger and you figured it out yourself?  Until my next post, take care, keep warm and remember, I'm always here.

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